Dunkeld and Birnam residents are invited to come to a meeting on Wednesday to hear about why the Chapter House Museum Archive has plans to expand.
At a drop-in session running 10am-7pm on May 11, the public is invited to hear how with increased footfall more space is needed by their local museum, home of precious memorabilia, documents and photographs relating to the Scottish Horse Regiment.
Currently archival space and office space is shared. There is a plan to take out an internal wall and built an extension.
Archive manager Ruth Brown told the PA the hope is to provide a lockable, fireproof and waterproof storage room with humidity control for the thousands of unique Scottish Horse documents.
Ruth explained how popularity was a good thing but changes were needed: “Interest in the archive has grown for both local residents and visitors with our footfall increasing dramatically.
“This has enabled us to increase our revenue sufficiently to now be able to cover our overheads, something we were unable to do previously and without sufficient income, the archive would close and this collection would be lost from Dunkeld.
“The extra public room space created by moving the archival collection and the removal of the internal wall will allow much more flexibility. It will enable us to create a research space with workstations for visitors to search our databases themselves as well as space to have more comfortable seating and to install a bigger exhibition case.”
She also highlighted the work with young people through the Kickstart and Young Person’s Guarantee Schemes. “We are able to offer them a six-month, fully paid position offering training in the museum and archive sector.
“Our young people have been responsible for some amazing projects including the murals in the hallway, animation and published children’s book of Dundonnachie and the Bridge Toll Riots.
“They have been invaluable helping transcribe Scottish Horse records, digitising our local collection, assisting with visitor enquiries and much more.”
The Chapter House Museum Trust was set up in 1994 by the Friends of the Cathedral and a permanent local history exhibition, situated in Dunkeld Cathedral, telling the history of the town and of the reformed church, was created. The archive was initially housed in the room above the Chapter House, hence its name.
In 2013 following a major local fundraising campaign, the unsuitable accommodation for the archive was replaced with the current purpose-built building.
The collections not on display plus important collections of photographs, records and memorabilia are housed there.
The records of the Scottish Horse form an important part of the archive collection. The reason for this valuable archive being kept in the town was the regiment’s administrative headquarters were in Dunkeld during the Boer War, WWI and WWII and their commander was the Duke of Atholl.
The organisation was entirely volunteer-run until July 2020, when funding was awarded by the Army Museums Ogilby Trust to digitise the Scottish Horse records as part of their national initiative to maximise accessibility to regimental collections.
This funding allowed the employment of one post to oversee the Scottish Horse project which has also enabled the archive to open full-time.
