Fort George museum steps up as new status granted by Museum Galleries Scotland
A Moray Firth military museum was delighted to receive a prestigious accolade for the quality of the venue.
The Highlanders’ Museum based in Fort George has received a full accreditation status granted by Museum Galleries Scotland, the national development body for Scotland's museum sector.
Besides being a testament to the high standards of the museum, which is also a Visit Scotland 5-Star-rated attraction, the accreditation will allow the museum to apply for grant funding from MGS.
John Bailey, interim director of the museum, said: “The grant of Accreditation to the museum is a great accolade to the staff as it means they have been performing to the correct high standards expected of them.
“Accreditation requires a great deal of work to be carried out by the Museum, it is in effect similar to BSI/ISO standards where we have to prove we work to certain high standards.
“We are looking to bring on new members of staff to speed up our digitisation of the collections. We are also looking at placing touch screens in the reception area to allow us to capture demographic, location and experience data from our visitors so we can adjust our visitor experience accordingly.”
In recent years the museum has been active in developing new offerings for visitors to the area, including a Virtual Shooting Range, which has proven to be “extremely popular with all ages and genders”.
Another business venture they have recently commenced is a 8-Seater personal mini-bus for tours around the Highland area.
Mr Bailey added: “We are also extremely excited about our next exhibition event in the Museum which is our 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Kohima which took place between 22nd June – 25th August 1944. It has been well noted and documented over the years that this was probably the most crucial and important battle of the Second World War as it stopped the Japanese storming through Burma (as it was then) and on into India.”
He said that being part of the scheme has “tangible benefits”, among which providing an authoritative benchmark on assessing performance, raising awareness and building confidence and credibility for the museum, as well as helping museums to meet needs of users and visitors and strengthens applications for public and private funding.
Newly elected MP for Inverness Angus MacDonald, who is an ex-member of the Regiment, said: “It is absolutely fantastic to see my old Regiment’s Museum doing so well and receiving this well-deserved accolade from MGS and I hope to visit it very shortly the next time my busy itinerary allows”.
