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Down Memory Lane with Bill McAllister: Inverness Museum is a venerable institution and is a key part of Highland story where you can learn about our heritage from Picts to Prince Charlie


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Inverness Museum and Art Gallery in its latest home in Castle Wynd.
Inverness Museum and Art Gallery in its latest home in Castle Wynd.

Inverness Museum, where you can learn about our heritage from Picts to Prince Charlie, is becoming a venerable item in its own right as yesterday marked the 140th anniversary of its opening at Castle Wynd.

The opening involved two of the area’s most distinguished personalities. Highland Railway civil engineer Joseph Mitchell performed the opening ceremony on October 11, 1881, in what was a splendid Gothic building designed by the great Alexander Ross at a cost of £3405. Sadly, it would be reduced to rubble in 1963 as part of the Bridge Street redevelopment.

Over £1000 had been raised through a public campaign, with even Queen Victoria making a donation, with the Town Council donating the land for a museum, library and school of art. Following Mitchell’s speech, he opened the Inverness Fine Arts Exhibition, including items donated by leading north gentry, which proved an outstanding success.

Only due to run for three weeks, the exhibition did not close until December 3, and was visited by more than 9000 people. It opened 12 hours a day with half-price admission after 6pm to attract working people. Highland Railway offered cut-price rail tickets “provided they were stamped at the Exhibition before being valid for the return journey”.

Paintings by Titian, Raeburn, Naysmith and Reynolds were loaned – virtually impossible to emulate today, for insurance purposes alone.

Having enjoyed such a flying start, the new museum continued to generate interest. In 1905, a Highland and Jacobite Exhibition saw over 1500 items loaned including ‘Isabella Fraser’s Tartan Wedding Dress and Plaid’, which is still on show today.

In 1908 there was a major policy change to turn it into mainly a permanent ‘Highland and Jacobite collection’ aimed at attracting visitors to the burgh.

Trustees were appointed the following year with the museum being managed by a sub-committee of the Library Committee.

I was leisure and recreation chair of Inverness District Council when, controversially, we bought a pair of presentation pistols made by John Murdoch of Doune. They were a fine example of Scottish silversmith work and the pistols remain at the museum, valued at many times the acquisition price.

The centenary year of 1981 saw the burgh library transferred to Farraline Park, allowing a major expansion of museum space and displays.

Castle Wynd, however, was not the first location for a museum, however short lived, in Inverness. The Northern Institution for the Promotion of Science and Literature opened in Inglis Street in 1825, with lnverness solicitor George Anderson its livewire. The museum items included a polar bear’s skull from Canada.

However, the Institution was plagued by cash worries and member disputes and it collapsed in 1834. The museum collections were transferred to the safe keeping of Inverness Royal Academy and then to a locked room in the Town Hall, from which many specimens were lost, stolen or decayed.

The new Castle Wynd home was thus a massive advancement and it was a real tragedy when it was pulled down to be replaced by the “concrete Lego” of the unlovely new Bridge Street.

However, the current museum is in fine health, with an intriguing exhibition planned for next spring. Healthcare in the Highlands is the topic, from traditional remedies through to ‘Collecting Covid’, with local experiences and items of the pandemic sought.

• Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.


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