Auchindrain for Argyll

Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh (Inverclyde Waulking Group) who specialise in bringing to life traditional Gaelic work songs will be waulking at Auchindrain Museum on 6th September. The event is FREE for Museum ticket holders and residents of Furnace and Inveraray.

Auchindrain Museum, By Inveraray, Argyll, PA32 8XN. Tel: 01499 500235

Tell a Story Day - Hallowe’en: Light and Dark storytelling with Patsy Dyer at 7pm on 31^st October at Auchindrain Museum

Tell-a-Story Day is a national celebration of storytelling. Auchindrain Museum in partnership with Argyll and Bute Council’s, Arts Development Officer will be holding a Hallowe’en storytelling event at 7pm on 31^st October as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. Patsy Dyer an accredited storyteller from Ardfern will be telling stories about Hallowe’en, the old Celtic New Year when the year turns from light to dark. Like Hallowe’en, storytelling is for everyone, old and young, and both together. Why not take advantage of the witching month of October to explore the spooky stories of the season at Auchindrain Museum.

Cost: £3.50 for adults (including refreshments) & £2.50 for children (including refreshments)

Auchindrain Museum, By Inveraray, Argyll, PA32 8XN. Tel: 01499 500235

From 20^th until 25^th July Auchindrain Museum will host in partnership with ARCH Network, Comrie, Perthshire the Scottish element of a twenty-four month, European Union funded project that involves young people from Scotland, England, Slovenia, Slovakia and Greece.

As part of the CHANTICA project the Museum will be running amongst other things felt-making workshops; weaving workshops; basket-making workshops; Gaelic waulking workshops and storytelling workshops. All of the workshops will be running from 10.30am until 4pm on 21st, 23rd and 24th July. Friday 25th July will see a special performance to celebrate the end of the project, so come along and visit the Museum and join in the fun.

All activities FREE for Museum ticket holders (normal admission charges apply).

Theatre Alba, Scotland’s best outdoor theatre company will be in residence at the Museum and performing their play “The Magic Quest” from 20th until 26th July.

“The Magic Quest” is a play for children. It received a four star review in the Scotsman and follows the journey of Corrieburn the elf and Tumshie, her companion on a quest to save their world. Using the assistance of the children in the audience they will solve the clues that they find on their journey to find the magical Dragon who is the only one who can save their world from destruction. They meet strange and wonderful people. Witches – good and evil, The Trout of Knowledge, The Singing Ringing Tree, and a very bad tempered Ogre. Will these folk help or hinder them?

Performance Times:

2pm on 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th July

11am on 25th July

11am and 2pm on 26th July

Performance FREE for Museum ticket holders (normal admission charges apply).

If you intend to attend a performance of “The Magic Quest” please wear waterproof clothes and shoes.

1st Minard Brownies who were taking part in the BT Big Sleepover on the night of Saturday 14th June camped out in MacNicol’s House (Building D) at Auchindrain Museum. The Brownies slept in the wooden box-beds of the house much to the dismay of the swallows who normally sleep in the house and who were evicted for the night. The event was a big success, although the Museum Manager says that the box-bed that she slept in was the most uncomfortable place that she had ever slept!

David Hutchinson, Chairman of the Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group and Scottish furniture expert has identified a rare Bible chair that is in the Collection held at Auchindrain Museum. The Bible chair which was donated to the Museum in 1967 came from a house in Southend, Kintyre but was made in Ayrshire. The Bible chair is one of only ten Bible chairs to have survived in Scotland to the present day. Pictured is Saul Hutchinson photographing the Bible chair as part of the documentation process.

Patsy Dyer, award winning organic gardener and President of the Lorn Garden Club will be conducting a guided tour of the restored walled garden adjacent to Bell Pol’s House (Building M) at Auchindrain Museum on 12th July 2008.

In November 2007, Argyll and Bute Council commissioned the Museum Manager of Auchindrain Museum and the Director/Curator of Kilmartin House Museum to curate and develop Campbeltown Museum and provide curatorial advice to the other independent Museums in the region, as part of a Service Level Agreement.

On 28^th March 2008 the Museum Manager made her first visit to Mull Museum as their curatorial advisor. Campbeltown Museum will reopen to the public on 26^th June 2008.

On display at Auchindrain Museum are new child-friendly interpretation panels for the Township buildings which were designed and illustrated by the pupils of Furnace Primary School. Karen Baird, Class Teacher, Furnace Primary School says that:

“The children have thoroughly enjoyed their closer association with the Museum over this past academic year. They thoroughly enjoyed the days spent with you learning about the Township and hearing not only the history of the houses, but some of the anecdotes associated with them. It made the village come to life for them and was a marvellous starting point for our writing work when we came to work on the pieces for the information boards.

The level of interest generated by physically being able to walk around the buildings and see how things worked was immense. The children also felt that there was a definite purpose to their writing activities following this and it showed in the level of work, which was produced. Being able to take part in the Big Draw using the Museum was also a plus. The children really feel that it is “their” museum now”.

Auchindrain Museum has submitted an application to the Scottish Museums Council for consideration as part of the Scottish Governments Recognition Scheme which celebrates, recognises, promotes and invests in nationally significant Museum Collections which are held outside of the National Museums and Galleries in Edinburgh. Funded by the Scottish Government and managed by the Scottish Museums Council, the Recognition Scheme helps to make sure that these important Museum Collections are identified, cared for, protected and promoted to a wider audience. Auchindrain Museum’s application can be summarised as:

Importance Of The Collection

The major economic and social unit in the rural landscape of Scotland in the later and post-medieval period was the joint-tenancy farm township. In exchange for goods and labour, feudal landowners leased their land jointly to a group of tenant farmers. At this time farming was not for profit, but subsistence. During the period, known as the age of Agricultural Improvement (circa 1730 to 1830), landowners “improved” their joint-tenancy farm townships and turned them into more profitable single-tenant farms with enclosed fields. The Township of Auchindrain (the accessioned Collection) is considered to be of national importance in the study of agriculture in Scotland, because it was never “improved”; it did change, at a workaday level, from a joint-tenancy farm township in the 1700s to a single-tenant farm in the 20th century. Thus it can show the built response to evolving needs over several centuries. The Collection (Township) is made up of a range of fully representative agricultural buildings of the pre-improvement era including tenant farmers’ longhouses, domestic houses, barns, animal shelters/stables, a cart shed, a corn drying-kiln, the remains of a mill, walled gardens and part of a drove road. The Township of Auchindrain is of such national importance that Historic Scotland and Argyll and Bute Council designate it as both an A-listed site and an Outstanding Conservation Area. What remains at Auchindrain cannot be paralleled anywhere else in Scotland.

Quality Of The Collection

The quality and comprehensiveness of the Collection lies in the fact that Auchindrain is the most complete, surviving example of a pre-improvement, joint-tenancy farm township in Scotland. Having escaped Agricultural Improvement, the Township of Auchindrain continued to function as a working farm until 1962. This long history of occupation means that the settlement and its structures have experienced many changes in shape and function, whilst retaining a comprehensive range of architectural features not found elsewhere. The quality and comprehensiveness of the Collection also lies in the fact that unlike the relocated and reconstructed township buildings at the Highland Folk Museum, the Township of Auchindrain consists of an original set of farm buildings that have remained in-situ and are surrounded by the remains of ancient field systems.

The Role That The Collection Plays Within The Scottish Museum Sector

Auchindrain Museum has the only Collection in Scotland to consist of an original, pre-improvement, joint-tenancy farm Township. Along with the National Museum of Rural Life, with its working lowland farm, the Highland Folk Museum, with its Collection of relocated and reconstructed Highland buildings and the Aberdeenshire Farming Museum, with its north east farm and estate buildings, Auchindrain is one of four main Collections that reflect Scottish agricultural history. By its nature it complements and greatly extends the understanding provided by the other Museums.

Reputation

The quality and importance of the Collection means that it is cited in many publications and is regularly visited by students, scholars and interested lay people. It is also a key source in the study of Highland settlement and society in the period 1700-1850 for academics, students and schools. The Museum runs a programme of formal and informal lifelong learning activities based around the Township of Auchindrain and agricultural life in the past. The quality and importance of the Township of Auchindrain means that it attracts many repeat visitors and is well supported by an established Friends organisation.