Doors Open event gave a chance for people to have a look inside the vast collections at Highland Archive Centre
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
On the first weekend of September each year the Highland Archive Centre takes part in the national Doors Open Days campaign, welcoming dozens of people into the building, giving behind-the-scenes tours and hosting themed displays of historic documents for visitors.
This year, of course, that format was impossible and instead we moved our Doors Open event online.
A range of interviews with different staff were broadcast online throughout the weekend, giving insights into the work of registrars, conservators, archivists and others across all four Highland Archive Service offices.
We’re delighted to announce that thousands of people have so far watched the films (which remain freely available to view on the Highland Archive Centre Facebook page and the High Life Highland YouTube channel – no accounts required).
One popular interview which revealed a behind-the-scenes role was that with Jamie Gaukroger, the co-ordinator of High Life Highland’s history and culture website, www.ambaile.org.uk. Am Baile was born out of a 1999 New Opportunities Fund programme which provided £50 million for digitisation projects. Highland Council, recognising that in its collections were many items of significant cultural interest, made a successful bid for part of that available funding and a mass digitisation project was commenced, resulting in the bi-lingual website, Am Baile.
Am Baile, named from the Gaelic for ‘the village’, is now run by High Life Highland, as part of Highland Council’s culture and leisure services. Although the website has gone through several incarnations, it continues to provide remote access to a wide range of documents, photographs and audio-visual material from a range of partners across the Highlands and Islands.
Among the Sutherland-related material on the website are items from cultural institutions in Sutherland (such as Historylinks in Dornoch and Timespan in Helmsdale), items from the High Life Highland collections (i.e. the Highland Photographic Archive and the Highland Archive Service) and collections which have been supplied by families or individuals, with the greatest numbers being from the Highland Libraries postcard series and the Highland Railway Society collection.
One example of a fascinating family collection on Am Baile is that of Willie Morrison. Born in Sangobeg, near Durness, Willie attended Durness Primary School and Dornoch Academy before going on to study at the Scottish College of Commerce in Glasgow and entering a successful career in journalism coupled with serving in the territorial army.
Willie’s journalism career took him around Scotland, with several posts being Highland-based. His collection of personal images, showing both his immediate family and his ancestors, provide a glimpse of daily life and special events in the Highlands, with a photograph of Durness School Choir (winners of the Buxton Cup at the Sutherland Provincial Mod in Lairg, June 1949) sitting alongside a striking image of Durness crofter-fishermen taken at Rispond c1890s.
To see these and other local images visit www.ambaile.org.uk and to learn about the history, development and collections on Am Baile watch the fascinating interview with Jamie Gaukroger on Facebook or YouTube.
