A Forgotten Collector to be revealed at Groam House
Groam House Museum is well known for its annual 
exhibitions on Pictish and local history themes. For 2010/11 an innovative approach is being adopted as the museum partners with a recently founded, exciting community organisation ARCH (Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands) to mount a new exhibition about Dr. William Maclean.
Dr. Maclean was born in Inverness and lived and worked as a doctor in the Dingwall area for much of his life. After his death in 1930 his widow gave his collection of finds and artefacts to the then National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. Much of his archaeology was conducted on the Black Isle including excavations at one of the coastal caves near Rosemarkie, between 1907 and 1912.
The exhibition will be created and put on display by members of the community, with assistance from staff and volunteers Groam House and the National Museums of Edinburgh. This will be achieved as the culmination of their participation in the ARCH programme ‘Display the Past’, which has been designed to get local people ‘behind the scenes’ at the museum. Facilitated by ARCH Project Officer Cait McCullagh, participants will be introduced to the history and development of museums and collecting and will learn about and gain hands on experience in practical aspects of working in a museum, including the care of objects and designing and installing exhibitions. The eight session course will also include an optional, field trip to the National Museum and to the Museum’s store, in Edinburgh. To find out more and to book a place on this course, please call 01349 868230 or email info@archhighland.org.uk The ‘Display the Past’ sessions are part of the ‘Stop, Look and Listen’ Project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Highland LEADER 2007 2013 Programme, with additional support from Highland Council.
A key and much valued part of the exhibition will be a number of items from the MacLean Collection at the National Museum of Scotland which will be on loan to Groam House for the duration of the exhibition. These will include a superb Pictish bone pin with amber decoration which was found by MacLean in the Rosemarkie cave.
The exhibition, entitled “Dr. William MacLean – a forgotten collector; the man, his sites and finds” will open on the 1st May and run through to Easter 2011.
Some other, related activities are also being planned. The museum is hoping to hold an event in May at which prehistoric flint and bone working techniques will be demonstrated, giving an additional insight into how many of the items on display in the exhibition were made. In addition the Rosemarkie Caves Project, part of the North of Scotland Archaeological Society (NOSAS), are hoping to carry out a two week excavation at Caird’s Cave, Rosemarkie starting in late June. If the necessary funding can all be raised members of the community will be invited to participate, under the direction of a professional archaeologist. The main aims of the excavation will be to see whether Caird’s was the cave that MacLean excavated and to find out and record as much as possible about the history of the cave’s use and occupation.
