Former long-time home of Highland Folk Museum is sold
One of the Highlands’ most famous buildings is under new private ownership.
Pitmain Lodge which for more than six decades was the home of the Highland Folk Museum in Kingussie has been sold by Highland Council.
The category C Listed museum building in Duke Street is to be converted into a family home. The property was on the market for offers over £230,000 and also included MacRobert House and a workshop and stores on the 2.2 acres site.
The new owners of the properties are Andy and Cath Richards and their young children.
Mrs Richards, a one-time architectural historian, told the Strathy: "We are delighted to be settling in the area following years of moving around the country as a consequence of Andy's employment with HM Forces.
"We are aware of the local interest in this site including the long-running efforts of the ARC to create a community hub and we are keen to reassure locals regarding their future plans.
"After an initial focus on the restoration of Pitmain Lodge – which will be renamed 'Old Pitmain Lodge' and will begin shortly, we intend to also return the elegant MacRobert House to a habitable standard, and restore its former name of Church Hill House."
The couple said they are aware that since the museum was relocated, the path in front of Pitmain Lodge has been in informal use as a short-cut between Duke Street and Manse Road.
She said: "We have agreed with Highland Council that we will provide a new path from the corner of the Duke Street car park along by the railway line and the allotment fence and out to Manse Road."
The Am Fasgadh Regeneration Company (ARC) had been looking at ways of acquiring the site for the community good in recent years but without making a breakthrough.
A series of community consultations in Kingussie in 2009 identified the site’s regeneration as a priority for local residents. ARC leaders had wanted the museum which closed in 2007 to be home to a destination attraction.
A community cinema was one of the plans mooted too.
Inspired by European folk museums Dr Isabel F Grant (1887-1983) founded the Highland Folk Museum in 1935 on the Island of Iona, so that 'the old setting of our daily life….be saved'.
She named the Museum ‘Am Fasgadh’ – Gaelic for ‘The Shelter’.
By 1939 the collection had outgrown its Iona home and was moved for a period of five years to a disused church in Laggan.
Dr Grant them moved her collection to a larger and more permanent site at Kingussie in 1943 and the Highland Folk Museum was opened to the public on June 1 the following year.
The museum was closed by eventual owners Highland Council in 2007 after falling into a state of disrepair, much to the anger of local residents in the town who claimed the local authority had failed to safeguard the property and town attraction.
At the same time the local authority had been developing the Highland Folk Park in Newtonmore, and the artefacts were moved there and to the purpose built storage facility, also ‘Am Fasgadh’.
Am Fasgadh in Newtonmore now houses more than 10,000 accessioned items along with a conservation laboratory, research areas, library, meeting rooms and offices.
Access to the collection is by appointment or guided tours by curatorial staff and specially trained volunteers.
