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We're halfway there!

Written by Museum Blogger

Wednesday, 16 March 2011 14:11

The past six months at The Highlanders' Museum have been action packed, with significant awards from public bodies, 2 successful Appeal launches and our Regimental whisky launch. These awards have come from the European Regional Development Fund, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and most recently the Inverness Common Good Fund and total over £1 million.

The latest round of awards has boosted the Fundraising Appeal total of £1.5 million which is a significant milestone towards our target of £3 million. These awards strongly endorse what the Museum Board of Directors and Trustees are trying to achieve for The Highlanders' Museum in the long term.

We have held two successful Appeal Launches which have generated over £80,000 from private and corporate donations. The Regimental Launch of the Fundraising Appeal took place on September and was an opportunity for the Regimental family to view the plans for the Redevelopment Project first hand. The guest of honour at the Launch was Gen Sir Jeremy Mackenzie who gave guests a rousing address. PM Andy Venters and the Queens Own Highlanders Association Pipes and Drums gave us a super display to round off the day on a very happy note.

Our second Appeal Launch was the all important Public Launch. We invited people from local councils, the community, businesses, public funding bodies and members of the Regimental boards. The purpose of the Launch was to raise awareness of the Redevelopment Project and the Highlanders' Museum to a wide audience. In order to do this we enlisted the help of Hollywood actor Hugh Grant and his father Capt James Grant who were guests of honour on the day. The appeal received very positive press and featured on the television, radio and in newspapers. The story even reached as far as the Indian Times!

The Highlanders' Museum has worked very closely with Gordon and MacPhail in order to produce our very own Regimental Museum malt whisky. It is called "Cuidich 'n Righ" which is Gaelic for "Help the King" and is the motto of the Highlanders'. For every bottle of "Cuidich 'n Righ" sold the Museum receives £5.

The project is well on course to achieve its fundraising target with the halfway mark already reached! The next 6 months will be very busy with award decisions expected from The Heritage Lottery Fund and several charitable trusts and foundations. The Museum will close in October 2011 and will reopen in Summer 2012 once the project has completed.

Thank you for your continued support. Please re-double your efforts to enable us to raise the second £1.5 million!

Maj Gen Seymour Monro CBE, LVO

The Project is on Course

Written by Museum Blogger

Thursday, 10 June 2010 14:32

The Project is on course!

The Highlanders’ Museum Development Project has received no less than 5 awards from public bodies – a total of just over £125,000. These awards were made by The Heritage Lottery Fund, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Highland LEADER Programme, the Highland Culture Programme and the Bord na Gaidhlig. Much of the credit for gaining such outstanding success is due to Pete Guthrie our Development Director.

These awards indicate the strongest possible endorsement for what the Trustees are trying to achieve at the Museum for our Regimental Heritage in the long term. These awards also enable us to move on to the next stage; the Design and Development Phase.

The Trustees and the Museum Development Committee (MDC), with the full guidance of Donald Mackenzie, Operations Director of The Tulloch Group, have overseen the tendering and selection process for a Project Manager, a very key appointment in delivering a successful project. Gardiner and Theobald have been appointed as the Project Managers. They have offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London and have been involved in the refurbishment of the Queen’s Gallery, The National Museum of Flight and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery amongst a wide variety of projects. Martin Sinclair will be our Project Manager. He was also involved in the Eden Court Theatre refurbishment and extension and thus has worked with Pete Guthrie before and has excellent local contacts and knowledge. He has extensive experience of Heritage projects including working with the HLF, ERDF and HIE.

The next step is to tender for the Design Team and to produce even more detailed plans than we have now. These plans – when ready – will be available for comment by the Trustees (in their capacity as the Museum Management Committee), the MDC, the Museum Advisory Committee (MAC) and members of the Regiment and other interested parties. We are also keeping in close touch with Historic Scotland and with Defence Estates who clearly have considerable interest in our Project.

We are confident that the Design and Development Phase will produce the right plans for this major upgrade of the Regimental Museum. Furthermore we are confident that the successful completion of this Phase will gain us very substantial public funds for the Implementation and Construction Phase in 2011/2012.

We will be widening the Appeal later this year with two key launches. The Regimental Launch will take place at the Fort on Saturday 11^th September. General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie, our Appeal President and former Colonel of the Regiment and Commanding Officer will be the Guest of Honour.

We make great progress with the Project and it has enormous support nationally and locally. Thank you for yours – we look forward to seeing a good number of you at one or other of the Launches!

Seymour Monro