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