Dornoch History Links heritage centre enjoys VisitScotland 5 Star Museum status, and quite rightly, as you’ll see in the video. The displays present stories covering nearly 2000 years of history in a way that’s both accessible and entertaining, for all ages. Not an easy thing to do, as most museums manage to prove.
Throughout the Scottish Highlands local Heritage Centres tell the stories of individual towns. Dornoch History Links does the same, but within the context of the whole north.
For hundreds of years Dornoch was the administrative capital of the area, thanks to St. Gilbert I guess. But even before that, in the days when the Picts took issue with the Vikings invading their space.
The exhibition moves from past to present in progression of the displays from back to front in the museum hall. Maybe this is why it doesn’t feel like a dry, dusty museum, but more of a tour with pictures, cartoons, pieces of machinery and short storyboards.
The front is dominated by the Royal Dornoch Golf Club and the Railways which made the town a destination resort back in the 1800′s. But look carefully- there’s a board celebrating Madonna‘s visit in 2001, with soon to be husband Guy Ritchie, to christen their child.
Further back is the story of clan wars when local families – or clans – chose to settle differences in battle. Before that there’s St Gilbert building the Cathedral, and further back still Vikings and Picts fighting for the territory.
At the very back is an interesting board explaining the geological shifts which, millenia before, formed the landscape and created the special natural history environments around Skibo Castle and Loch Fleet, and many other places.
It seems the Highlands has, until recently, hosted conflict after conflict – between geological plates, Vikings and Picts, local clans, Jacobites and the Campbells, crofters and wealthy English landlords.
It’s all described in HistoryLinks, and of course there’s the obligatory souvenirs, but no pressure to buy.
The staff are just there to make sure you enjoy your visit.
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