UK 2014, The Highland Folk Museum

The Iona Gallery, where our rugs are part of the Scottish Homecoming display, had arranged a tour at the Highland Folk Museum, just down the road in Newtonmore. Jennifer is over, visiting her family and drove up for the tour and gave Pam, Heather and I a ride to it.
The folk museum was started by I.F. Grant, a woman who realized that everyday items were being discarded as modern implements became available and wanted to preserve those items of everyday life. The museum has been housed in a number of locations and until recently was two old houses close to the Iona Gallery in Kingussie. It has now moved into modern buildings on land shared with the outdoor part of the museum where old buildings are relocated, furnished and demonstrated in (like our pioneer villages in Canada).

A thatched croft with sod at the peak. Another nearby house being rebuilt will be furnished
with the 1950's collection.

The collection is stored in this modern building with ample warehouse space, climate controlled areas for the textiles and
leather, a lab, meeting room and offices.

Prams on top and dishware in the cupboards.

Farm equipment, machinery, transportation, large home appliances all have ample space.

A shelf of butter churners.

We were there to see the textile collection and the curator had bought some, out of storage, to show us
and talk to us about. These 4 are "shepherds plaids", traditionally a small check, used by shepherds as a cloak,
hood, blanket etc.

A selection of birds eye pattern blankets.

Blankets and quilts set out by the curator.

The curator had also displayed the dress donated by one of Jennifer's relatives. Jennifer
was thrilled.

The museum has a dress that they have been told was worn by Queen Victoria. They have been trying to validate this claim. The dress was made for someone under 5ft with a 48 inch waist. When the queen died she had a 50 inch waist. It is known that she had a pocket sewn in all her skirts on the right hand side. This dress has such a pocket.

When the dress was displayed the mannequin had to be rounded out with bubble
wrap and foam.

I could have wandered the collections for days and it was obvious that there is a lot of work to be done, pulling items out of boxes they have been stored in for years, cataloguing and searching for history. We were very privileged to have had this "behind the scenes" opportunity.

We had lunch at a lovely little café in Newtonmore, The Flour Garden (I think
that was the name) and I had this weirdly named drink (it tasted quite good
although vaguely like root beer) with my delicious pumpkin soup.