Abound Design led on this project to refurbish the old museum and give this unique site space to tell the story of the social history of the area with a particularly strong focus on the Highland Clearances and an additional focus on the Clan MacKay, which is housed in the Clan MacKay Centre. We based our work on the interpretation plan provided by Strathnaver Museum. In close collaboration with the museum team we developed topics, stories, themes and interpretation content delivered through various media and realise a successful NLHF Round 2 funding application through to successful implementation.
The project has refurbished the former church building and added a new annex; transforming the previously congested exhibition spaces with imagination and drama. We helped the museum envision how their interpretation plan could be realised within the available spaces. The new displays address the needs of the museum’s audience, which includes local residents and visitors on Scotland’s famous North Coast 500 route.
The museum comprises of 160m² of exhibition space within a former church, plus a 70m² annex, which houses the agricultural collection, along with a temporary exhibition space. The new thematic displays, incorporating digital media and immersive audio, draw visitors into the story, while giving them a sense of what life was like in this remarkable area of the country. Our stakeholder consultation suggested a desire not to lose all of the charm of the existing displays in meeting modern display requirements. We have therefore sought to do this by incorporating some elements of the existing displays into the new exhibition.
Digital media, by CMC Associates, has been used to enhance the displays, including an immersive video projected onto the church’s pulpit, dramatising testimonies heard at the enquiry into the Highland Clearances. We have also created digital labels in order to help interpret the extensive collection of agricultural implements.