Wick Heritage Museum and Cowie’s building to welcome visitors as part of Doors Open Days
The Wick Society will be opening the door to local heritage as part of Scotland’s largest free festival of places, history and culture.
Visitors will be invited to see around Wick Heritage Museum and the nearby Cowie’s building on Sunday, September 19, from 10am to 4pm.
It is the Wick Society's latest contribution to Doors Open Days, an annual event coordinated nationally by the Scottish Civic Trust, celebrating heritage and the built environment. Free access is offered to venues across the country each September.
The museum in Bank Row features many displays about Wick's herring industry. A new feature this year is a set of fishermen’s ganseys, knitted by Gordon Reid using patterns that match ganseys in the museum's collection of Johnston photographs.
Outside in the museum courtyard visitors will be able to see an example of a scaffie fishing boat – the Spray.
Next door, in the recently refurbished Cowie’s building, a series of huge maps of the county will be on display. The maps date from 1949 and show where the county’s schools were located, the boundaries of the farms across Caithness and many other features.
These will be complemented by a selection of Johnston prints.
Board member Ian Leith said: "As we were unable to open any doors for last year’s event, a digital heritage trail was made available via our website. This year a narrated film of the trail that runs from the railway station to the Black Stairs will be available to view in the museum and subsequently can be downloaded from the Wick Voices section of our website.
"If you are visiting the area, please come along. If you live locally, this is an opportunity to enjoy your museum."
This is the 32nd year of Doors Open Days, part of European Heritage Days.
Following the success of Doors Open Days’ first digital festival in 2020, when 184,000 virtual visitors from across the world were welcomed, the 2021 event will have both online and in-person events and activities.
Doors Open Days' national coordinator Dr Susan O’Connor, director of the Scottish Civic Trust, said: “Hundreds of venues across the country are busy behind the scenes organising events, planning walking tours and creating videos and other virtual activities for visitors.
"We’re particularly excited to welcome visitors back into buildings for in-person events so we can all reconnect with our neighbours and local places.”
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