What will we do?

One of our most regular visitors, Connie, gave us the name for our project when we summarised our aims as a 6 year old - "stop the Courthouse falling down". We have developed this project so that Connie and the rest of her generation will still have access to the heritage of their town and can share it with their future loved ones. We will re-open a redeveloped Cromarty Museum for our twin anniversary celebrations in 2031 with the infrastructure, partnerships and resources we need for the sustainable generational change we envision. Our ambition is that Connie will be the one cutting the ribbon, she will be 12 years old.

• Repair the Grade-A listed Cromarty Courthouse building
• Increase physical accessibility across the site
• Remove barriers to financial sustainability for the charity by creating basic infrastructure
• Develop, pilot, and implement an innovative co-curation approach to museum displays
• Improve wellbeing and connection for our community through the heritage collections

We will complete the urgent strucutural repairs to the 1771 Grade-A listed courthouse building avoiding it becoming a building at risk. By adapting an existing building we will be ensuring that it continues to be used by adding the missing functionality we need to operate a sustainable community museum through a small extension. This includes an adequate heating system, reception and retail area, accessible toilet facilites, a lift, space to host events, and a small kitchenette. 

Why is this project important to our community?

The project aligns with the actions in the Black Isle Place Plan; in particular the visitors, culture & heritage tourism objectives, slow tourism, and building-up community assests. A redeveloped Cromarty Museum has the opportunity to deliver generation change and to create an award-winning museum experience that acts as a catalyst for the local tourism offer that revitialises a fragile local economy in partnership with other local organisations. The investment in heritage this project represents will strengthen the local economy was the creation of secure jobs as well as opportunties for our community to develop transferable skills during the project. 

We will build connection with exceptionally high rates of mental ill-health with our community engagement programming which explores our collective resilience and heritage. 

What are the positive impacts and outcomes?

We will make the museum physicaly accessible for the first time in its history with level access from the street to the courtroom with museum displays that can be read from a seated position. We will be delivering a exciting 5+ year community engagement programme that inlcudes community Lego builds, opportunities to be behind the scenes in the museum, experimental engineering, and asking people to help us design the Cromarty Museum of the future. We will be actively expanding our audiences, co-developing activities in partnership, and supporting participation by providing refreshments and travel bursaries. We will help reduce social isolation by offering activites and places to come together, to learn new skills, to make change. We have piloted a lot of this work already with participants reporting improved wellbeing and enjoyment of working together to nurture positivity. 

The museum collection will be better cared for and there will be more on display for our community and visitors to see. Cromarty Museum will no longer be a static place to visit briefly but a vibrant hub that welcomes the entire community. 

What milestones have we acheived and what are our next steps?

2024 - the charity undertook an options appraisal to undertand the challenges faced by the museum and to identify our best way forward: capital redevelopment project. 

2025 - we fundraised for and then commissioned a feasibilty study that included a condition survey of the building, proposed designs by a conservation architect, costings for build, a business plan to confirm the financial viability, and a community survey which had an overwhelmingly positive response. We were able to get pre-planning approval for the project. 

2026 - this year we have been busy fundraising for the development phase of the project (approx. £1million) with funding applications submitted to National Lottery Heritage Fund and others. We have our fingers crossed!

2027 - the two year development phase starts, hopefully. 

2031 - we re-open the museum!

Anticipated end date?

We hope to re-open Cromarty Museum for the combined 260th anniversary of the courthouse building and the 40th anniversary of the charity in 2031.