Highland Heritage Day 2023

Highland heritage organisations, museums, community trusts with heritage projects and independent heritage projects were invited to a networking day on 4th March 2023 at Dingwall Academy and Dingwall Library. The day was funded by Historic Environment Scotland, ARCH and Highland Council Historic Environment Team. A steering group from ARCH, NoSAS, Museums and Heritage Highland, Highland Archaeology Services and Wardlaw Mausoleum planned the day and devoted considerable time to organise the event, helped by a number of other volunteers.

Around 130 people from 60 organisations came from throughout the Highlands, with HES providing travel expenses. Most groups brought a stall to showcase their work. In the morning there were discussion groups to discuss common problems facing heritage organisations, thoughts on how to address these, and ways to collaborate with one another. In the afternoon five workshops were run addressing issues of volunteering, engaging with the community, climate change, organisation sustainability, and funding.

There was a great atmosphere to the day, as people networked, discovered organisations and project inspiration, and shared their successes and failures. Everyone agreed that this event should be repeated, and the steering group is now going away to start planning a follow up day, as well as to start creating a directory.