An article based around Inverness Museum and Art Gallery (#185)
In 2013, my sister and I decided to reach new heights personal fitness by entering that year’s Loch Ness festival of running. My sister, who had participated in amateur triathlons and 10Ks, decided to really go for it and run in the Loch Ness Marathon as her first marathon attempt. As for me, a lapsed rower who rarely did anything more energetic than badminton at that time, I signed up for a 5K. And to get into any physical state to be ready for it, I undertook months of training to build up my stamina – if that appeals, incidentally, I would recommend the “Couch to 5k” programme which the NHS provide.
We were not just doing this for fitness, however. The previous year had been a difficult one for the family as my mother had undergone extensive chemotherapy in her fight against lymphoma. Thankfully she is much better some 3 years later, but that’s partially due to the support she received from healthcare professionals and cancer support charities. So, as a thank you, Macmillan Cancer Support was the recipient of our combined fundraising. It would be fair to say that people were putting in more for the efforts of a first time marathon than a first time 5K, but every little helps!
I had a further ulterior motive: I wanted to go to
Inverness. The Loch Ness festival of running had been chosen on the basis that,
by late September, we would have enough time to train for our respective runs.
Heck, I would have done it was the Milton Keynes festival of running or the
Sheffield festival of running, on the basis that I still wanted to give
something back to Macmillan. But I am always keen to seek out new parts of the
world, particularly if they’re on mainland Britain.
I’ve been to Scotland a few times over the course of my
life, and living in Newcastle makes it comparatively easier to visit than if I
were living in London. But the furthest north I’d ventured up until that week
was Dundee. To travel as far as Inverness required me to set aside some annual
leave if I was going to spend more than a flying visit there. Anything else
would be a waste, because the northernmost city in the British Isles is not a
place you can simply pop across to if you live in England.
I have often complained that the key downside of living in
Newcastle is its geographical distance from the rest of England, and whilst this
is true in many respects, my trip to the Highlands gave that view some
much-needed perspective! To get to Inverness from Tyneside, I took 3 trains for
a trip which lasted a good 5-6 hours (accounting for changing trains). It was more
straightforward for my sister to simply fly there from London. Other than the
fact I was going there primarily for a charitable cause, it dawned on me that I
was making a lot of effort to simply to satiate my curiosity about the
Highlands of Scotland.
The logistics of travel is often a key barrier between
people and visiting museums, visitor attractions or heritage sites. If you don’t
have access to a car, then suddenly the number of National Trust or English
Heritage sites available to you becomes somewhat limited. Schools cite
transport costs as the main hindrance to offering its pupils regular school
trips. And whilst London is the de facto cultural hub of the UK, not everyone
has the means to make regular trips to the most expensive city in the country.
So with all that in mind, Inverness was the main nexus point
for my week in the Highlands, which started with a 5km jog alongside children
and overweight people (such as myself, I’ll admit!) before moving up to Wick
and Thurso before my return to the city. My sister had long gone home by this
point, hoping her body would recover on her overnight train back to London. So
having spent the first part of the week back-packing around John O’Groats
country, I was getting a second bite at exploring Inverness before I continued
on down the west coast of Scotland. This allowed me to add Inverness Museum
and Art Gallery (#185) to my journals.
The museum is part of a curious building near a main bridge
over the river Ness. Already situated on top of a street level tier of shops
and eateries, the next level up is the city’s Tourist Information centre. The
museum itself is located on the next two tiers, with its own separate entrance
via the road which leads up the hill to the back of the building. Incidentally,
the top of the hill boasts Inverness Castle, although this is used primarily as
a court building rather than a tourist attraction.
Entering the “ground floor” as it were, the museum’s displays
focus upon the various eras of the city’s history, and by extension, the
highland region as a whole. Having previous visited the Tain and District
Museum (#182), Wick Heritage Centre (#183) and Caithness Horizons in Thurso (#184)
in as many days, I had already taken in a great deal of regional history, so a
look at the development of Inverness as the administrative centre made for a
refreshing change. The members of staff at the entrance were welcoming and very
accommodating to look after my heavy rucksack whilst I undertook my visit.
The focus of the lower floor starts at the geological
history of the region and continues through until the medieval period, after
which the focus shifts to a taxidermy-based display which thematically groups the
animals by environment. The displays on this floor are a mine of interesting facts
about the region’s development, particularly given the invasions by the Picts, Scots,
Vikings and the pervasive influence of the Roman Empire. Even more impressive
is the use of the two outward looking windows. For example, the one pointing
west looks out at “Craig Phadrig” in the distance, and a slanted panel
underneath explains its significance as the likely site of regal fortresses in
the Dark Ages, as well as a potential visiting destination of St Columba.
The upper floor picks up the thread of the city’s history, as well as being the home of the building’s two art gallery spaces. I didn’t enjoy this floor quite as much on the basis that the history I was looking forward to the most – Inverness during the Jacobean era – was not afforded much gallery space, although the subject of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his links to the region were suitably addressed. Beyond this, thematic displays were interlinked with the chronology of the region’s history, and whilst there are a number of impressive artefacts on display, particularly regarding the musical instruments that were common to the region, the gallery sections did not hold my interest in the same way the ones downstairs had. The fact that there was an out of order database and an exposed extension plug was powering the one other interactive that was present also tempered the visitor experience for me.
Finishing my notes, I walked back down the museum’s stairs,
past the wall panels which acted as a Gaelic alphabet for local flora and
faunae. After collecting my rucksack and thanking the attendants, I headed
onwards to Inverness bus station for the next leg of my Scottish holiday.
Reflecting as I walked, I tried to formulate some last memories of Inverness
and whether the museum had stood out amongst them. Could I recommend a visit to
Inverness solely on the back of one museum? Or is it unfair to lump the
expectation of an entire city break on the basis of a single site?
Inverness is a beautiful city. My 5k run was largely around
the riverside to the south of the main city, with the weather holding up nicely
and a number of trees lining the route which had yet to be ravaged by the
autumn. The surrounding countryside is quite stunning as well for that matter.
Regardless of the distance, it was well worth the visit (on both occasions).
The museum taught me a fair bit about the city, and whatever issues I had with
the second floor, is an interesting place to visit. It wouldn’t be fair for me,
wearing my museum hat, to burden it as the sole reason to visit Inverness
because, ultimately, that was not the reason I planned my trip to the
Highlands.
At any geographic extremity, it is going to be harder to
attract the passing interests of tourists in terms of short breaks. Personally,
it is much easier for me to get to Edinburgh or, at a push, Glasgow from
Newcastle than it is Aberdeen or the Orkneys, and even then, that’s still a
journey of 100+ miles to get to the Scottish capitol from Tyne & Wear. Of
course, Inverness is somewhat helped by the tourist-trap aspect of Loch Ness
and its various monster tie-ins, but its appeal to me was that it was so far
away. Now that I’ve been there, I’m happy to say that I would go back.
