We're excited to share news from all of our offices below! If you have any feedback or would like to know more about any aspect of our work please email us.
Highland Archive Centre Update
Group Visits, Talks, and Tours
Since our last newsletter it's been a great privilege to give a large number of talks and tours to hundreds of members of groups both local to the Highlands and further afield, including Cromarty Local History Society, the Aviemore Wednesday Afternoon Club, the Kirk at Killearnan, Headway East Lothian, and others. In addition, we were delighted to take part in several wider programmes of activity, such as the Badenoch Heritage Festival, the national Jacobite Festival, the 2025 International Clan Mackenzie Gathering, and the annual Scottish Council on Archives conference. We have also appreciated great attendance at our Archives for Beginners classes which ran through the autumn months.
Education
It's been a particularly busy few months for educational activities and we've enjoyed working with large numbers of pupils from Strathpeffer Primary, Drakies Primary, a number of secondary schools - from Dingwall and Nairn to Inverness and Alness - and students at the University of the Highlands and Islands. These collaborations have covered numerous and diverse subjects. We looked at the Highlands' role in World War Two and life in the Victorian period with primary schools, and helped secondary pupils learn about the Jacobite Risings and the work of an archive service. It's been wonderful to increase our work with the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) team across the Highlands and a pleasure to give a talk and tour to the DYW co-ordinators themselves, and to speak about archives to a national audience as part of the Heritage Careers Week (viewable here).
Learn with Lorna
Our series of online short talks about the records held by the Highland Archive Service is taking a short break over the festive period, returning on 22nd January 2026. In the meantime, you can catch up with all previous episodes on our YouTube channel and we're excited to announce that at the suggestion of a Learn with Lorna viewer who's been watching since episode 1, we are going to be hosting an in-person Learn with Lorna event at the Highland Archive Centre on 28th May 2026. A talk on some "Treasures of the Highland Archive Service" will be followed by the chance to see some of the many documents that have featured across the 6 years of the series and to meet some of the other team members who have contributed research over the years. We are really looking forward to welcoming LWL viewers to the archive centre, celebrating the community that has grown from the series, and saying thank you to all who have helped it grow. Whether you've never been in to the archive centre before, or whether you've been in hundreds of times, we'd love to see you at this event so please save the date!
We really appreciate all requests to give talks (in person and online), tours, and run school workshops, so if you're a member of group or a teacher, why not get in touch to hear stories from our collections and learn about the work of the archive service?
In the meantime, we wish you a peace-filled Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Contact Highland Archive Centre
Highland Archive and Registration Centre, Bught Rd, Inverness IV3 5SS
Family History
Anne and Alasdair, our Family Historians, continue to be extremely busy and have enjoyed carrying out research and compiling family trees for customers both in the Highlands and across the world.
Many of our recent work has been produced for special occasions. One happy recipient was Craig McCluckie (pictured below left), whose family asked us to research his family tree as a surprise for his 60th birthday. He discovered his McCluckie paternal line included at least four generations of miners, which we traced back to one James McCluckie working in Faskine Colliery, near Airdrie, 200 years ago. Another happy couple received a surprise family tree with reports at their wedding which produced some very interesting information that the families knew nothing about, including many diverse occupations and some places where both sets their ancestors had lived!
Family History vouchers make wonderful presents and can be purchased by contacting us via the details below or by visiting our online shop. Over the next couple of weeks, we hope to post off several trees in time for Christmas, before we have a wee break!
Family History Classes
Many people want to learn how to research their own family trees, and over the autumn months we ran a series of well-attended Family History for Beginners and Advanced Family History classes, both in-person and online. These will be running again commencing week beginning 26th January 2026 so please get in touch if you're interested in finding out more - we'd love to see you there.
Talks
In addition to being busy with consultations and classes, Anne has been out and about since our newsletter delivering talks to nearly 300 people across various groups including Inshes Women’s Group, Beauly Local History Group, Lochardil Senior Citizens and others.
For more information about the work of our family historians, or to request some research, please email us.
Contact Family History
Highland Archive and Registration Centre, Bught Rd, Inverness IV3 5SS
Am Baile - Highland History and Culture website
When the selection of images and other material for Am Baile got underway in 2002, the initial focus was on collections held in the Highland Council’s museum, library and archive services. Staff involved in managing these collections chose a selection of items to be digitised and featured on the website. One of the early ones was the Highland Photographic Archive’s collection of photographs taken by Jimmy Nairn in the 1950s.
James S. “Jimmy” Nairn (1900–1982) was a cinema manager by profession as well as a talented photographer and filmmaker. His involvement with cinema began early. As a teenager in Pollokshields, Glasgow, he worked as a part-time projectionist and by the mid-1920s he had moved into cinema management, holding posts at the Savoy Cinema in Edinburgh and later the Regal in Stirling. In 1941 he moved to Inverness to take over management of the Playhouse Cinema on Academy Street.
For more than thirty years, until the Playhouse was destroyed by fire in 1972, Nairn presided over what many Invernessians still remember as the golden age of local cinema. Whenever his name is mentioned among, his annual creation of “Fairyland” on the balcony foyer is almost always mentioned. Each Christmas, he personally painted large, colourful boards of fairytale and cartoon characters, installed mechanical figures, and built displays that transformed the space into a child’s fantasy world. Generations of local children remember these scenes as well the letters to Santa which were posted in the Playhouse foyer, and the handwritten replies that he produced himself.
Jimmy Nairn was also a noted amateur filmmaker, recording civic ceremonies, sporting events, local festivals, and public life across Inverness and the Highlands. Several of these films are now in the care of the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive and selected highlights can be viewed on Am Baile. His still photography captured people at work and at play; wedding ceremonies and receptions; civic occasions and sporting fixtures. They mostly cover people and places in Inverness, but other parts of the Highlands and islands feature too.
A few hundred of his photographs have been featured on Am Baile since the site’s launch but over the past few months, a volunteer has diligently been digitising the remaining 3,000+ images from the original glass plate negatives. Followers of the Am Baile social media channels will have seen a handful of these images over the past few weeks. More will be shared there, and they will start to be uploaded to the website in the New Year
The Am Baile website can be found here.
Contact Am Baile
Highland Archive Centre, Bught Road, Inverness, IV3 5SS
Conservation
In August the High Life Highland Conservation Service completed work on an 1899 plan of “Brora Village” at the request of Clyne Heritage Society ahead of the opening of the new Brora Heritage Centre. The plan was conserved then digitised, with a high definition copy printed to scale to be exhibited at the Centre.
The original plan required re-backing due to extensive creasing down the middle, and staining and damage caused by historical repairs attempted with Sellotape, as can be seen in the picture below left (next to a picture of the repaired map).
The staining and residue were reduced with swabs of acetone, applied with particular care around areas of content. The map and linen were humidified, to release the lining and two areas of lining with a handwritten title were removed and retained. The map was sprayed with calcium bicarbonate to add an alkaline to the paper and covered in polythene. Dirt was drawn out using a bone folder under the polythene.
A new lining of Okawara 60gsm paper was adhered using paste onto the map wall the day before lining. Once dry the map wall was brushed with paste again, positioning the map along the top, later bonefoldering through terylene onto the map to removed excess paste and air bubbles. Once this stage was complete the map was sized by brushing on a warm 2% gelatine solution. Infills were created using Hosokawa 39gsm Japanese paper, and areas of weakness supported using 5gsm Tengucho Japanese tissue. The map was housed within a roll of polyester and the areas of original lining showing the handwritten title were housed at the back of the map within the polyester roll.
In addition to working on the Brora map we have been busy with a range of other projects including carrying out repairs on Eigg and Arisaig school log books for our Lochaber Archive Centre, and completing a Preservation Survey of the Caithness collections held at Nucleus: Nuclear Archive in Wick. We have also commenced a three-year project with Scottish Catholic Archives during which we will clean, flatten, and re-house their manuscript collection.
For more information about our conservation work please visit our Conservation pages.
Contact Conservation
The Conservation Studio, Highland Archive Centre, Bught Road, Inverness, IV3 5SS
Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archive Update
Dounreay Reminiscence Group
We are delighted to share a new case study on the Dounreay Reminiscence Group (DRG). The case study (which can be read here) was undertaken by Scottish Council on Archives as part of their Made In Scotland Project which seeks to celebrate archives, groups and initiatives that capture the history and development of industries crucial to a community’s identity.
The DRG is a collaborative project run by NRS Dounreay and Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives which brings ex-employees, friends and family together to reminisce and socialise, whilst capturing precious archival metadata for posterity. The DRG has been running since 2022 and over that time has grown in both membership and programming to include events such as talks, bespoke archive displays and metadata capture sessions. Most recently the group took a very special trip to the Dounreay site to find out more about ongoing projects and share memories and expertise from their own careers (picture below left).
Regular sessions run from October to March each year. Interested in attending? Email us to join the waiting list.
Caithness Football Memories
Following several significant deposits of archives relating to local football teams and initiatives, a new reminiscence group called Caithness Football Memories was launched at Nucleus in March 2025, with a second quarterly session in September 2025. The group is for anyone and everyone with an interest in Caithness football, past and present. Attendees are able to explore photographs and memorabilia, as well as bring along their own keepsakes, memories and stories. There is also tea, coffee and biscuits for everyone.
If you are interested in attending look out for events posted on our Facebook page or email us to join our mailing list.
The next session will be run in January 2026 (Date TBC) and will feature some special short talks from our regular attendees. Also, don’t miss the newly curated display of football and golf memorabilia at Nucleus including several trophies, medals and artifacts (picture above right).
Nature and History with the Countryside Rangers
The Caithness Archive Team have been teaming up with High Life Highland colleagues in the Countryside Rangers Service to deliver collaborative events for both adults and children focusing on nature, history and our local heritage. Archive Assistant Jennifer collaborated with the Countryside Rangers for a special Schools Out Event for 8-14 year olds focusing on ‘Taking Flight’ at Nucleus on 22nd October. The morning included a walk to discover more about RAF Wick and WWII, kite making, and a chance to explore records and photographs relating to the topic of flight within the archive searchroom. On 31st October Archive Assistant Valerie worked with the Countryside Rangers and Waterlines Heritage Museum and Visitor Centre to run a bespoke walk through historic Lybster. Pictures of both events can be seen below.
Caithness Family History Society
Exciting News from Caithness Family History Society whose collection found a permanent home within the Caithness Archive collections at Nucleus this year. The collection, which includes books, family histories, journals, and local publications will now go through a cataloguing process before being made available within the archive searchroom. Having these resources available at Nucleus opens new possibilities for researchers, family historians, and anyone interested in Caithness’s rich heritage. The move also opens the door to exciting new opportunities including the hosting of future Society events, talks, and gatherings at Nucleus. To celebrate the deposit of the Society’s papers with Nucleus, a special AGM was hosted on 7th October. Members and non-members were able to attend to hear more about the move to Nucleus and explore a specially curated display in the searchroom.
Engage with us online
Our online exhibitions, including 'Atomic Housing: Thurso Transformed', 'Atomic Recreation', and 'WK: History of a harbour' can be found on our website along with all previous editions of our blog, 'Stories From The Archive', which take an in-depth look at our collections. Please do have a look and please follow us on Facebook to see a wealth of material from Caithness' history!
Contact Nucleus
Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archive, Airport Industrial Estate, Wick Airport, Wick, KW1 4QS
Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre Update
As autumn yielded to winter on Skye, the island carried us through one of those seasonal turnings that reminds us how closely our lives are braided with the land.
Skye Bridge 30th anniversary
We joined the Kyleakin Local History Society as they marked the 30th anniversary of the Skye Bridge with a vibrant gathering that honoured both the island’s past and the profound changes ushered in since the bridge’s opening in 1995. Held in Kyleakin Hall, the celebration featured a rich exhibition of photographs, film, ferry memorabilia, bridge models and toll-era artefacts, supported by contributions from the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre. Visitors were invited to share their own memories of ferry crossings and of the transition to bridge life. With music, children’s activities, refreshments, and a warm sense of kinship, the day brought together locals and visitors alike to reflect on how this crossing reshaped daily life - symbolising both the loss of an older rhythm and the possibilities of a new era - while reaffirming the Society’s role in tending the heritage and identity of Kyleakin for future generations.
Cree Fiddlers of James Bay
The Cree Fiddlers of James Bay exhibition opened at the Skye & Lochalsh Archive Centre, where it will remain on display until 31 March 2026. Curated by Skye-based ethnomusicologist Dr Frances Wilkins and Scottish fiddler and designer Ronan Martin, the exhibition weaves together photographs, objects, film, clothing, and a remarkable archive of sound recordings gathered over more than a decade of visits to the Cree (Eeyou) communities of James Bay in sub-Arctic Canada. Rooted in a musical tradition shaped by the fur-trade era and the cultural exchanges between Cree families and Scots Hudson Bay Company workers, the exhibition reveals the ongoing vitality of fiddle music and dance in Eeyou life, and celebrates the musicians and dancers whom Frances first met in 2011 and continued to revisit with Ronan and their children. The Archive Centre hosted a warm and intimate opening evening in which Frances and Ronan shared their fieldwork, spoke of the people they encountered, and played tunes learned directly in James Bay - offering audiences on Skye a glimpse into a living, 200-year-old musical heritage, resonant with echoes of our own histories of journeying, encounter, and return.
Book Week Scotland
This November, the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre was delighted to host acclaimed Scottish writer Alan Bissett as part of Book Week Scotland, a national celebration of reading and storytelling. During his visit, Alan delivered a creative writing workshop for pupils at Portree High School, encouraging young writers to find their voice and explore the power of words. He also led a thoughtful and timely session on LADS: A Guide to Consent and Respect, opening vital conversations around relationships, identity, and empathy. The celebrations continued on Thursday 20 November, when the Archive Centre partnered with SkyeLIT for a special Book Week Scotland edition of its much-loved monthly literary speakeasy. Vibrant, inclusive, and full of island spirit, SkyeLIT - and the Archive Centre’s collaboration with Book Week Scotland - highlighted how storytelling continues to bind communities across Skye and Lochalsh, celebrating creativity in all its forms.
Angus Og
Finally, we’ve been working away behind the scenes with the amazing team at Caledonia TV and are delighted to announce that Angus Og is hitting the big screen! This New Year’s Day, tune in to BBC Alba at 9pm for a brand-new documentary celebrating Highland hero and loveable rogue Angus Òg. Through original cartoons, actor voices, and fan interviews, the world of Drambeg springs to life as we revisit Ewen Bain’s sharp, funny satire and Angus’s most memorable adventures. Look out for updates on our social media channels!
Contact Skye & Lochalsh
Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre, Elgin Hostel, Viewfield Road, Portree, IV51 9HA
Lochaber Archive Centre Update
Now in winter of 2025, we can reflect on a busy year at Lochaber Archive Centre. The warmer months brought visitors from across the globe through our doors, and distance enquiries aplenty from all manner of researchers interested in our collections.
This year, we were lucky enough to be invited once again to the Arisaig Highland Games and Gathering, and to take part in the Jacobite Festival which is now in its second year. For the latter we once again held a Jacobite Document Exhibition here at the Lochaber Archive Centre. It is always enjoyable to share our invaluable original Jacobite documents with the public, which date from the late 17th Century to Culloden in 1746 and beyond. Glenfinnan National Trust Centre very kindly invited us to take this exhibition ‘on the road’ and accommodated us for two days in the summer.
This year, we also made great strides in our collaboration with Kinlochleven Community Trust as they work tirelessly to resurrect the Aluminium Story Museum. We look forward to continuing to work with them in 2026. Likewise, we have been working closely with Mallaig Heritage Centre to plan and deliver collaborative projects for the benefit of the Mallaig community. This began in earnest with a shared display at the RNLI Fundraising Open Day, and we will soon be co-delivering heritage-based reminiscence sessions for local care home residents. These will begin in January 2026 - and we will hopefully continue to work together throughout the year on further heritage-based projects for the community to enjoy.
Every year brings with it the need for learning new tricks. This year, Archivist Rory Green got to grips with recording oral history interviews - chiefly of former residents of Annat village. This was in support of the Annat Gathering Group, who are dedicated to collecting, sharing, and celebrating the history of Annat, a small Lochaber village erected during WW2 beside the HMS St Christopher Naval Base.
Huge thanks to everyone who has visited the Lochaber Archive Centre this year, shown interest in our collections, or invited us to join them in their projects. See you in 2026!
Contact Lochaber
Lochaber Archive Centre, Alexander Ross House, Achintore Road, Fort William, Inverness-shire, PH33 6RQ
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