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We will be back to our normal opening hours from Tuesday 31st October
Tuesday to Sunday
ALL YEAR ROUND
10am to 4.30pm
With grateful thanks
we bid farewell
Following two years of transformative work at Glenesk Folk Museum, Curator, Dr Christopher Martin, known affectionately by all as Chris, has been tempted to leave the beauty of the Glen and return to the bright lights of the city for the next stage of his professional development.
Together with his evident passion for object histories, he brought professional standards to the management of our collection, instituted crucial cash generation schemes to deliver financial sustainability, delivered eco-friendly building improvements and ensured that often ignored voices were represented in our displays and archives.
Chris leaves a legacy of improved technology, policies, processes and procedures, as well as greater visibility. His down to earth character and natural friendly demeanour won him many friends. He will be sadly missed and we wish him the very best of success, whilst thanking him for all that he has achieved for Glenesk Folk Museum.
Flock to Sock
Our Community Centred Heritage Knitwear Project
Visitors to Scotland enjoy taking something authentic home as a souvenir and what evokes Scottish craftwork and tradition better than knitwear?
Here at Glenesk Folk Museum, one of our aims is to assist our local Craft Community and our Heritage Knitwear Project is a vehicle for just that. To make an economically viable product, we sought a niche market, with a discerning buyer profile and settled on the Scottish diaspora of Kilt wearers. Our first product is traditional kilt hose, inspired by antique patterns and examples in our collection.
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When it wasn't possible to buy locally produced wool for our venture, we set about finding a way to work with farmers with small flocks. To make this possible, our first challenge was to find a mill with an appetite for experimentation and able to process small volumes of mixed fleece within a reasonable time frame.
Stage two is to determine which types of fleece to blend to create a soft Scottish wool, strong enough to produce a durable product without resorting to adding man made fibres. Our experiments are well underway!
Our project has attracted a great deal of interest. An event, designed to involve stakeholders from all areas of the wool industry, in a conversation about understanding the barriers to bringing local wool to market, was covered by STV and even made the evening news.
Click the red box to see the video.
