27 March 2007

 

LOCAL FIRMS TO TENDER FOR TOWN HALL WORK

Planned return of Viking treasures to Caithness

 

Three local firms are expected to tender for the building work required to refurbish Thurso Town Hall in preparation for the opening of the Caithness Horizons visitor and community centre in spring 2008.  Caithness Horizons Board, meeting on 7th March, was told that Highland Council staff issued the invitation to tender for the work last month. Tenders are due to be returned shortly.

 

Caithness Horizons Chairman Paul Cariss welcomed the progress made.  “Getting the building work underway after a long period of preparation will mark an important step forward for the project,” Paul commented.  “I am particularly pleased to hear that local firms are in the running.”

 

The Board was joined by trustees of Caithness Horizons Collections Trust for part of their meeting.  The original trustees, representing the Highland Council, Thurso Heritage Society and UKAEA Dounreay, have now been joined by John Flett of Wick Heritage Centre and Muriel Murray of Castletown Heritage Society, and the Trust has joined the Scottish Museums Council as an associate member.

 

Museum adviser for the project Estelle Quick is hoping to obtain a number of Viking objects on loan from the National Museums of Scotland for display in Caithness Horizons.  Estelle said: “These objects include important and beautiful personal possessions from local Viking burials, such as brooches, combs and pins.  It will be wonderful if we are able to bring them back to the county in the future.”

 

Caithness Horizons will also benefit from the addition of a unique local shell collection to its display material.  Mrs Sylvia Meiklejohn of Thurso, has offered her late husband Robbie’s collection to the new Thurso centre.  Estelle commented: “We are very grateful for Mrs Meiklejohn’s generous offer.  The collection is extensive, in excellent condition, and well documented.  It will complement the Robert Dick collection of local botany, which will be a key exhibit in Caithness Horizons’ collection.”

 

Meanwhile, Dounreay’s Visitor Centre has closed a year earlier than planned, after the old RAF control tower in which it is housed suffered serious weather damage over the winter.  This makes it all the more important for the far north tourist industry that Caithness Horizons is on schedule to open next spring, providing a shop window for the many other visitor attractions to be found in the area.