September 1 2022

Glencoe Folk Museum is bidding to extend its Ballachulish base after securing £2m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Museums Galleries Scotland among others.

Peter Drummond Architects (PDA) has been commissioned to extend the current attraction to facilitate remote access to exhibits and support community-based activities by turning an adjacent byre into a community gallery connected to the current space by way of a new build reception and exhibition area.

Clad in local slate and partially roofed in corrugated red tin the purpose-built extension will employ solar panels and a green roof to modernise the museum while maintaining its ‘cabinet of curiosities’ ambience. This task will fall to exhibition specialists Mather & Co who will produce a range of new displays to fill the refurbished and extended spaces.

Peter Drummond, director at PDA, told Urban Realm: “The original cruck-framed, heather-thatched cottages date from the 18th Century and were restored in 1973. The museum collection has long-since outgrown the space available and there was a need to find a design which provided modern environmental and space standards without overwhelming the very low, dainty original structure.    

“We took our inspiration from the local stonemasonry and red corrugated iron vernacular vocabulary of the West Highlands, mirroring the outbuildings and extensions which so often accrued to the rear of traditional houses and blends in to the landscape.”

The museum expansion will get underway in 2023 for completion in 2024 and follows the recent completion of an extension to Glencoe Visitor Centre by ZM Architecture.

1 Comment

#1 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 6 Sep 2022 at 09:04 AM

All very good (it's a great museum), but could they not have found a better way to link the buildings than a flat roof? The junction of flat roof halfway up an overhanging thatched verge is bothersome.

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