Our current focus charity project – The West Highland Museum.
We are delighted to be partnering up as donors to support the redevelopment of the West Highland Museum in Cameron Square, Fort William.
In a step on from our sponsorship of the Education room at the Kilmartin Museum in Argyll, we are looking to contribute to the redevelopment of the West Highland Museum and create a specific room or space where the Highland Society can display our artefacts, support visiting art collections or museum collections, and help educate local children and residents about the history traditions, and culture of the Lochaber region of the Highlands.
Fort William’s West Highland Museum will be well known to many as an institution that lies close to the cultural heart of Lochaber. Its exhibits cover a remarkable variety of themes relating to the varied and often-violent history of the West Highlands.
The Museum was founded in 1922 by Victor Hodgson (1875-1929), who initially displayed books and other objects in the town’s Public Reading Room. In 1925 funds were raised that enabled the Museum to purchase the core of its present premises in Cameron Square, a former branch of the British Linen Bank. After more fundraising in the 1960s the Museum acquired an adjacent building. These combined premises have served the Museum well for over half a century, but they are now creaking.
Like many museums, we have far more artifacts than we can currently exhibit. In addition, visitor numbers are soaring: they have increased during the last decade from around 9,000 per annum to almost 60,000 in 2024. The Museum’s trustees have decided that they must now conduct another major fundraising campaign in order to invest to provide better access for all, better study and education facilities and more space to exhibit more of our impressive collection and tell the region’s story in the manner it deserves.
For more information about the West Highland Musuem, please watch this video.
For more information about donating to this focus charity project, please view our donations page.