Hunt on for Black Isle Pictish museum 'greeters'; Groam House Museum in Rosemarkie gearing up for new season

VOLUNTEERS keen to welcome visitors from around the world and help a newly revamped Black Isle museum hit the ground running for its new season are being invited to step forward.

Groam House Museum in Rosemarkie is a world-renowned centre of Pictish art.

With the museum gift shop redesigned to show a bigger and better range of gifts and books and plans are well under way for this season’s new exhibitions, hopes are high of a good season ahead.

The award-winning museum is run almost entirely by volunteers involved in everything from managing it, cataloguing, fundraising, book-keeping, front of house duties, creating the exhibitions and managing the shop.

In readiness for the new season, volunteer co-ordinator, Carola Martin-Smith, is looking for museum attendants to join the Groam House team. They are the welcoming face of the museum, greeting visitors and introducing them to the exhibitions and the gift and book shop.

It opens from the beginning of April until the end of October. Museum attendants usually work three or four three-hour sessions a month doing either a morning or afternoon shift.

Volunteers pick the days and times they can do each month and the rota accommodates as many preferences as possible. No experience or specialist knowledge is necessary as training is provided for all volunteers, new and old, at the beginning of each season.

Chairman Barbara Cohen said: “Our volunteers are vital to enable us to maintain regular opening hours and we wish to find new people to join us in 2020. Explaining our history and heritage to visitors from all over the world is very interesting and most enjoyable."

Groam House volunteers get together for regular social activities – volunteer coffee mornings, occasional outings and fundraising events. Volunteers are also offered the opportunity to learn about the wider work of the museum and its collections and participate in community workshops.

Groam House Museum is an outstanding centre for Pictish and Celtic art in Ross-shire. The unique display is focused on 15 carved Pictish stones which all originated in the village of Rosemarkie, an important centre of early Christianity. The sculptures on display are amongst the works of Pictish art that inspired artist George Bain, most of whose surviving artwork is in the care of the Museum. The Museum also exhibits local history and heritage.

If you would like to learn a little about local history and the Picts and make some new friends contact the museum’s volunteer co-ordinator Carola@groamhouse.org or phone 01463 811883 and leave a message.

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