Dingwall Museum exhibition tricks visitors
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AN exhibition being staged in Dingwall Museum is proving so realistic that it is even hoodwinking visitors.
Museum staff recreated a little bit of local government history in Dingwall by setting up the former town council chambers room as it would have looked in days of old.
The display features mannequin "town councillors" seated around a large wooden table, complete with agendas and other paperwork.
But visitors to the High Street museum are so taken in by the lifelike set-up that they politely back out of the room, believing they are interrupting an official meeting.
Curator Ian MacLeod said: "The former town council chambers is within the museum building. We thought it would be good to capitalise on this by setting up a display showing a council meeting of days gone by in progress to highlight that the building was once an important seat of local government."
Two of the mannequins were already in the museum’s stock while others were salvaged from the Fort George military museum near Ardersier.
Some were torso mannequins but keen woodworker Ian got busy in his workshop and made legs for them.
Said Ian: "Then it was just a matter of getting them kitted out in the correct costumes for the era. We went round the charity shops in Dingwall and found them authentic clothing."
But Ian revealed: "Visitors to the museum are intrigued – but they’re always thinking it’s a real meeting going on.
"They get to the door, stop and then back out, afraid they are walking in on a meeting of real people! I think it adds to the experience as they are then interested to learn that this was in fact the town council chambers.
"When we have the primary school kids in for a visit, we tell them that there’s a meeting in progress and they have to be very quiet.
"They’re not so quiet once they realise they’re mannequins though!"
The last meeting of Dingwall Town Council was held in the chambers on May 12, 1975 under Provost Sandy Macrae before the reorganisation of local government.
The minutes record that Provost Macrae declared that this was "indeed a sad occasion. That in his 42 years’ service in the council he had enjoyed the work, the companionship and the friendship."
The minutes also state that "Ex-Provost MacLeod regretted the passing of the town council and expressed the fear that local government, in future, would be far more expensive and that services would be somewhat curtailed."
Entry to Dingwall Museum is free and it is open from 10am to 4.30pm until the end of September.
