Groam House Museum row in Rosemarkie shines light on housing shortages across the Black Isle and wider Ross-shire and Highlands
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A WORLD-renowned Black Isle museum is facing local anger after acquiring a nearby private house to store and display artefacts.
Rosemarkie’s Groam House Museum, which holds collections of international significance, is having to vacate an old stable block it rents on Rosehaugh Estate seven miles away.
With the stables being redeveloped by the owners, the award-winning museum of Celtic and Pictish art and archaeological treasures needed alternative storage and workshop space and sought a property much closer to its High Street premises.
But heavy criticism locally has focused on the removal of a private home from the residential market at a time of housing shortages.
A previous bid by the museum to acquire Mill Cottage on Bridge Street through a community asset transfer was abandoned last December.
The current solution was found when trustee Barbara Cohen personally bought the two bedroom house at number 19 High Street, which went on sale at offers over £165,000.
She has offered its use to the museum, with a planning application for change of use now before Highland Council.
Fortrose and Rosemarkie Community Council has called a public meeting for this evening at 7pm (Friday, July 29) at the village’s Beach Café.
Doug Maclean, chairman of the museum’s board, has accepted an invitation to attend and set out the trustees’ reasons for the purchase.
He said: “Our lease is coming to an end at Rosehaugh Estate, which was far removed from the museum itself.
“We need space for our collections and our workshops. We looked at all sorts of options and this property came up for sale on the High Street.
“We expressed an interest to the agent as Groam House Museum, but had no clue how we would pay for it.
“Thankfully, one of our trustees stepped forward to buy it for our use, with the sale completed in June.
“We actually approached the community council a year ago while first looking at potential properties, asking to arrange a meeting about our accommodation issue.
“We got an acknowledgement, but absolutely nothing happened. We sent reminders saying it would be helpful to have a meeting.
“In the absence of that, we did an online survey on Groam House’s idea of finding a space within the village. There was a very substantial majority in favour and a vociferous minority against.
“This meeting has been called by the community council and I think it is just them being mischievous in trying to drum up negative feedback.
“That’s despite the fact they’ve totally ignored us for a year when we actually wanted to get their views.
“Some of the criticism is highly toxic and comes from a very small group of 16 people making multiple inputs.
“Whether people approve or not now, the deed is done. The fact is half the houses on the High Street are already holiday homes.
“People are saying things that are untrue and that stirs up a lot of negative comments.”
Ann Jefferson, secretary of the community council, said: “Fortrose and Rosemarkie Community Council has raised concerns on a number of occasions regarding residential properties being used for storage by Groam House Museum.
“We have been raising this issue for over a year, but unfortunately local opinion was not considered when ward councillor Gordon Adam recommended that the museum apply for a community asset transfer. The success of this community asset transfer would be decided at a Black Isle area committee where Gordon Adam was chair.
“The recent development involving yet another property in Rosemarkie for storage purposes has led the community council to organise a meeting for trustees of the museum to explain their plans and answer local residents’ questions.”
Among the critical comments on social media, Bruce Morrison said: “I feel this is very wrong on so many levels. The communities on the Black Isle need homes, not to have homes removed from the housing stock.
“A great shame when our young families can’t find homes.”
Kevin McDaid said: “Given the lack of housing stock on the Black Isle, it is a shame that Groam House think it is acceptable to try to change residential family homes into storage rooms and offices.”
And MK Isla said: “I suspect there was a lack of transparency from those acquiring the home as they obviously did it with an ulterior motive.”
