Until a few months ago I’d never made it to see the magical and fascinating place that is Kilmartin Glen. Now I’m spending a fair bit of time there, visiting stone circles and view-points, watching beavers at Knapdale, eating locally smoked salmon, and even having my lunch nibbled at by a friendly robin, but mostly in meetings about the museum. Plans are a afoot for a major refresh of the Kilmartin museum and I’m working with a locally based ecologist, Ross Preston, and with the project team to develop the natural history interpretation that will feature in the displays.
The glen and the collections are incredibly significant for archaeology and the museum itself will be focusing primarily on that. It is clear that the people who shaped this landscape had an incredibly close relationship with nature and in particular with the peat bog and woodlands around them. My challenge is to find ways to weave this in and to showcase the area’s rich biodiversity and what that has meant to us humans past, present and future. Watch this space!
