MUSEUM SUPPORT

We provide the following voluntary services:

Acquisitions

These have included: Copies of Hugh Miller books, some with rare dedications. A mourning brooch containing Miller's hair. An accounts notebook of the family's expenses after his death. An extremely rare pamphlet, Whiggism of the Old School.

Donations

We funded £4000 for the creation of Lydia Garden, and the adjacent "Peace Room," behind the Cottage.

New research work

Janie Verburg carrying out research in Miller House parlour

Writing interpretation scripts 

Cataloguing archives 

Front of house reception and shop sales work 

Guided tours 

Gardens maintenance

Manning exhibition stalls 

Gavin at the Inverness Science Festival

LEGACY PROMOTION

Our current continuing enterprise is the sponsoring of the Hugh Miller Writing Competitions which we have been organising with our partners the Scottish Geodiversity Forum. Taking primary responsibility for organising these major cultural events is science writer and poet Larissa Reid, a leading member of both organisations.

We have contributed prizes for the winners in the first two competitions, and £500 towards the publication of an anthology, Conversations in Stone, edited by Lara with colleague Elsa Panciroli and reviewed on our Cabinet of Curiosities page.

Lara Ried and Elsa Panciroli with book Conversations in Stone at the Dippy Exhibition in Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow Spring 1019

We are participating fully in the refurbishment of Miller House which is just getting under way.

Our magazine, Hugh's News, prominently reports these and other major ventures which have been immensely rewarding. You will find the relevant articles in the back numbers on the magazine page. Here is a summary of the highlights:

2008: Opening of Miller's Yard, Garden of Wonders

2008: Hugh Miller: Local Hero earth science conference in Cromarty, held together with launch of the Scottish Fossil Code by the then Scottish Government minister for arts and culture, Mike Russell.

2010: Opening of Lydia Garden, dedicated to the Miller family and their descendants.

2014 and 2015: Cruise of the Betsey voyages in the Small Isles and off Argyll on the traditional boat Leader at the invitation of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Sponsored student's £500 berth. 2014 voyage followed by We Are Cromarty festival.

2015/16: First Writing Competition.

2017: Spring: Readings from competition winners at StAnza Poetry Festival, St Andrews

2017: Autumn. Major earth science conference, The Old Red: Hugh Miller's Geological Legacy.

2017/18: SecondCompetition, combined with tours of Miller's Edinburgh.

2018: January, Acquisition of our own fossil collection.

2018: June. First fossil exhibitionat Inverness Science Festival.

2019: Fossils displayed at Dippy On Tour exhibition at Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow.

2019: Second display at Inverness Science Festival