Castlehill Heritage Centre
Castlehill Heritage Centre
The buildings started
life as a farm steading and dairy, dating back to the seventeenth century.
Work to convert and bring them into service as a Heritage Centre has been
undertaken in a staged manner as funding become available.
The first phase was
to convert the old dairy at the north end of the building into a flexible
75mē exhibition
area. Work started in earnest late 2006 with the commissioning of the
building water supply, the closing off of redundant windows and doors
and installation of a security system. In January 2007 work got underway
to install a new ceiling, stud partitions, fire doors, plasterboard, insulation,
exhibition lighting, power, data network, a basic galley kitchen and an
underfloor heating system. The
office and toilet facilities were also completed at this time.
 The
floor finish in the exhibition area is traditional Caithness flagstone.
The exhibition space
has been configured as a sustainable venue for the development and delivery
of events and training workshops featuring local and vernacular skills.
The work was completed on
target by April 2007 in readiness for a programme of activities as part
of the Highland 2007 Community Programme.
All the work on phase
one was undertaken by Society volunteers and reports on progress during
the works can be seen on the NEWS pages.
We are deeply indebted
to UKAEA Dounreay who donated some
materials which were salvaged from buildings demolished as part of the
site decommissioning programme, including light fittings, fire doors,
a fire alarm panel and an old conservatory.
 The
second phase of development which kicked off at the end of February 2008
has been the creation of the Archeological Research Facility at the south
end of the long building, including an artefacts store, a new multipurpose
training/workshop area, and a plant room and log store for the biomass
log boiler (see the renewable energy pages).
This work was also completed on schedule in April 08.
The Archeological
Research Facility comprises a receipt area where artefacts undergo wet
sieving prior to being dried in the drying room and passing into the sorting,
analysis and cataloguing area. The analysis room has a public viewing
gallery and will also be linked to the website via a web cam in due course.
In parallel with
the internal works, a new access gate and footpath through the Heritage
Garden has been created, linking visitors to the new main access door
at the north end of the courtyard.
The next phase of
development is the establishment of the Heritage Garden within the courtyard.
Here we hope to include references to the heritage of the area in plant
and stone, featuring early trees and shrubs that originally covered the
north, agriculture, the wartime arrival of the RAF and tributes to the
Traill family of Castletown who founded the flagstone industry in the
area.
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