Work progresses on Canna House conservation project
The conservation project at Canna House on Canna in the Inner Hebrides has seen tens of thousands of items painstakingly packed and stored, as the project continues to make good progress.
The house was filled with items large and small, from a Steinway piano to collections of moths and butterflies, all collected by John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Faye Shaw during their lifetime. The couple, known for their work to collect and document Gaelic song, stories, poetry and photography, gathered a huge archive that provides an incredible insight into life in the Hebrides and Nova Scotia during a period of great change. It is this unique and precious cultural archive that our conservation project to carry out vital repairs at the home is intended particularly to protect.
During the 12-month project, the exterior and interior of Canna House is undergoing an extensive programme of repairs and conservation that will ensure the house is strong and secure against the elements; that its important collections – both of the Campbell’s belongings and its Gaelic archive – are kept in the appropriate conditions; and that both the house and the archive can be accessed and enjoyed by the public and researchers alike.
In preparation for this, some 50,000 items have been carefully packed according to type and removed from the house. This mammoth task commenced before the pandemic and took many months to complete. The entire collection is now in secure storage.
The project, which is part of the projects we committed to in our 10-year strategy Nature, Beauty and Heritage for Everyone, is being generously funded by supporters of our conservation charity, including the NTS USA Foundation who have contributed $600,000.
Chief Executive Philip Long OBE said: ‘After many years of careful planning, it is a great step forward to have started work on this ambitious and complex project. Canna is a very special place that is loved by many because of its unique nature, beauty and heritage.
‘The island has captured the hearts and imaginations of people from all over the world, and we are very grateful for their interest and support, particularly from the NTS USA Foundation who are longstanding supporters of the island and our conservation work here.
‘It is thanks to this support that work is now underway on several significant projects on Canna this year in partnership with the island community, which will meet shared objectives of protecting Scotland’s protected heritage and contributing to the island’s infrastructure, and sustainability, through investing in its facilities and experience for visitors, which are a vital part of its economy.’
Indigo Carnie, Collections Manager on Canna, added: ‘John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Fay Shaw were at the vanguard of the effort to record the unique oral culture of the Hebrides; they also lived through momentous world events and developments of the 20th century, experienced from their island home; and their friendships spanned the worlds of art, literature, music, science, faith, politics and beyond.’
The project is making use of firms based across the Highlands and Moray with project management being provided by Glyn Young Associates from Inverness, lead designers LDN Architects also from Inverness and main contractors Simpson Builders from Beauly.
In addition to the work underway on Canna House, our conservation charity is working with the community to support some other important projects on the island, including the creation of a Canna visitor hub which will provide improved facilities for visitors and the community on the island, such as a welcome space for our ranger to welcome visitors to Canna and facilities for visiting health workers.
Canna is a small island to the south-west of Skye, that supports a small and vibrant island community. The island was donated to the National Trust for Scotland in 1981 by Gaelic scholar John Lorne Campbell and his wife Margaret Fay Shaw, who together amassed and researched a huge collection of Gaelic and Celtic songs, stories, poetry and a unique collection of butterflies and moths, all contained in Canna House.
The island setting of Canna boasts a complex mosaic of habitats – marine, littoral and terrestrial, many of national or regional significance. Among the most important are the base-rich grassland and cliff vegetation, the machair and maritime heath. Combining this diversity of habitats with the temperate, oceanic climate, Canna is able to support a maritime flora and fauna of great interest and beauty. It is of international importance for its colonies of seabirds, particularly shags, puffins, razorbills, black guillemots and formerly manx shearwaters, together with its raptors. It is also rich in archaeological interest, with current interests including coastal erosion and 3D interpretation opportunities.
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