Undiscovered Scotland

 

Ullapool Museum stands on Ullapool's West Argyle Street in a reused church. This is the street that runs parallel to, and just behind and above, the seafront Shore Street, and the museum's location puts it very much at the heart of the community.

This excellent museum tells what it describes as the Lochbroom story: covering the lives of people who have lived and worked in this part of Wester Ross for many generations. It also tells the story of the many people who were forced to leave for new lives in the new world, either through wider pressures or as a result of the Highland clearances. (Continues below image...)

 

The church housing the museum was built in 1829 to a standard "T" plan design produced by the engineer Thomas Telford, and stands as an example of the many similar churches built across the Highlands. It ceased to be used as a church in 1929, and became Ullapool's Museum in 1996. The building itself seems fairly modest in size from the outside, but as you enter you begin to appreciate the Tardis-like qualities which make it seem much larger on the inside.

Both the ground floor and the galleries which wrap around three sides of the church remain in use, and more than anything else it is the depth of the church which equips it so well to serve as a museum. Most of the fixtures and fittings of the church remain, including the pulpit high on the south wall, where the preacher would have commanded the attention of every member of the congregation.

Ullapool Museum is a great place to visit for anyone with an interest in the history and the people of this beautiful part of Scotland, and of the Highlands more widely. In addition it is intended to be, and is used as, a serious place of research. Files are available addressing every aspect of local history, and when we visited visitors from the USA were going through some of the museum's extensive genealogical archives tracing their family's roots in Scotland.