| On Friday 11 April, the Lochaber Archives Centre (Ionad Tasglann Loch Abar) held its official opening. Based in Lochaber College, Fort William, the new facility is funded by Highland Council and is one of the 'spokes' of the Highland Archives with the Inverness Archive at the 'hub'.
The opening ceremony was conducted by the Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire, Donald Cameron of Lochiel, who paid tribute to the band of committed locals who have been pressing and working for the creation of this facility since the early 1980s, to the previous Highland archivist, Bob Steward, and to the current Archivist, Susan Beckley, who had finally carried their aspirations to fruition. Lochiel has deposited the Cameron family papers at Lochaber, with the hope that other local record owners will follow his example.
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Donald Cameron of Lochiel, Lord Lieutenant of Inverness (left) and Councillor Bren Gormley, Vice-Chair of Education, Culture and Sport, Highland Council, unveil a plaque marking the opening of the Lochaber Archive Centre (photograph: Linda Ramsay, NAS)
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The Centre is based in three rooms, one of them a state-of-the-art storage room with full security and environmental controls. This represents a very significant step forward in the provision of good local access to resources both for Highland history and for family history. With the existing North Highland 'spoke' at Wick and work now well advanced on building a brand new archive facility in Inverness, Highland Council deserves congratulations for its commitment to preserving and opening up the rich archival heritage of the region.
Currently the archive holds local authority records for the Lochaber area, including school and police records; valuation rolls and poor relief records for Inverness-shire and Argyll; the family archives of the Camerons of Lochiel and Cameron and of the Cameron-Head family of Inverailort; maps and plans, including large scale OS sheets, c.1900; sasine abridgements for Argyll and Inverness-shire from 1781; census returns for Lochaber 1841-1901, and burial records for Lochaber. The records of the kirk sessions in the Lochaber Presbytery of the Church of Scotland have just been transferred from the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) in Edinburgh, although NAS has kept digital copies of all the records up to 1901.
The local archivist is Zoe Watson, and the service is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10-1, 2-5. Lochaber Archives Centre, Lochaber College, An Aird, Fort William PH33 6AN. Tel: 01397 701942; Email: Lochaber.archives@highland.gov.uk. There is parking and the college cafeteria is close by. |
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