By Chris Hardy

UNCERTAINTY HANGS over the future of the Glenesk Folk Museum collection, which is recognised as being of national significance.

“This is a heritage catastrophe waiting to happen,” said Professor Christopher Smout, an admired authority on Scottish social history

The Retreat, the old shooting lodge which houses the collection, is to undergo a £600,000 rebuild and will close in late August. When it reopens, as a sophisticated community and educational resource, it will not have the room to house most of the collection —which will remain in storage.

The community faces a mammoth task of raising even more funds for a purpose-built museum extension.

“It is an amazing collection, fantastic,” said Professor Smout who, like so many experts who visit the Retreat, was hugely impressed. “It must be ensured that the artefacts are kept and a properly designed museum built.”

The crisis has been prompted by the Retreat’s poor state of repair, which has placed the collection is at risk.

An enormous amount of work by glen people and museum staff has resulted in community acquisition of the building and more than £600,000 being raised for its refurbishment.

Just the shell of the Retreat will be left and rebuilding from the ground up will create a community facility, shop and tearoom. Only when more funds are available will a second-phase rear extension be built to house the collection that has delighted generations of visitors from home and abroad.

Its rich variety of artefacts, archives and oral tradition tell the story of a vibrant rural community from the 18th to the 20th centuries; the stories of “ordinary” people that rarely reach the history books.

“That’s the swey and that’s the jeely pan and that my mother’s stew pot,” said Ernest McBain, who grew up in Edzell as he gave his daughter and granddaughter a tour of his past.

“The willow pattern, sewing machines, kitchen things, they’re all familiar,” said Emily Enklaar from Holland, whose mother was Scots. “It’s wonderful to see all this and to know it is here.”

Visitors return again and again to ponder over the butter clappers, the brose caup, the graip, the heuk, the tappit hen or to browse through the volumes of photos, accounts, wills and bills or search through the census records for a tantalising glimpse of relatives long gone. The museum receives genealogical inquiries from throughout the world every week.

Angus Council Economic Development department has continued to give unstinting support to this remarkable community venture.

“This project is of national interest,” said Tom Davidson of Community Education. “The museum has enormous potential for the whole community for the future.”

Margaret King, Angus Council museums manager, said, “The Scottish Museums Council has deemed this collection to be unique and of national significance. We desperately need funding to ensure the long-term viability of this precious collection.”

The community is determined to avert such a disaster.

“The collection comes from this area, it belongs here and we must display it here so everyone can enjoy it,” said curator Muriel McIntosh, who is in no doubt about how desperately more funding is needed. “Hardly any of the collection will be on show until we can build the extension.

“The collection has to be carefully packed anyway for the rebuild of the Retreat but we don’t know for how long. It will have to remain in store until there are funds.”

A range of fund-raising events has included a concert, car boot sale and a recent sponsored cycle ride which alone raised more than £3500.

On Sunday August 1 there is a day of natural dyes and dyeing and anyone interested in the few remaining places will need to book in advance by phoning 01356-670304.

In the meantime there are only a few weeks left to see the museum as it is, little changed since local teacher Greta Michie first created it in 1955. On August 29 the Retreat closes and so does a rich chapter in the glen’s history.

“If you have ever thought of visiting, go now. If you’ve never been, hurry there now,” said Maria MacDonell of the Glenesk Trust.

“Who knows what the future holds? We can only hold on to the past as we speed through the present towards the unknown. If you care a little, or a lot, a donation of any size will help to save this unique and very important collection.”