Visitor numbers at new Highland Archive Centre increase by almost half in first year

Visitors to The Highland Council’s Highland Archive Centre have increased significantly during the first full year of operation at the new state-of-the-art purpose-built premises at the Bught in Inverness.

Figures released by the Council’s Archives Service have shown that during 2010/2011, visits to the Archive search room (where readers have access to original records dating from the fifteenth century, including estate papers and family archives, church records, valuation rolls and Ordnance Survey sheets) have increased by almost half (49%).

Just over one quarter (26%) of visitors to the Archive Searchroom came from outwith the Highlands (18% from Scotland/UK and 8% from USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

Similarly, visits to the Family History Centre by people consulting the Council’s Genealogists, researching clan history or consulting census records increased by almost one third (31%).

Over one third (34%) of visitors to the Family History Centre came from outwith the Highlands (20% from Scotland/UK; and 14% from USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

Welcoming the increased use of the Council’s Archive and Genealogy Services at the Highland Archive Centre, Councillor Bill Fernie, Chairman of the Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee said: “The demand and popularity of local and family history research is borne out in this significant increase in usage figures.

“This encouraging uptake in use has been achieved following relocation in 2009 from Inverness Library to the new Heritage Lottery Fund supported facility at the Bught. The Archive Service has since been able to expand its operation, open longer for the public and provide its valuable archives with in-house conservation treatment and secure storage accommodation in environmentally controlled repositories. The latter fact has enabled the Church of Scotland Kirk Session records for the Highlands to return north from the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.

“Analysis of the visitor figures for the Highland Archive and Genealogy Services has also shown the impact that the new facility and service is having on attracting people researching their family history to the Highlands from elsewhere in the UK and overseas from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.”

The Archive Centre is open to the public free of charge. Staff are on hand to advise visitors on which information sources will best meet their research needs.  On Wednesdays from 3 to 7pm a drop-in session, “Archives for Beginners”, runs for anyone seeking to develop a new or existing interest in Highland history.  To book a space, contact Peter Mennie, Assistant Archivist, at the Archive Centre on tel: 01463 256444 or email: archives@highland.gov.uk

The Archive search room is open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 10am to 5pm, Wednesday 10am to 7:30pm and closed on Fridays.  The Family History Centre is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10am to 5pm and on Wednesday 10am to 7:30pm.

For further information visit the Council’s website at: http://www.highland.gov.uk/archives.htm