Museums & Art Galleries News
28/11/2023
Caithness Community Have A Whale Of A Time At North Coast Visitor Centre
High Life Highland's Countryside Ranger's gave members of the public an exciting opportunity to ‘dive in' to the world of marine wildlife at the North Coast Visitor Centre recently. The ‘Whale and Dolphin Watching’ presentation took place on Wednesday 15th November at 11am, and was well attended by the local Caithness community.
8/10/2023
Families Were Crammed Together 'Like Herring In A Barrel' During Wick Fishing Boom
Wick's herring-fishing boom is considered to have been a time of great prosperity for the town - but those living in unsanitary conditions in the streets around the harbour faced a daily struggle with poverty, overcrowding and disease. The hardships endured by families crammed "cheek by jowl" in the Lower Pulteneytown area have been highlighted by Caithness poet and playwright George Gunn in a new recording for Wick Voices, the oral history section of the Wick Society.
22/11/2022
North Coast Visitor Centre Achieves 4 Star Status
The North Coast Visitor Centre in Thurso has achieved a four star award by VisitScotland's quality assurance scheme in its first year of operation. Set in the former Thurso Town Hall and Carnegie Library, the visitor centre includes a museum featuring Caithness history, in addition to an art gallery, a shop and cafe.
26/10/2022
Spirit Of The Highlands & Islands Portal Big Hit At North Coast Visitor Centre
The Spirit of the Highlands and Islands 360 degree immersive portal experience has been declared a ‘big hit' with visitors to the North Coast Visitor Centre this October school Holidays. The Spirit of the Highlands and Islands project is a partnership project between The Highland Council and High Life Highland, and is delivered in collaboration with VisitScotland.
14/10/2021
Former "Caithness Horizons" Facility Set To Relaunch As The North Coast Visitor Centre From November 2021
The re-launch of the former Caithness Horizons centre in Thurso is set to take place on Tuesday, 2 November 2021, with the facility being rebranded as the North Coast Visitor Centre. Its relaunch will bring back into use a valuable community asset and support the wider community and economic benefit for Thurso and the wider Caithness Area.
28/2/2019
Highland Council In Talks To Reopen Caithness Horizons
Talks have taken place on the possibility of reopening Thurso's Caithness Horizons which closed last week due to financial problems. The operators of the museum and art gallery said increasing running costs and reduced income had made the running of the site "unsustainable".
24/1/2018
Caithness Horizons Cuts Manager Post And Reduces Curator Hours
Uncertainty over funding from Highland council. Caithness Horizons, which tells the story of the county of Caithness from 416 million years ago to the present day, has deleted its manager post and cut its curator's hours from 40 to 20 hours a week in anticipation of funding cuts.
5/1/2018
Caithness And North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership - Update
Week Commencing 1st January 2018. Energy & business services: 2018 promises to be another year of exciting change in the energy sector, and to highlight how things have progressed in the north the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm team have produced a short booklet outlining the significant milestones that have been achieved during 2017 - you can access the booklet at https://www.beatricewind.com/single-post/2017/12/22/lookingbackat2017 .24/8/2015
Growing Pains - Running A Craft Business
Thursday 10 September, 12.45 -16.30 Caithness Horizons, Thurso (Please note that lunch is not provided, however you are welcome to have lunch at The Caithness Horizons Cafe prior to the event) Running a craft practice is addictive - there is always more to try, new ideas to explore and projects to develop. Growing your business allows you to confidently pursue these exciting new opportunities to strengthen your profile, expand your range of customers and generate healthy profits.
13/8/2015
Caithness Horizons Museum welcomes half a million visitors.
Tuesday 11th August saw local group No Limits Caithness visit the Museum for a morning packed with Viking activities with Curator Joanne Howdle, or Thordis Eiríksdóttir as she is fondly known to local groups and schools. The group helped the Museum to hit the half million visitors mark and to celebrate they were presented with a special cake made in the Museum's cafe.
7/7/2015
Scientists from around the world gather in Caithness for conference
Scientists from around the world recently gathered in Thurso for an annual biological sciences meeting. The Larwood Symposium was hosted by the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) of the North Highland College UHI on behalf of the International Bryozoology Association.
28/6/2015
Caithness Horizons Museum retains five star Visit Scotland grading for 7th year in a row
Caithness Horizons Museum in Thurso has recently been reviewed by Visit Scotland grading authority and are delighted to keep its Five Star Visitor Attraction status for a seventh year running. The news comes shortly after receiving a Certificate Of Excellence from Trip Advisor earlier in the month.7/12/2014
Reactor control room moves to a new home
Last week saw the last of the Dounreay Materials Testing Reactor (DMTR) control room panels shipped off site and transferred to their new home in local five-star visitor attraction Caithness Horizons. The control room panels and control desk have been donated to Caithness Horizons and reconstructed at the museum to form the basis of a new permanent exhibition representing Dounreay's significant part in Scotland's industrial heritage.
11/4/2014
Visitor Enquiries See Big Rise At Thurso VisitScotland
Relocated VisitScotland information service sees 55% increase in visitor enquiries. A full year on from the relocation of the Thurso VisitScotland information service to Caithness Horizons has seen a 55% increase in footfall.19/9/2012
Family activity day at Dunnet's Seadrift Visitor Centre
Science O3, the organising charity behind the annual Caithness International Science Festival, will be collaborating with The Highland Council Countryside Rangers to present a fun-filled family activity day at Dunnet's Seadrift Visitor Centre on Saturday, 29th September 2012. The day of workshops, talks and walks, led by the Highland Council's Countryside Rangers, will highlight the biodiversity of Caithness and allow people of all ages to learn more about the wonderful world of birds, bush craft, whales, bats and basket making.
Unique Handmade Paper, Cards, Wrappers, Boxes For Christmas
On now in Caithness Horizons gallery untill 11th December: ' Paper Wrappers and Herbarium Sheets'. All inspired by Robert Dick, Baker and Botanist of Thurso 1811-1866.
6/10/2011
Caithness Horizons Staff Gain Cultural & Heritage Award
A group of five staff members from Caithness Horizons have successfully completed an EDI National Award in Cultural and Heritage Venue Operations. Caithness Horizons is the only museum in the Highlands to have staff that have achieved this award.
10/11/2009
PDA in Digital Imaging - FREE Course At Wick
As reported in July this year, The North Highland College (NHC) and The Wick Society formed a partnership to digitise the Johnson Collection, owned by the Wick Society. The Johnson collection is an invaluable historical photographic archive in excess of 50,000 glass-plate negatives taken by successive generations of the Johnson family between 1863 and 1976 capturing the social and industrial history of Caithness, in particular the impact of the herring fishing industry.
14/7/2009
Caithness Broch Centre Opens Saturday 25th July
The Caithness Broch Centre opens to the public on Saturday 25 July with a day of activities and talks. The centre, based in Auckengill Old School, takes over where the Northlands Viking Centre left off some three years ago.
2/12/2008
