Museum on Scottish island to return relics to donors in 'great shame'

The museum tells the story of the largest clan in the world over 1,500 years.

A Scottish island museum is to break up its collection and return a number of items to their donors.

The Clan Donald Centre in Skye, which houses the Museum of the Isles and clan archive, is to be sold off along with Armadale Castle and several thousand acres of the Sleat Peninsula.

Skye's Armadale Castle, an ancestral seat of Clan Donald, is to be sold off - along with the museum that tells the clan story over 1,500 years. PIC: Getty. | Getty Images/iStockphoto

The museum tells the story of both the largest clan in the world, its rulership of the Kingdom of the Isles and life in the Highlands and Islands over 1,500 years.

The sale comes as the Clan Donald Lands Trust, which owns and runs the museum and castle as a visitor attraction, sells off its assets amid financial difficulties and the end to key funding from supporters in the United States.

READ MORE: ‘Betrayal, tragedy and sadness’ as clan castle and land sold off

Earlier, Lord Godfrey Macdonald, High Chief of Clan Donald, described the sale of the centre as a “tragedy for the clan and the local community” and called for a rethink.

The trust has insisted the museum and archive collection is “not for sale”, but said a review of items it holds would now get underway. Some of those items which have no direct clan link are to be returned or rehomed.

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Portraits of clan figures by Sir Henry Raeburn and Angelica Kauffman sit at the heart of the collection, along with weaponry, bagpipes, replica boats and Jacobite relics.

READ MORE: World’s largest clan sells of ancestral home amid financial pressures

A statement released by trustees said: “The museum collections are not for sale and this season they continue to be on display and well looked after. We are now looking at a number of different potential opportunities for the continuation of the CDLT [Clan Donald Lands Trust] collection being displayed to the clan and the general public.

“Over the years the museum has acquired a broad range of items, from papers to photos to artefacts. Many of these do not have a direct Clan Donald link and, due to space constraints, have never been on display.

“Depending on the collections review, items not staying with the trust will either be returned to lenders or will be rehomed in other museums. This will be a big job and will necessarily take a considerable time.”

The trust said it would retain the archive and library while creating a “world-class immersive, interactive digital platfrom” to display its collection. The trust announced the decision to sell the key assets of the castle, Clan Donald Centre and land, in late March.

The organisation said Armadale Castle, the ancestral seat of the clan, was no longer commercially viable.

The trust said the engagement between Armadale and the clan was declining, with only 2 to 3 per cent of visitors having a defined Clan Donald connection.

A statement said: “The number of clan members visiting each year is too low to justify the annual losses or the major investment and development necessary to potentially secure viability.”

Maggie Macdonald, an archivist who worked for the CDLT for more than 25 years, said it would be a “great shame” to disperse the collection and described the museum and archive as having both “national and local importance”.

She said: “They complement each other in terms of the information they provide and in their geographical and historical scope. They also relate to all levels of society, not just the clan chiefs and their families. Having all this publicly available outwith the Central Belt is also significant as it is relatively uncommon.

“These collections enabled the Clan Donald Lands Trust to fulfil one of its primary aims as set out in the original trust deed. This was to educate the general public, not just Clan Donald members, in the history of the clans.

“Given all this it would be a great shame to disperse the collections and thus reduce access to them. The old saying ‘there is no joy without Clan Donald’ now has a hollow ring to it.”