Mystery donor chips in £600k to save geologist's ancient birthplace

The birthplace of geologist Hugh Miller in Cromarty, now run as a museum, faced closure last year and was forced to cut staff and opening hours to save money.

It was one of six National Trust for Scotland properties given a reprieve after being earmarked for closure.

Now the landmark cottage and museum have been given a further shot in the arm by the donation in memory of three of Hugh Miller's direct descendants, his great-great-granddaughters the late Marian McKenzie Johnston, Bright Gordon and Lydia Clarke.

The sisters were born as Middletons, granddaughters of Sir Thomas Middleton of Rosefarm, Cromarty, whose wife Lydia was Hugh Miller's granddaughter. The Middletons have farmed in The Black Isle for more than 200 years, with Bright Gordon being the last of the line.

The gift will create a special Middleton Fund to be used solely to pay for staffing the museum and keeping it open. A trust spokeswoman said: "This is a significant donation which will go a long way to secure the future of this important property."

The trust said it would shortly reinstate a full-time curator/manager, and restore seven-day opening during the summer season from next year.

It also said it will continue to work closely with the Friends of Hugh Miller support group to ensure new initiatives and programmes can be developed.

Hugh Miller (1802-1856) was a 19th-century polymath born in what was then a 100-year-old Cromarty cottage.

Known for his mop of red hair, he started work as a stonemason. While working in quarries in the Black Isle he developed his lasting interest in geology and became a self-taught expert who later won international fame.

His collection of 6,000 fossils became the core of the Scottish national collection in the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh.

He was also a renowned historian, writer, journalist, social commentator and folklorist. His books, such as The Old Red Sandstone, The Cruise of the Betsey and Footprints of the Creator, became bestsellers and helped raise interest in natural science.

As an evangelical Christian, Miller also played a key role in the disruption that led to the establishment of the Free Church.

He was also involved in aggressive debate with often fervent religious opponents in the columns of his newspaper, The Witness, which he edited for 15 years.

Although ferocious in print, he was intensely shy and introverted and was plagued with silicosis all his life because of his work as a stonemason.

He eventually killed himself with a single shot to his chest on Christmas Eve, 1856, at his Portobello home.

His birthplace was bought back from private ownership by the National Trust for Scotland in 1995 for 55,000 and in 1997 it decided to convert it into a museum.

Last month, the cottage was re-thatched at a cost of 3,000 for the first time since 1977, using reeds imported from a Turkish riverbed after the roof started leaking last year.

The National Trust for Scotland had undergone one of the biggest shake-ups in its history to try to reverse a financial crisis threatening its survival.

George Reid, the former presiding officer at the Scottish Parliament, carried out an investigation into how the organisation was run and found a "gridlocked" 1920s governance style and a set-up that was not sustainable.

He called for the trust to concentrate on a smaller core of key properties, with management partnerships to be examined in others.