00:00I'm Sam Gallagher. I'm Director of Scottish Historic Buildings Trust. I'm with my colleague
00:04Elberthoone, who is our Development and Engagement Officer. We're standing outside of the Leadhay
00:11Croft Museum's winnowing barn, which collapsed a couple of years ago due to snowfall. It's
00:17an incredibly unique building. In fact, we think it is the last surviving thatched building
00:22in Caithness, which you can actually get inside. So, a building of this importance, it's only
00:29natural that Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, as the National Building Preservation Trust,
00:33would want to help. And we're working with the Lapin and Leadhay Trust to make sure that this
00:37building isn't lost. We've brought together a great group of specialists who are working carefully
00:44to understand how this building was put together. Over the last couple of weeks, they've taken down
00:49very carefully the collapsed thatch and turf and crock-framed roof, which contains parts of an old
00:55herring boat. And they've recorded it with an archaeologist to make sure that we understand how
01:00to put it back together. Over the winter, we'll be looking at the information that we've gathered
01:04to make sure we get the specification accurate. And we can't wait next spring, when the Thatcher returns,
01:10and the roofer returns, to put it all back together. And we will restore this gem of Caithness'
01:15heritage for future generations. My family, they were certainly here in 1831, we believe. They were
01:23on the census then. So we think that's about when the buildings were built as well, shortly before that.
01:29And my family crossed it here until 1968, I believe is when it's sold. So all of my family are
01:36from
01:36Dunbeef. There's a very strong family connection here. And it's really cool to be working on this project now.
01:42Yeah, it's amazing. I've been visiting it since I was a child. I remember going into the museum as a
01:49small kid, not being allowed to touch anything, being fascinated by it. And it's been really quite
01:54sad that it's, every time we've driven past recently, and the roof's being collapsed, it's just,
02:00it's really sad. So it's really nice that it's actually happening, and we're getting momentum,
02:04and we're fixing it. And we're preserving this piece of history that's, I mean, it's unique to Caithness,
02:09but it's also really important to me, specifically, and my family. So yeah, it's fantastic.
02:13Yeah, so the Laffan and Laid Hay Trust, it's newly established, and they're hoping to take over
02:19control from the Caithness Voluntary Group. And they've got a long-term plan to open the Caithness
02:25Crofting Centre, which I think they've got a lot of ambitious plans. It's going to be a little bit of
02:31an educational hub, there's going to be sort of a tourist museum element to it. But there's three
02:36projects on this collection of sites. So there's restoring the barn first, it's sort of an emergency,
02:43as you can see, it needs to be done right now to save it. And then next is going to
02:46be the Laffan
02:47across the road, which is another croft that belongs to the Sinclairs. And that is also listed
02:52and really important. And that needs to be made wind and water tight and safe. And then we can look
02:57at
02:57restoring that and incorporating it into the museum as a whole. And then lastly, there's the actual
03:03Longhouse, which is over there. And that is a little bit of a time capsule at the moment. It's full
03:08of
03:09probably quite hidden gems that someone needs to go through and really look at what is there.
03:15And hopefully they're going to upgrade that a little bit and make it a little bit more accessible.
03:19And hopefully the long-term goal is for this to be a really attractive place for tourists to stop
03:26travelling the NC500, but also a bit of a hub for local people. There's plans to hopefully
03:32upgrade the tea room in the long term and have it as a little bit of a local hub.
