Have you ever passed Ard Neakie on Loch Eriboll and wondered about its purpose and past? Or climbed the Black Stairs without knowing Telford’s hand in their creation? The Venture North Heritage App will open your eyes to the richness of our past and take you on a tour of the many, varied and hugely significant sites populating Caithness and Sutherland. The app is available in both iOS and Android versions and can be found at iTunes and Google Play. Don’t have a smart phone? Don’t worry you can also access the database on our web version on the Venture North website. Just click the links to the side for your version and enjoy exploring!
How did the project come about?
In late 2012 at a Dounreay Socio-Economic Workshop the idea to create a heritage mobile app for Caithness and Sutherland was suggested as a way to overcome the lack of signage and interpretation at some of our wonderful heritage sites. The local heritage museums came together to discuss the proposal and Venture North, the local tourism cooperative, agreed to act as the umbrella body for the project. While Strathnaver Museum’s Fiona Mackenzie agreed to act as coordinator of all the heritage information from the huge range of heritage groups which operate in the area. Funding was successfully secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Sharing Heritage fund and from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Since then we have been busy compiling the information and uploading the database with lots of interesting sites for you to visit. We have received some wonderful suggestions already and we are also looking for some images to help show off all our wonderful sites. The app will allow you to search for sites based on preference, so wildlife, archaeological, family history etc or you can use GPS to see all the sites that are close by!
If you’d like to know more, or make sure your favourite site is included, or send us some of your snaps you can interact on our project Facebook or Twitter feed or email Fiona@Strathanver Museum.org.uk.
