MUSEUM FOR THE NORTH

Helmsdale: a place fashioned by necessity and opportunity, and transformed by travellers. An historic community displaced from the land, and replaced on the coast; a point of arrival for weary seafarers from ancient times to the present day, and the site of departure for hopeful mariners, and pioneering voyagers seeking a life in the new world. Helmsdale is a community of change…and of fortune sought on land and sea.

- Arabella Harvey “From Harbour to Hill”

Timespan is a contemporary arts and heritage centre in Helmsdale, which sits on the north-eastern coast of Scotland at the mouth of the Strath of Kildonan, a glacial river valley. The building houses a gallery space, an archive and a fascinating collection of historical objects that help to illustrate Helmsdale’s unique story and place in Scots heritage. Round Table Projects was commissioned by Timespan to work alongside innovative research and design collective Lateral North to curate a new museum space that explored Helmsdale’s place in a local and global context.

From Harbour to Hill tells the story of land use and occupation through the story of subsistence farmers who were displaced from the land to the coast during the infamous Highland Clearances, and who lived through the explosive growth and sudden decline of the herring boom.

A newly-written interpretative text contextualised the heritage of communities under the thematic headings of Salt, Brackish and Fresh Water.