About Timespan's Archive

Helmsdale Heritage and Arts Society, commonly known as Timespan, was founded in 1986 with the main aim of providing the community and visitors with an insight into the rich heritage of Helmsdale and its surrounding area.

The building, once a toll house and curing yard where fish were salted, barrelled and exported from the harbour, was made into a local museum displaying scenes of historical events and featuring a geology garden. In 1997 the cafe and gallery were added to the building to encourage more visits. Further significant redevelopment took place in 2007/8, and today the museum focuses on local history and displays information about the area’s early sites and monuments, clearances and emigration, river and sea fishing, as well as the Kildonan Gold Rush. Reconstructions of a croft house, byre, shop and smiddy demonstrate how people lived and worked over 100 years ago.

Timespan's art programming aims to bridge arts, heritage and community, and has held many art exhibitions with well known Scottish artists such as Dalziel + Scullion, Graham Fagan, Julia Douglas, Corin Sworn (Venice Biennial representative for Scotland 2013), Kenny Hunter and many artist’s residencies.

Information about Timespan's current exhibitions can be found on the website: http://timespan.org.uk

Timespan's archive has been an integral part of the organisation since its founding. Individuals and organisations with connections to the area have deposited their photographs and documents in the archive, research projects have generated new collections of material, and Timespan's own heritage and art activities have been documented in photographs, posters and flyers; the archive is a rich resource for the history of Helmsdale, Kildonan and Loth, and for the history of Timespan as an organisation.

Our collection includes:

  • Around 1200 original documents and photographs
  • Over 10,000 digital photographs
  • Copies of censuses, rentals, old parish registers, and other materials for genealogical research
  • Secondary literature on key subjects, including the Highland Clearances, the Kildonan Gold Rush, sea and river fishing
  • Information about projects undertaken by Timespan
  • Oral histories in audio and audio-visual format

The oldest item in our archive is a book dating from the late eighteenth century. The newest items are digital photographs of recent events in Helmsdale.

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