Culture Secretary agrees to meet Caithness Broch Project

The Culture Secretary will visit the Caithness Broch Project, the pioneering heritage charity behind ambitious plans to build the world’s first full-scale, historically accurate broch in 2,000 years.

Far North MSP David Green, a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, took the opportunity during an evidence session with the Culture Secretary this week to invite her to meet volunteers in Caithness and explore “what support the government can lend.”

Màiri McAllan MSP, the Culture Secretary, said she needed “no convincing to visit Caithness.” She added: “In fact, I often say that Latheronwheel Harbour is the closest place to heaven on Earth, as far as I am concerned. So yes, I should be very glad to.”

Welcoming the news, Pete Macrae, Chair of the Caithness Broch Project, said: “We are grateful to David Green MSP for bringing the Caithness Broch Project to the attention of Cabinet Secretary Màiri McAllan.”

He added: “It follows the First Minister extending his good wishes to us when we met him earlier in the summer. We would be delighted to host the Culture Secretary on a visit to Caithness and update her on the progress of our ambitious plan to build the first broch in over 2,000 years as an iconic attraction for the county.”

Following the exchange, Caithness, Sutherland and Ross MSP David Green added: “I am grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for agreeing to visit the Caithness Broch Project, as I did this summer.

“The project could be game-changing. A reconstructed broch has the potential to become a major cultural hub and tourist attraction, celebrating the exceptional archaeological landscape of Caithness. The opportunity to build a broch using the same tools and techniques as the original builders is also a significant opportunity to deepen our understanding of our past.”

Mr Green also pressed the Cabinet Secretary on the location of the government’s proposed new National Performing Company for Traditional Music. Four of the five current National Performing Companies are based in the central belt, while the National Theatre of Scotland is famously the “theatre without walls.”

Speaking at the committee, the Liberal Democrat MSP said: “I imagine a lot of my constituents would probably argue that the Highlands and Islands is, certainly for much of traditional music, the spiritual home. Would the government be looking to explore the Highlands and Islands as a physical destination, as a physical home, for this new performing company?”

The Cabinet Secretary, who also acknowledged the case by Mr Green that support for culture must be considerate of geographic barriers, indicated that those proposals had been put to her and that she would “certainly be mindful of locations.”

ENDS