College buildings could be used to store thousands of old museum artefacts

UHI Shetlands Lerwick campus.

Part of UHI Shetland’s Lerwick campus could be used to store old museum artefacts, a meeting heard.

An SIC official confirmed at today’s (Monday) policy and resources committee meeting that the college buildings in Gremista had been identified for the project following an extensive options appraisal assessment. 

The council has been seeking a new premises to store the museum store for the past two years after it emerged the current site in Staney Hill, Lerwick, was running out of space.

It houses around 185,000 items that were once displayed in the Shetland Museum and Archives, ranging from archaeological artefacts to old clothes.

At today’s meeting, questions were asked why the project had taken so long – and why an update to members stated it was still at the stage where the project’s scope was being identified,

Architectural team leader Neil Clubb, who has been involved in the project, acknowledged there was some “frustration” at the pace of progress.

However, he said the college campus had now been identified – and he was trying to progress work.

Mr Clubb noted the project was dependent on UHI Shetland’s strategy to relocate from the Lerwick campus and operate exclusively from Scalloway.

Shetland Central councillor Moraig Lyall said she was “somewhat surprised” to learn about the storage plans as she understood the campus building had been “earmarked for other purposes”.

The council official later confirmed just part of the campus had been identified for the storage project and other uses would continue to be sought,