Hay’s Dock, Lerwick, Shetland, now open 2007

The new Shetland Museum and Archives.

WELL BEFORE you get to the actual exhibits, Shetland’s new Museum and Archives showcases a dynamic dialogue between past and present.

Its very location, at a restored Victorian boatyard that was once the busiest in Lerwick – itself the busiest port in Britain a century ago, at the height of the herring boom – embodies a key element in the history it seeks to illustrate.

Protected by the rebuilt finger pier of Hay’s Dock, the striking contemporary design of the building itself – by award-winning Glasgow architects BDP – not only evokes the shapes of ships’ sails and Iron Age brochs, but makes extensive use of recycled materials and traditional craftsmanship.

Once inside, for instance, the first thing you’ll encounter is an imposing reception desk fashioned by artist Stuart Hill from the keel of a 19th-century German merchantman, the ‘Elenore Von Flotow’, which was discovered buried in mud during excavation of the dock.

You’ll be standing, meanwhile, on weathered flagstones salvaged from all areas of Shetland, whose differing colours and textures point towards the islands’ turbulent geological history, explored in the first of the main displays.

Stone for the building itself was similarly gleaned from demolition work, and the drystane walls enclosing the “Early People” displays were particularly aptly sourced, from ongoing excavations at Old Scatness Broch, near the southern tip of Shetland, currently the biggest archaeological dig in Britain.

Wooden flooring, shelving, and all wrought-iron fixtures feature reclaimed materials, while the entrance walkway is paved with Enviroglass, a stone-like surface made from recycled bottles, which has been patented by the museum’s proprietors, Shetland Amenity Trust.

Besides having won an official Scottish Executive commendation for sustainable architectural practice, these elements imbue the museum with tremendous warmth and character, qualities often lacking in brand-new buildings.

In constructing the main displays, curators have adopted an essentially narrative-based approach, with material arranged into twelve themed zones. While the overall sequence is chronological, some sections – such as “Harvest From the Sea” or “Home and Land” – take a more trans-historical approach, emphasising the continuities as well as the changes in Shetland life.

The sheer diversity of objects on display immediately gives a flavour of the islands’ richly layered and distinctive history, from rare Pictish carvings to whalers’ harpoons; delicate hand-knitted lace to a cast-iron “grøtti kettle”, used for boiling up fish livers; 19th-century oil-paintings to a reconstructed replica of the now-extinct indigenous Shetland pig, or grice.

Among the larger exhibits are a life-sized model of an 18th century croft-house, a 1933 Singer Le Mans sports car and a working lighthouse optic, while in the building’s structural centrepiece, the 20-metre-high Boat Hall, hang five restored or retired craft showing the development of boatbuilding in Shetland since Viking times, viewable from upstairs galleries.

Complementing the historic artefacts are numerous other reconstructions and replicas, including a disconcertingly lifelike model of a 5200-year-old Shetland woman, created by forensic facial reconstruction from a skull found near Sumburgh Airport in 1977.

Younger visitors are well catered for with plenty of hands-on opportinuties and interactive installations, not least a specially-constructed “trowie knowe”, purportedly the customary abode of Shetland’s little people, or trows, as well as a ring of traditional storytelling chairs.

With such a long, wide-ranging and eventful story to tell – Shetland having been inhabited since around 5000BC, subsequently undergoing periods of Pictish, Viking, Norwegian, Scottish, and finally UK rule, all the while fostering its own unique culture – it would be easy for such variety to start seeming scattershot.

Both main themes and sub-plots, however, have been assiduously and imaginatively thought through, with materials arranged such that the whole retains an admirable clarity and coherence, even as the layout invites you to meander down any number of fascinating byways.

Should you wish to pursue any of these further, professional and amateur researchers alike are welcome to step along to the archive section of the building, which now houses Shetland’s collection of some 120,000 historical documents, photographs and sound-recordings in state-of-the-art storage facilities, as well as holding probably the world’s biggest library of Shetland-related books.

The working boat sheds adjacent to the main building are another of the museum’s unique features, offering visitors the chance to watch shipwrights in action, restoring a variety of Shetland vessels. Already back home on the slipway is the ‘Loki’, a former herring drifter originally built at Hay’s Dock in 1904, which will eventually take passengers on cruises around the harbour. The boats sheds will also house a variety of other traditional craft demonstrations.

The museum’s emphasis on promoting Shetland’s present-day culture as well as its past is reflected by a major investment in contemporary art and crafts. An open invitation to submit ideas was issued to artists both within and beyond the islands, and the resulting commissions are plentifully on display throughout the building.

The inaugural exhibition in the gallery space, Da Gadderie, features an array of work created in Shetland itself, while other pieces are permanently installed among the musuem exhibits. Outside, in front of the main entrance, stands Lulu Quinn’s intriguing sound-sculpture, ‘Shetland Receivers’, and even the tables in the Hay’s Dock Café Restaurant, with its stunning panoramic view over the water, feature individual inset art or craft panels.

Eight years in the planning, and with a final price tag of around £12 million, the museum and archives project was always freighted with high expectations. Now that it’s launched, however – and with suitable royal fanfare, by Prince Charles, Camilla, and Queen Sonja of Norway at last month’s official opening – there’s no disputing the arrival of a stunning new cultural flagship for Scotland’s far north, of which Shetlanders can justly be proud.

© Sue Wilson, 2007

Links

• Shetland Museum and Archives