Adventures at Bogbain

BRUCE MACGREGOR is best know as one of Scotland’s leading folk fiddlers, but has been diversifying his interests in the heritage centre currently evolving on the family farm at Bogbain on the outskirts of Inverness.

NORTHINGS caught up with Bruce down on the farm to check out what is going on there, with particular emphasis on the developing music and arts activities.

NORTHINGS: Bruce, most readers will immediately think of Blazin’ Fiddles when your name is mentioned, but a lot of your time now is being invested in the Adventure and Heritage park at your dad’s farm. How did this project get started?

BRUCE MACGREGOR: My father wanted to preserve the buildings more than anything else. He grew up on the farm down the hill, and used to play up here. He had been collecting vintage machinery for decades, and was keen to do something with that as well. He went through a few ideas without settling on anything.

Lisa [Bruce’s wife] and myself used to bring the boys up here and they would spend hours just playing in the sand pit, nothing fancier than that, and we thought maybe there is something we could do here for kids.

We went and looked at some other places around the UK, including one called Diggerland where kids get to play with real diggers, and some farms that had gone down the adventure or heritage route. Some places didn’t allow the visitors to touch the exhibits, but of course the kids are desperate to do that. Lisa and I are both history graduates, and have a real interest in local history, and my dad has as well, so we started putting all these things together to see what we could realistically do.

Getting the activities up and running seemed the best way to get the ball rolling. That was four years ago, and we started with a sand pit and four go-karts. It was another year or so before we built the café and shop. We spent the first couple of summers working out what people wanted and losing lots of money, but we felt that the site was so good and Inverness was changing so fast that there was a niche for something that would connect people with the agricultural and social history of the area. We are keen to get people out and enjoying the countryside.

N: You have recently started running gigs in the café – was that an obvious progression?

BM: Yes, it seemed an obvious tie-in given who I am, but people interested in history and local culture are often interested in music as well, so it was a natural development in that sense too. We have done some talks in here as well.

It really started when myself, Sandy Brechin and Brian Ó hEadhra were setting up a tour for ourselves, and we had a spare Wednesday night. We had half-thought about doing something here – we had done birthday parties and cèilidhs already, so we thought let’s just go for it and see what happens. I’d say it was the best night of the tour. It was packed, and actually too warm, but the atmosphere was great – it has a nice ambiance in the place.

Two days after we decided to do that one I saw that Tim O’Brien was touring and looking for dates. I contacted his agent and he confirmed that Tim was looking for small venues to play. I told him he wouldn’t find one that was any smaller than this! The Groanbox Boys are also on tour, and they fancied coming here, so that is the next couple of gigs coming up, and Mick West has just played here. The deal at this stage is they take the door, and we put them up.

A trio is probably the maximum we can sensibly do in here, but I’ll doubtless be proved wrong on that at some point!

We have a music session every Sunday afternoon in here as well that people can join in, and the idea behind that was that most sessions happen in pubs at night, and kids can’t really go to them. They are very welcome at ours, and if they want to run about outside, their parents can enjoy the music. They have been very popular.

N: You also have a hands-on visual arts room, Artseze. How does that work?

BM: We were friends with Louise Ross, who ran Ceramic Experience out in Cawdor. We needed something indoors for both parents and kids that would be a bit more relaxing than some of the outdoor activities, and a bit more artistically based.

They can do ceramics, glass painting, jewellery-making, and t-shirt painting. Some people have come in as groups of various kinds, and others just as individuals. It’s open seven days a week, although it can get pretty busy at the weekend.

We feel there are more things that can be developed within that space as we go along. I did some fiddle classes as well, but just didn’t have the time to continue, but we’d be happy to provide the facility if someone else wanted to take something like that on.

We sell jewellery and craftwork in the shop that is made by local or Highland-based artists, and our general principle with everything we sell in the shops, especially the food, is that it be as locally produced as possible. We try to make as much as possible here on site for the restaurant as well.

N: You attracted a bit of national publicity recently with the unique collection of accordions that is now on display at Bogbain. How did that come about?

BM: Caroline Hunt, the woman who collects the accordions, came to a cèilidh that we had in the café here. She just came up to me and said she had this large accordion collection, and had been looking for somewhere to display it. She thought this would be an ideal place, and we thought well, nothing ventured… .

She arrived in January with the first batch of them, and that is what is on show at the moment, although it’s only a part of her collection – she has another 200 or so. I showed her some of the areas here that we still have to develop that would make it possible eventually to expand the collection, and that is part of the longer term plan.

The instruments make a good display because they have visual as well as musical interest. She has a replica of the earliest accordion, the sheng from China, which doesn’t look like an accordion. There are instruments that go back to the 1840s, and she has accordions from Poland, Japan, Germany, Czech Republic, and France. There is a case of little children’s accordions in the café as well. None of the ones on show are in playable condition, but we do intend to add a few that people can have a go on as well.

There are bigger collections than Caroline’s, but not with the same range as hers – not according to Caroline, anyway! It’s probably quite an unexpected thing to come across at a heritage farm, but it fits in with what we are trying to do here.

N: How do you see the farm developing?

BM: We would like to create a very interactive, hands-on experience here centred on the agricultural heritage of the area. We would like to create a filmed archive preserving people’s memories of all aspects of local life, and an exhibition area that would also double as a theatre.

We have a lot more space that we can develop if we can raise the funding, and we would like to create a social history archive for the area that would be accessible not only to the public, but also to schools. That is a big development, but it is what we are working towards.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2008

Links

• Bogbain Adventure & Heritage Farm