A contractor has been announced for a heritage centre in a Wester Ross village.
Gairloch Heritage Museum took control of a former anti-aircraft operations room as part of a £2.4million project.
Now, contractors Elmwood Projects Ltd, who specialise in kitting out museums and heritage centres, have been awarded the contract to undertake shopfitting works to house the new exhibitions.
Karen Buchanan, museum curator, said: “From next week until mid-June we are going to go through a pretty hectic fit-out process where the likes of set works, cases, audio and visual aids will all come together.
“It is a very exciting time.
“It is fairly controlled and we have prepared well. All objects are ready to go over and we have a programme in place with lots of volunteers to hand these over to the mount makers.
“We are proceeding in a planned and orderly manner. Over the course of the next eight weeks, we are going to see the museum take shape. A building is a building but what we are building is a museum and it is now time to get it looking like a museum.”
In total, the contract for the shopfitting works is worth £151,606.
Ryan Carlton, business development manager of Elmwood, said: “We are very excited about the opportunity to undertake this project in the north of Scotland and we were delighted to hear of the project before the tendering process.
“We are honoured to be entrusted to be able to work in this environment, which we have done before in historic and grade one listed buildings, so we really understand the challenges and responsibilities.
“We are looking forward to respecting the extensive history, as well as adding to it where possible by working closely with the developer.”
The newly renovated building will become home to around 7,000 years of local history, telling of Gairloch’s earliest settlers, to the twentieth-century engineering marvels of the Rubh Re lighthouse lens.
Work to transform the nuclear bunker into a spectacular new home for Gairloch Heritage has been underway since January last year, with the organisation hoping to open its doors later this year around June time.
