Call for new volunteers as Mary-Ann's Cottage gets set for summer
Additional volunteers are being sought to give a helping hand at Mary-Ann's Cottage when it opens for the 2022 summer season.
The historic attraction at Westside Croft, Dunnet, will be welcoming visitors on four afternoons a week from Tuesday, May 3.
Run by Caithness Heritage Trust, the cottage gives an insight into one family's life on a Caithness croft from the 1850s until 1990.
The croft had been worked by John Young, his son William and then his granddaughter Mary-Ann and her husband James Calder using traditional methods. When Mary-Ann moved to a care home in 1990, the trust was formed to preserve the cottage and its outbuildings.
The cottage had to remain closed throughout 2020 but was able to operate last summer with Covid-19 protocols in place.
The cottage will be open from Tuesday to Friday, from 2pm to 4.30pm.
Trust secretary Annette Sinclair, who is one of the volunteer guides, said: "If we happen to get enough volunteers we will look at another day."
There are 15 regular volunteers who welcome visitors and give tours of the cottage, along with six others who are on standby and will come in if called upon.
"We're all volunteers – there's no paid staff among us," Annette explained. "Because of Covid we made sure last year that we had three volunteers on every day, and we want to do the same this year – just to protect the volunteers.
"Things are different this year but we're all old and we just want to make sure that everybody stays safe."
The cottage was opened by the Queen Mother in 1993 and serves as a unique reminder of rural life as it used to be.
“We have kept everything as it was when Mary-Ann left," Annette said.
“Last year we had a visit from Mary-Ann's grandson and this year we're hoping he will come back. And we are hopeful that her granddaughter will make a visit this year.”
The cottage will be open from May until the end of September. The entry fee is £5 for adults, with no charge for under-16s.
Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer can get in touch with Caithness Heritage Trust by calling Annette on 01955 604180 or via the Mary-Ann's Cottage Facebook page.
The cottage is close to Dwarwick pier, where in 1955 Queen Elizabeth II stepped ashore in Caithness for the first time along with the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
