Cromarty is preparing to celebrate one of the Black Isle’s most remarkable sons as Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Cottage and Museum marks the 224th anniversary of his birth with a weekend devoted to fossils, science and history.
Hugh Miller’s Big Birthday Weekend takes place on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October, bringing fossil handling, living history, science experiments and geological expertise to the Highland town where Miller was born in 1802.
Miller packed an extraordinary amount into his life, becoming a celebrated writer and reporter, an important early palaeontologist and a founding figure in the Free Church of Scotland, while his work eventually earned praise from Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens.
His fascination with the rocks and fossils of the Black Isle helped take geology beyond the scientific establishment and into the lives of ordinary readers, something the National Trust for Scotland museum hopes to continue more than two centuries after his birth.
James Ryan, Visitor Services Supervisor at Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Cottage and Museum, said:
“Hugh Miller’s Big Birthday Weekend aims to celebrate everything that made Hugh Miller the great man he was.
“Visitors are invited to experience fossil handling, living history talks inside his birthplace cottage, and science experiments in our museum gardens.”
Ryan said Miller possessed a particular gift for making science understandable and interesting to a much wider audience, an approach which will be reflected throughout the birthday weekend.
He said:
“One of Hugh Miller’s greatest talents was his ability to bring science to a wider audience, making it more accessible.
“We are continuing this work through events like these, with interactive science experiments, collaboration with the groups such as the Highland Geological Society and talks with our visitors about Scotland’s amazing geology.”
Members of the Highland Geological Society will bring some of their own collection to Cromarty and offer visitors the chance to have mysterious rocks and fossils examined by people who know exactly what they are looking at.
Ryan added:
“Members of the Highland Geological Society will display some of their own collection and host a rock identification event.
“If you have a rock or fossil in your house that you have always wanted to identify, this is your best opportunity to have it be seen by real experts!”
One of the museum’s rarest treasures will also make an appearance, with a copy of Miller’s The Old Red Sandstone being displayed to mark 185 years since the publication of his first work exploring the fossils of the Black Isle.
It will be shown alongside fossils which have never previously been displayed, adding something particularly special to a weekend celebrating a man whose curiosity about the landscape around his Cromarty home helped carry his name around the world.
All of the birthday weekend activities are included with admission to Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Cottage and Museum, making 10 and 11 October an opportunity to meet the man behind the famous name through the rocks, words and ideas he left behind.
