In 2026 the West Highland Museum celebrates 100 years in|Cameron Square on Fort William High Street.
This year’s Summer exhibition, running from June – October 2026, focuses on a century of stories about our High Street.
Here volunteer Christine Falconer Thomas tells us a bit about her first experience curating a museum exhibition.
When I was asked by the Museum’s Board to put together an exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Museum’s presence on the High Street, I thought yes, no problem…. should take just a few weeks…. Boy was I wrong!! I’m still working on it 6 months later!
I was born in Fort William and have lived here most of my life and thought I knew all there was to know but it turns out I didn’t know very much at all.
I grew up in the sixties and seventies, but my familiarity with the high street, as it turns out, was very superficial. Initially I was only looking at the buildings and shops but was sucked into the social history of the town and the diverse communities and individuals that have come and gone over the years.
There were the Clans, the town superiors and landed gentry, the merchants and businessmen, tradesmen, the poor, and the civic leaders. Intellectuals and visionaries were prolific in the late 18th and early 19th century and so too were quality goods and provisions, which sadly are no longer available on the High Street today.
Battles and Wars have been fought; tourism had come and gradually people moved from the countryside into the town. Improved transport opened up trade, the Post Office allowed for improved communication through the post and subsequently the telephone and telegram …….. and the population continued to grow.
From peat houses through to the grand Victorian buildings, some of which have managed to survive, the High Street has many stunning buildings but has also lost many.
It’s been a fascinating journey, and I’ve met many people who have helped me along the way. In particular: family members of businesses that have sadly left the High Street, and those that are still here, only two, that is Ali Ness of the Granite House and Jamie Allan from Marshall & Pearson. All have provided me with information, stories, and photographs; some of the memorabilia is displayed in the exhibition.
I, as a hopeless collector of everything, used a lot of my own memorabilia. The memoirs of three former luminaries of the town were also very illuminating and humorous at the same time, so I’m grateful to Donald Cameron, Walter Cameron and Thomas Spence.
Much of the detail in the narratives that accompanies the exhibition has been gleaned from birth, marriage and Census certificates; the Valuation Sheets of the High Street; historical societies; Family trees; and from the West Highland Museum Collection. I’d like to thank Chris Robinson who has been invaluable in verifying the detail.
Christine Falconer Thomas
