The Hall of Clestrain, Orphir

A project to house an Orkney boat museum in the grounds of the Hall of Clestrain in Orphir was officially launched at a packed public meeting in Stromness on Wednesday, April 28.

The museum hopes to display up to 40 boats, showing 5,000 years of boatbuilding and will be part of a larger programme involving the restoration of the Hall of Clestrain – the family home of Arctic explorer John Rae, the man who discovered the fate of the Franklin expedition.

The project has been several years in the pipeline, according to Len Wilson, former boatbuilder and secretary of the Orkney Yole Association.

He is also a director of the boat museum project.

“It has been difficult finding a suitable site,” he said. “Up to date, my role has been really identifying exhibits.”

It is also hoped to have a boat shed and resident boatbuilder on site, Mr Wilson explained.

“It is important to have the skills in the county, so if anybody needs advice they can call on them. The plan is to advertise for an apprenticeship and involve a local boatbuilder and Orkney College.”

Including the history of John Rae allows them to “kill two birds with one stone” and detail the life of one of Orkney’s important sons in the home where he was born.

“We would like to see activities taking place near the museum,” Mr Wilson continued.

“We plan to put in a launching site. There is an old noust there and rocks where John Rae and others used to land. We are not going to disturb that – the slipway would be past it, a bit along the shore.”

The Hall of Clestrain stands one and a half stories high with a basement.

The house is harled with stone dressings and an elegantly-curved stair approaches a low, moulded doorway. But the property, which has been deserted for years, is in a derelict state, with most of the original interior destroyed.

Alongside the launch of the project in the Pier Arts Centre last night, there was also the launch of the Friends of Orkney Boat Museum.

Steve Callaghan, heritage officer at Orkney Islands Council, explained that the exhibits on offer could include a prehistoric oak log boat, Orkney yoles, Westray skiffs, flatties, dinghies and fifies and zulus from the herring industry.

While introducing the subject there could be links to other sites such as the Stromness Museum, Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum, Longhope Lifeboat Museum and others, Mr Callaghan said.

Other themes could include creels and inshore fishing, deep sea fishing, customs and smuggling, the Orkney pirate Pirate Gow, birds’ eggs collecting, lifeboats and lifesaving apparatus, shipwrecks and much more.

A former house on the site where the hall now stands was raided by John Gow in 1725, but his men left with very little. The treasure had been hidden under a pile of feathers in an attic room, while other valuables were concealed under the skirts of the lady of the house and her daughters.

But the property will be most remembered as the birthplace of John Rae on September 30, 1813.