Biggar’s £2.2m museum will open this month

And the opening will be the culmination of four years of work and fundraising by volunteers.

Biggar Museums Trust managed to raise a total of £2.2 million to buy the derelict garage site in the High Street and turn it into a state-of the art museum, which is now replacing Moat Park and Gladstone Court museums.

And Gladstone Court’s alleyway of little shops is retained.

Displays begin with the geology of the area, the rocks formed 400 million years ago, and move on to the archaeology, with prehistoric tools and even a knapping seat where Stone Age people sat to chip stone into tools, discovered by Biggar Archaeology Group.

“Archaeology has become a very significant factor because the group have discovered so much,” said Trustee Ann Matheson.

In the new building lights come on as people approach the displays, and wolves howl eerily around.

The museum volunteers are very proud of one exhibit: Thankerton man – the reconstructed head of a 4000-year-old Bronze Age young man found in cist burial at Thankerton.

Now volunteers are needed to man the museum, running the shop and using modern payment systems. Training will be given; if interested call 01899 221050.

For more on the museum displays, pick up a copy of this week’s Carluke and Lanark Gazette