Malton design firm to carry out renewal of major military museum

The museum is one of the most-visited military museums in the country and the project’s organisers aim to set a new UK standards for the presentation and interpretation of regimental history for the 21st Century.

Starting construction in summer 2018, the transformation project will follow a £2m Thin Red Line Appeal fundraising drive under the patronage of HRH The Earl of Strathearn, as Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge is known in Scotland.

In a contract worth £3.75m, set to complete in early 2019, Malton-based PLB will lead a team of specialist contractors to realise the Museum Trust’s ambition to “reinterpret the regimental museum for the current era” in the process attracting an extra 28,000 visitors per year. The museum is based in Stirling Castle’s A-listed 15th Century Royal Palace known as The King’s Old Buildings.

Addressing themes such as Empire, the rise and fall of heavy industry, and the changing role of the Scottish soldier from the Highland Clearances to peacekeeping in Northern Ireland, the new museum sets out to use The Argylls’ priceless collection of militaria, artefacts and archives to challenge preconceptions of a regimental museum for a new era.

Jamie McCall, creative director of PLB said: “The opportunity to work alongside The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders’ Regimental Museum was a project that PLB could not miss out on.

“Our plans include utilising the original architecture, whilst revisiting the spatial layout.”