Tuesday 8 July 2008

The Muse in Museums ii

Armadale

While I was on Skye, I visited the Clan Donald Centre at Armadale, with its Study Centre and award winning Museum of the Isles. The museum incorporates poetry, including the work of six Gaelic poets by the name of MacDonald. The poems are interwoven into the 'tartan fabric' of the display, which covers a spread of several centuries. It is not so much that the poems help us to interpret the significance of individual objects, but rather that they enhance the viewer's overall experience of the museum and the story it sets out to tell.

There is an excellent virtual tour of the museum on the Armadale site. A beautifully produced glossy guide is available. It includes a number of the poems. I particularly like the poetic construction of Clan Donald's Incitement to Battle on the Day of the Battle of Harlaw, 1411 by Lachlainn Mor MacMhurich.

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