May 2026 Message from the Centre Manager: Sam Grove

Message from the Centre Manager – May 2026

The busy season is upon us, and we have been lucky with some sunny days in Portmahomack recently. April has certainly been a good start for us at the Discovery Centre with lots of events and the continued support of our brilliant volunteers and visitors alike. In fact we have seen renewed interest following the recent news of Thomas Keyes’ new project to recreate the Pictish vellum tank found during excavations here, sparking some interesting conversations about our collections. 

Though recently we have brought the focus to our more recent history. Our last talk was given by Susan Kruse from ARCH on their recent project investigating the presence of Norwegians in the area during World War 2. Of course we can’t forget their presence here in Portmahomack, which in 1943 was transformed into a Norwegian fishing village called Ournefjord for ‘Before the Raid’. This was a Second World War propaganda film about Norwegian fishermen resisting and outwitting Nazis occupying their village. Local people, British and Norwegian soldiers, and Norwegian fishermen were all involved in the production which remains a great source of pride in local memory. 

This continued with the opening of our new exhibition, ‘Richard Blosse: The Man Behind the Lens’. After 4 months of consistent work and planning by the cataloguing group we held an open day for visitors to come and view photographs, prints, and articles by Richard Blosse. Richard was a local figure who sadly passed away in 2014, and was well-known for taking remarkable photographs of the landscape, people, and life around the Tarbatness peninsula – including the archaeological dig here. He also volunteered a great amount of time at the Discovery Centre to create the Tarbat Photographic Archive, where he preserved and archived photos of Portmahomack and its residents in years gone by. This exhibition is a great chance to not only appreciate Richard’s work, but to see the area and our own history through a unique lens. The exhibition will remain on display over the coming months so do pop in to have a look.