Undiscovered Scotland

 

Tarves Heritage Centre can be found in the corner of the attractive square in the heart of Tarves in Aberdeenshire. It occupies part of a Victorian school building that dates back to 1837.

What you find inside is a lovely local museum that is rather larger than seems possible from the outside and is well worth travelling to visit. The heritage centre opened in 2004 and the range of exhibits, especially in the main exhibition room, is changed from time to time, meaning that what you see on your visit may not be the same as we saw and photographed on ours.

Entrance is via the gateway to the right of the old petrol pump outside the building. Beyond the door is a reception area with a warm welcome and you then move through to other rooms in the heritage centre.

 

There are three main exhibition rooms. The smallest of them is set up as a replica kitchen from the 1950s or 1960s and includes Belfast sinks with a hand mangle and many more interesting curios from the era. Some visitors will be old enough to remember some of these things in use.

The biggest surprise is the recreated Victorian classroom at the rear of the centre. This has a real period feel and is used for living history sessions with local schools. When we visited the main exhibition room was set out to recreate a local shop famous for selling "everything from a needle to a camel". Again, the contents evoked lots of memories.