09/02/12 - Please click here - Laidhay Christmas Quiz answers - to check out any you couldn't get in our quiz. Thanks again to everyone for entering.
07/02/12 - Our three winners have been selected and will receive there prizes very soon. Thank you to everyone for entering, we hope you enjoyed it so much you will be waiting for our next quiz out at the beginning of April.
Unfortunately due to some current website problems, we are unable to upload the answers, however if you wish these please email enquiries@laidhay.co.uk and we will send the Christmas quiz answers PDF file to you.
31/01/12 - Right, all done for the Laidhay Christmas Quiz. Entries are in and the winner will be drawn shortly - good luck! We will also publish the answers here too - thanks to everyone for taking part, hope you enjoyed it and didn't find the quiz too hard..
24/01/12 - Last chance to get your entries in for the Laidhay Christmas Quiz. Get them returned by the 29th of January for your chance to win £10 and a Laidhay pen.. Good luck!
14/12/11 - The Laidhay Christmas Quiz is now out. Work out all 30 Christmas films and TV specials from the clues and win £10 (plus the top three entrants will also receive a Laidhay pen). You can pick this up in the shops and post offices in Dunbeath and Lybster, plus DR Simpsons in Wick and Jim Bews in Thurso, let us know if you can;t find one. Go get quizzing for the Christmas spirit!
04/12/11 - Laidhay AGM, Wednesday 14th December 7pm, in the Lybster Day Care Centre. if you would like to help please come along.
28/11/11 - We would like to thank Berriedale and Dunbeath Community Council and Dounreay Communities Fund for their donations, £200 and £270 respectively, towards the cost of new heaters for the museum. This is important to help maintain the building and protect all the artefacts inside, the present heaters have been there since the museum opened in 1974 and are certainly in need of an upgrade. This has been a great help towards the total needed and we will hope to have heaters installed before too much longer. Thanks again for your help in keeping Laidhay museum for the benefit of everyone.
17/10/11 - We would like to say a big thank you to all of you helped at our bag packing in the Co-op, Wick (Saturday 15th Oct) - and to all who gave so generously. We raised £323.70, thanks again for supporting Laidhay.
13/10/11 - Remember, if you are in Wick on Saturday, come to the Co-op as we will be there to pack your bags, and tell you all about the museum if we have time.. All proceeds will go the upkeep of the building and the thatched roof. Be good to see you there!
09/10/11 - The sale went well, we made some money and met lots of nice people - every little helps! Next stop, bag packing at the Co-op, Wick on Saturday the 15th October, see you there.
07/10/11 - Come and see us at the Dunbeath Community Centre car boot sale this Sunday, from midday. We will have a small stall selling various interesting old items, feel free to come and say hello and find out much more about the museum as we will love to have a chat. If you haven't been to Laidhay for a while, find out what is happening now, look forward to seeing you there.
03/10/11 - We are closed for the season now, not as many visitors as we would have liked (a general trend unfortunately) - but we did meet some lovely people from all over the world. We would still open by arrangement, so if you have visitors or family who would like to visit, please contact us at enquiries@laidhay.co.uk or on on 07563702321.
25/09/11 - This is our recent press release in response to the BBC news item regarding The Corr, Latheron, as published in the Press and Journal on the 24th September:
The recent report that appeared in the press (The Press and Journal, 17th September and Reporting Scotland, 16th September) states that the Corr, just off the A9 Inverness to Scrabster road near Latheron - and not visible from the main road - is thought to be the only longhouse of its kind in Scotland. This is clearly not so as anyone driving into Caithness from the south will pass the Laidhay Croft Museum. Situated beside the A9 just north of Dunbeath, this impressive white painted, rush-thatched building is over two hundred years old and has been open as a museum since 1974.
The museum, first started by Bert Mowat - then proprietor of the Portland Arms Hotel, Lybster - has grown over the years. Giving a fascinating insight into a way of life now past, and preserving the crofting history of this area for now and the future, is very much appreciated by visitors both local and from all over the world.
Unfortunately, in what seems to be a general trend, visitor figures are well down this year. Laidhay Croft Museum is run by a local trust and has just a small admission charge. As a small independent museum, finding funds just to maintain the building, especially the thatch, becomes harder each year.
While it would be good to see the Corr saved the suggestion that it should be turned into a heritage centre seems a little strange with the well established Laidhay museum just a few miles away.
21/09/11 - Volunteers! Come help us! Laidhay is going bag-packing in the Co-op in Wick on Saturday the 15th of October. Anyone who can come and give us a hand through out the day will be most welcome and very much appreciated, an hour or as long as you can manage. Contact us on enquiries@laidhay.co.uk or 07563702321, and via Facebook. Thank you in advance, and please let as many people know as you can.
21/09/11 - A huge thank you to all in Team MCC for a brilliant £100 raised for the museum at this years Wildcat Rally in John O'Groats at the beginning of July. Thanks to everyone who donated this amount.
16/09/11 - An interesting item appeared tonight on Reporting Scotland - view here - it concerns The Corr, a croft a few miles from Latheron, which is, the report states, thought to be the only longhouse of its kind left in Scotland! Really - please, feel free to visit us any time.
09/09/11 - Click here - Laidhay Film and Movie quiz answers - to open the answer sheet for our recent quiz. This certainly seemed very popular with a lot of entries received and quiz's sold, and a lot of positive feedback received. Of the ten totally correct entries, the winner was picked and the prize is on it's way. Thank you everyone who took part and look out for our Christmas Film quiz in December.
02/09/11 - We would like to apologise to anyone who visited the museum on Thursday 1st & Friday 2nd Sept. and found it closed. Due to a complete misunderstanding no one turned up to open. If you were one of those who wished to visit us, we can only say sorry and hope you will manage another visit. We are open until the 2nd October and would be happy to open after that by arrangement. Once again, sorry and we hope to see you soon.
01/09/11 - Our film and movie title quiz is now closed. We have received a large number of entries and lots of positive feedback. Thank you everyone for entering and for your interest. We are now checking all entries and the winner will be drawn shortly. Come back soon to see the results and the answers which we will also publish on Facebook.
13/08/11 - Still time to enter the Laidhay Movie and Film Title fund-raising quiz. Entry only 50p for a chance to win £10! Thirty questions and the answers are all the names of films you'll know. Closing date for entries is August the 31st. Quizzes available from Dunbeath Post Office, Laidhay Tearoom, D Cormack Butcher in Latheronwheel, Lybster shop, Post Office and Waterlines, DR Simpsons in Wick and Jim Bews in Thurso.
04/08/11 - Visitor numbers are certainly down this year, does seem to be a general trend. We certainly do have busy days, even if not as many as we would like. If you are visiting the area, or live locally, please call in - and bring your friends too! We look forward to seeing you.
24/07/11 - We are now open on Sundays from 12 noon to half past four for the rest of the season. Come visit us and enjoy a grand tour of the museum. Look forward to seeing you.
06/06/11 - We've now been open for the first week of the 2011 season, including being open on Sunday for the first time in a few years. Overall a fairly quiet week (with some interesting visitors from as far as New Zealand and North Carolina) which we are hoping will pickup as we roll into summer! A Help for Heroes motorbike fundraising trip passed by on Tuesday and the twelve Auto-gyro (gyrocopters) that flew over the museum on Saturday though were not that quiet.. and today a Bibby's coach tour stopped by for tea and tour.
29/05/11 - Another good auction sale yesterday, although not quite as busy as we would have hoped, but successful and fun none the less. Details and pictures coming in the next day or two. Also the museum will open tomorrow, the 30th of May! Open from 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday throughout the season, until the end of September. Come visit!
20/03/11 - The Laidhay Preservation Trust Annual Auction Sale (of antiques, furniture, bric-a-brac etc) will be held in Lybster Community Centre on Saturday 28th May at 12:30pm:
07/03/11 - We will be open for this season from Monday, the 30th of May. Please come and visit us between 10am and 5pm, Monday through to Saturday. We are hoping to open on some Sunday's too, through the summer - confirmation on this will follow closer to the time.
08/12/10 - The Laidhay AGM (9th December) has been CANCELLED due to the weather. This will now be held in the New Year, and the details will be advertised then.
02/11/10 - Please click here for the answers to our latest quiz on Scottish Place Names. We received a good number of entries, however not any with all thirty answers correct. The closest to this were three, each with three answers of the thirty wrong. These three were drawn from a hat and the winner will be contacted shorty.
Thank you everyone for your interest in this, and we hope you have enjoyed the quiz. Please stay tuned for our next one and all other Laidhay news.