Catholic museum to open in Glasgow on historic site

The museum will relocate the entire, internationally renowned collection of paintings, church textiles and Jacobite memorabilia from Blairs Museum in Aberdeen, which has been closed.

It includes the priceless Memorial Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots.

The site of the new museum will be the former St Mary's school in Orr Street in the Calton area of the East End, which is undergoing significant regeneration.

The building once served as the pro-cathedral of the Archdiocese in the mid-19th century and was home to many immigrant Catholics.

The monument to those who suffered from famine in the Scottish Highlands and Ireland in the 19th century is located close to this site.

The Bishops' Conference of Scotland is to move all its agencies, the Scottish Catholic Archives and the Scottish Catholic Museum to a new single location close to the historic parish of St Mary’s Abercromby Street as part of a cost-cutting plan.

Established in 1992, Blairs Museum was originally known as the Blairs Museum Trust until 2014 when the name was changed to reflect the more diverse nature of its collections.

Blairs seminary closed in 1986 but the chapel continue to be used as a place of worship.

The site of the new museum has previously been a social work office, a parish/dance hall and a school, and will bring all the branches of the conference together to "promote the presence of the Catholic Church in Scotland at a national level".

From the fifth century AD, Scotland was a Roman Catholic country, however, after the Protestant and Scottish Reformations, Scotland adopted Presbyterianism (the Church of Scotland) as its state religion.

Due to economic hardship especially following the Great Famine, many Irish Catholic emigrants settled across Scotland, especially in the east end of Glasgow.

Bishop Joseph Toal, who has responsibility for Catholic heritage and culture, said: “In the chosen location we wish to identify with plans to regenerate the area around St Mary’s, Abercromby Street, which itself has such strong historical and cultural links with the development of the Catholic Church in Scotland through the last two centuries.”

The Archdiocese of Glasgow said the presence of the archives and museum in Glasgow will give greater accessibility to the historical records and artefacts of the history of the Catholic Church in Scotland pre-Reformation, during the Penal Laws when Catholicism was banned in Scotland and the Emancipation of Catholics in 1829 up until the present day.

Consolidating the agencies with the archives and museum will contribute to a "significant financial saving" for the Bishops’ Conference. 

The new centre and museum is expected to be open by spring next year.

Ronnie Convery, head of communications for the Archdiocese of Glasgow, said: "The initiative underlines the Bishops’ commitment to using the richness of Scottish Catholic culture – including the famous portrait of Mary Queen of Scots – and many Jacobite artefacts to tell our story through the ages, engaging with the many nearby historical religious sites of the life of St Mungo but also as a means of informing and evangelising."