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Shambellie House Trust, New Abbey, Dumfries. DG2 8HQ

01387 440082 |
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Home | The Trust | Our Plans

Our Plans

Shambellie House was gifted to the Scottish nation in 1977 when it became the National Museum of Costume. The museum closed in 2013 and the Shambellie House Trust was created to find an alternative use for the building. The Trustees have worked hard to develop this project and on 1st July 2021 the Scottish Government passed ownership of Shambellie House and its grounds to the Trust.

A New Future

The Trust and its members are a group of local volunteers who are passionate about sustaining a future for Shambellie House as part of the local community. The vision to turn Shambellie and its grounds into a creative tourism destination and a hub for supporting small and micro businesses operating in the creative sector has been successfully brought to life since they took over in 2015. The board spent the first few years researching the market, visiting other examples of place based creative destinations and speaking with local tutors, creative practitioners, and partner organisations. They also raised the funds to repair and make some alterations to the House to allow it to be used for creative workshops.

Our first workshops took place in spring 2022 and Shambellie House and Grounds is now a successful and thriving centre for Creative Inspiration. We offer a year-round programme of workshops, events and exhibitions covering visual arts, textiles and quilting, photography, applied crafts, outdoors & environment, all focusing creativity for good health and wellbeing, reflected in our strapline ‘Relax, Learn, Enjoy’.

Shambellie House Trust upholds the values of fairness and inclusion and the house, and its wonderful grounds are open to everyone. It is alive with people relaxing, learning and enjoying – all benefitting from the good feelings that a day at Shambellie House gives them. Through a mixture of grant funding and revenue generation, we offer opportunities for all, and currently have subsidised offers for young people, carers and people on benefits seeking work. We know how much everyone can benefit from a visit to Shambellie House & Grounds, so our ambition is to make sure the good feelings and positive impact people get from a day with us are available to everyone who would benefit, regardless of their circumstances.

In addition, we offer opportunities for volunteering to people to in our local community including people with additional support needs attending Cloverglen Daycare Services. A variety of people already volunteer getting involved with work in the grounds, house and catering.

The trust have a clear vision for Shambellie House and Grounds and the Board have split the whole project into a series of phases to secure the future of the House as soon as possible. Work has already been carried out to the House including wheelchair access to the first floor, new toilets including a disabled toilet, increasing parking, managing the landscape and bringing all the rooms into use. In the longer term our ambition is to build an extension to provide additional facilities, improve access and provide an accommodation wing to allow us to deliver short residential workshops.

The grounds at Shambellie House are very special and the Trust have a Landscape Management Plan in place to guide and support work to protect and enhance this special biodiverse environment for all to enjoy.

 
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