About CAHG Scotland:

The aim of CAHG Scotland is to create a self-sustaining network of community archive groups within Scotland, committed to a vision and ethos of collaboration and mutual support. CAHG Scotland listens to and delivers outcomes for communities and heritage organisations based in Scotland, celebrating and highlighting its diversity. The network embraces sharing and providing knowledge, training and best practice whilst supporting and advocating on behalf of community archives and heritage groups.

The Archives and Records Association UK and Ireland (ARA) supports this specialist Community Archives and Heritage Group, including the 1,800 community groups currently registered within CAHG.

Current CAHG Scotland projects:

Oral History Workshops

CAHG Scotland are delighted to host a series of oral history workshops in Glasgow, Perth and Inverness.

The workshops are based on the broad topic of Gaps in the Archive. Workshops will be given by Dr Alison Chand, Oral History Society Trainer and teacher at Strathclyde University Oral History Centre. Spaces to participate in the workshops are limited.
Everyone who completes this training will receive a certificate supported by the Oral History Society and Community Archives Heritage Scotland confirming their participation and can be used for Continual Professional Development.

For more information, visit the project homepage by clicking the button below.

Developing Your Digital Skills Series

CAHG Scotland will be hosting a second series of the popular Develop Your Digital Skills online workshops in 2023.

The workshops will build and expand on the topics explored in the first series and will guide participants on how to engage with their archive through digital tools.

More information will be released shortly. To access recordings of the first series of workshops, click here.

Past CAHG Scotland projects:

CAHG Scotland Committee

Project Lead

Audrey Wilson

Audrey is the Partnerships and Engagement Manager at the Scottish Council on Archives. Audrey sits on the Board of Community Archives Heritage Group (CAHG) a speciality group of Archives and Record Association UK & Ireland.  She is leading on the pilot project of forming a CAHG Scotland Network  – bringing together people based in Scotland with an interest in community heritage archives. Any questions about CAHG Scotland please email a.wilson@scottisharchives.org.uk

Lothian

Dr Alison Rosie

Alison is Registrar at the National Register of Archives for Scotland (NRAS), the body which has been supporting private owners in Scotland with advice on all issues relating to the care and preservation of their archives since 1946. There is now information on over 4500 private collections on the Register and the NRAS is always keen to add more to reflect Scotland’s rich archival heritage.

John Pelan

John Pelan is the Director of the Scottish Council on Archives. John has worked in the culture and heritage sectors in Scotland for several decades including as the Director of the Scottish Civic Trust and he has held senior positions with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. John is passionate about archives and the role they have in fostering a sense of identity and engagement with the past.

Jacob O’Sullivan

Jacob O’Sullivan is Museum Development Manager – Collections & Interpretation with Museums Galleries Scotland. He supports museums and galleries through providing advice and guidance on issues relating to museum collections, and how they are managed and interpreted. He manages the Recognition Scheme, and co-ordinates the approach to safeguarding and celebrating Intangible Cultural Heritage, as well as co-programming the Knowledge Exchange series. He is a member of the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel (SAFAP).  

Martin Ross
Martin Ross is a Development Officer in Historic Environment Scotland’s-Community and Economic Development Team and has also covered a Development Manager role in the HES Grants Team, involving extensive community outreach and advice activities, focused on local project delivery. Martin is also a member of the partnership committee that delivers Scotland’s Community Heritage Conference and the online Scotland’s Community Heritage Conversation events.

Glasgow

Paula Larkin

Paula is the trust archivist at the GovanHill Baths Archive. The archive is an independent community archive, with permanent exhibition space which was set up in 2014. It has a fascinating and truly unique collection which reflects the wide and varied activities which have taken place in the Baths for over 100 years.

Mid-Scotland and Fife

Sean Rippington

Sean is the Digital Archivist and Copyright Manager at the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums, and volunteers at the Tayport F.C. archive. He’s interested in digital preservation, digitisation, sporting collections, and sustainability for community heritage.

Ishbel MacKinnon

Ishbel is Senior Officer for Archives and Local & Family History at Culture Perth and Kinross where she is responsible for managing Perth & Kinross Archive and the related Local Studies collections in AK Bell Library, Perth. The Archive looks after official, business, community, family and personal records relating to all aspects of the history of Perth & Kinross. 

Highlands & Islands

Alison Mason

Alison is Highland Archivist at Highland Archive Service (part of High Life Highland)  which collects, preserves, catalogues, and celebrates the documentary heritage of the Highlands and has collections spanning over 700 years. 

Lorna Steele

Lorna Steele is the Community Engagement Officer for the Highland Archive Service, whose four archive centres contain historic documents, covering a third of Scotland’s landmass and dating from the 1200s to the present day.  Her role involves connecting a diverse range of audiences, from school pupils to prison inmates, with these fascinating documents.

Seonaid McDonald

Seonaid is the Archivist at Tasglann nan Eilean, the archive service of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar – the local authority which serves the Outer Hebrides. As well as running the public archive service, part of her role involves offering advice and support to the network of thirty comainn eachdraidh (local historical societies) and community heritage organisations throughout the islands in regard to caring for their archives.

Jasmine Wilkie

Jasmine is the Development Officer for Comann Dualchas Innse Gall, the Outer Hebrides Heritage Forum.  The Forum works on behalf of and for its members to promote, facilitate and strengthen the work of community heritage organisations and comann eachdraidhs (historical societies) in the Outer Hebrides. Gàidhlig is a working language for the majority of the organisations the Forum works with.
Contact details: 07944 353 404 or jasmine@ohheritageforum.com

Stevan Lockhart

Stevan is a volunteer administrator, trainer and technology architect at the Assynt Digital Archive, established in 2011, and consisting of an eclectic and growing set of collections held at the offices of the Assynt Crofters’ Trust. Stevan has wide experience in corporate IT, and a more recent degree in Scottish Cultural Studies, studying at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Eleanor Mackinnon

Eleanor is a community animateur/ project manager who enjoys supporting individuals and organisations realise their cultural vision. Her background is community development which fosters collaborative working, training, growing projects and partnerships all of which help to make things happen in rural areas. Recent project management includes The Rockfield Centre 2.9 million refurbishment of a listed building, taking it from conception to opening in 2022. This included establishment of creative and cultural programme to supporting the engagement of the wider community and the connections between arts and heritage.

North East Scotland

Phil Astley

Phil Astley is City Archivist for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives. With over twenty years’ experience in the archive sector, he has previously worked at Aberdeen University (2004-2008), the North Highland Archive (2003-2004) and the Orkney Library and Archive (1994-2003). He is also a trustee of the Scottish Council on Archives.

Signe Olesen

Signe is a trustee and treasurer at OurStory Scotland, a volunteer-run organisation that has been collecting, archiving, and presenting the life experiences of LGBTQ+ people in Scotland since 2002. OurStory is a remote group and its volunteers live across Scotland. Signe is passionate about archives and museums and has a particular interest in collection management, policies, and ethics.