Doors Open Days 2010

For the second year running Glenlair opened its doors to the public as part of the European Heritage Days programme (www.doorsopendays.org.uk). This provides an excellent opportunity not only to show what has been achieved here, but also to spread the word about James Clerk Maxwell to a wider audience not necessarily aware of his immense contribution to many of the things we take for granted in our modern sophisticated world. This year we were blessed with two glorious sunny days and visitor numbers swelled to an amazing 131 a 50% increase on last year. In addition to a 45-minute talk and tour by Duncan, tea and cakes were served and these together with the proceeds of a second hand bookstall helped us raise £321 for a local diabetes charity.

The visitor centre is now up and running with copies of pictures by Jemima Wedderburn, photos of Glenlair House through the ages together with a continuously running photo frame of work on the house and large files of papers and publications relating to Maxwell. Again as with last year, there was a lot of interest in the farm steading, especially now that the old stable for four carriage/shire horses has been cleared and an annotated collection of old tools including a butter churn put on display.