Meet the Heritage team

Lesley Forsyth, Senior Manager for Information and Culture, answers some quickfire questions about the Heritage team.

Tell us about the work your team delivers.

The Heritage team has three key areas of work - direct delivery of the museum and heritage service, delivery of a genealogy service and supporting local heritage groups meet their aspirations.

The team's mission statement is to collect, preserve, exhibit and promote North Ayrshire's rich and diverse heritage to the community of North Ayrshire and beyond.

Through our extensive collection of artefacts, regular exhibitions, public events, educational workshops and online presence, we strive to provide an essential, educational and cultural resource that will involve individuals of all ages in learning about and caring for North Ayrshire’s heritage.

This means that the team plans and curates the exhibitions that will be on display in each of the locations we have – North Ayrshire Heritage Centre in Saltcoats and Museum of the Cumbraes in Millport.

The exhibitions might be entirely from our own collections, a partnership with a local organisation to help raise awareness or celebrate a milestone or on occasion we buy in a ready-made exhibition.

The team also gathers and shares the stories of the people of North Ayrshire’s past as well as special places and significant events.

This can be via physical interpretation boards, heritage trails, social media or our web site Home - North Ayrshire Heritage

We care for the Council’s Museum Collection.

We are responsible for more than 10,000 artefacts from paintings and fine art to silverware, furniture and clothes. You name it – we have it! We even have fossilised trees that were removed from Saltcoats Harbour dating back to prehistoric times!

Everything is carefully catalogued, kept safe and cared for for future generations.

The genealogy and local history resource is based in Irvine Library and is a really popular service, especially for those researching their family tree.

Lots of others engage with it too for a variety of reasons. Some are looking for newspaper reports and we have copies of all the local publications dating back to 1857.

We have access to local maps - via the National Library of Scotland's Map Library - which are amazing and often accessed by people looking for old titles or information as to the locations of things.

The team assists with local street naming – looking back at the pervious names of areas, farm names, landowners etc to help influence street names, linking the new developments with the past history of the site and the local people who lived there.

The third is the support we give to the local heritage-based groups and volunteer-run museums, possibly the one we are all most proud of.

This ranges from people involved in local history groups like Beith Heritage to groups with a focus on a physical asset like Ardrossan Castle.

We also act as a mentor for local museums to help them be officially accredited.

Although the support is on a daily basis, we regularly host meetings of the North Ayrshire Museum Forum, a great source of advice and networking across all the awesome groups we have.

Do you know we have a secret bunker as part of that group?

Shhh......it’s a secret! (one of the highlights of my career was when a colleague asked me if someone was winding him up as he had been asked to create a new postcode for The Secret Bunker.

Apparently, folk couldn't find it in their sat-navs! I was buckled laughing! I reassured him it was real and needed a postcode, so he did then create one.

By working alongside our local groups and museums we ensure local people have a voice in how their heritage is collected, interpretated and shared.

Share some recent success stories or positive news from your team.

Donations to the collection never stop.

In 2025-26 we had 145 donations into the museum's collection. These included the wreath laid by the Princess Royal at the Dasher memorial ceremony.

Another special donation was a large model of the frigate Caledonia, which was donated to Ardrossan Parish Church more than 220 years ago when the church was in the building that now houses North Ayrshire Heritage Centre.

It was displayed there for more than 100 years before moving to St Cuthbert's Church in 1908, and was there until the church recently closed.

The church decided to donate the frigate to the Council, and it was transferred into our ownership and care. It is currently having restoration and conservation work carried out and we are looking forward to having it back with us in its original home.

We were also delighted to work with Irvine Burns Club on creating a Burns-themed garden at Eglinton Country Park.

The garden marks the 200th anniversary of the formation of the club. Quite an achievement to be running that long!

We often help in creating interpretation boards to go up beside landmarks or heritage assets, helping people better understand the significance.

Recent installations have been at Stanecastle and at St Bride's Chapel in Lamlash, where local heritage groups assisted with the research.

Boards were also installed previously in Largs, sharing the town connections to the D Day Landings.

Next up is Irvine town centre followed by the walkway along the river between Kilwinning Abbey and Eglinton Country Park.

Our social media and web pages go from strength to strength with more and more engagements and people connecting with the team.

People who grew up here, who have perhaps emigrated, comment and share stories. We learn LOADS from people keen to share their stories and memories.

In 2025 – 26 we had 2million views on our Facebook page, 24,000 active viewers and 42,000 page views on our website, which we have created, added to and maintained ourselves.

The world of museums and being a curator is quite niche and a challenge to get into.

But, if you are into it, you are REALLY into it!

We are proud to be in a position to support students - post graduate and undergraduate - with their studies by offering placements on an annual basis. The students gain hands-on experience of a working museum and in return bring with them new ideas, knowledge and fresh approaches to our work. We all gain and learn so much for the experiences.

What are the team’s ambitions to help improve life for people living in North Ayrshire?

In a nutshell - "To connect our communities with their past, to be the current custodians of our heritage and preserve it for future communities to enjoy".

Only by understanding our past can we make sense of today and, most importantly, learn from our past mistakes to help make things better.

Sharing and celebrating the amazing achievements of the local area and its past residents helps build civic pride, nurtures a sense of belonging and of community.

One of our favourite things is sharing the odd nugget of local history with someone and getting the " I did not know that!" reply. Folk seem that bit more engaged and happier as they digest the information.