Doors Open Day 2011

On Saturday 24 September RCAHMS participated in Edinburgh Doors Open Day where 376 visitors got the chance to find out more about sport and leisure in Scotland through the ages.

From Victorian and Edwardian photographs of golf, tennis, curling and sailing, original architects’ drawings of swimming pools and ice rinks, to survey photographs of football stadia and rugby grounds, and aerial photographs of sporting venues across Scotland and Europe, a wealth of material relating to Scotland’s sporting history was on show.

Experts talked about sport and leisure collections, we explained how and why RCAHMS record sporting venues and which ones are on the Buildings at Risk Register, and exhibitions and films were on display. Visitors also got the chance to go behind-the-scenes to discover the secrets of the RCAHMS survey, photographic and conservation work, as well as learning how to share their own images and information with the National Collection.

Examples from our collections that were on display can be viewed in our sport and leisure gallery. Some visitors posed behind our cut-out of a 1930s poster of Portobello Bathing Pool by the artist Tom Curr, and photographs of the event have been uploaded onto the RCAHMS page on Facebook.