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| Opening Times 1st April to 30th September Saturdays, Sundays, & Local Holiday Mondays; 2.00 - 5.00pm (Outwith these times by appointment) |
| Guided tours can be arranged within or outwith opening hours and season by prior arrangement with the curator Please call for details of admission charges (see phone no. below) Groups welcome by prior arrangement Fully wheelchair accessible |
| The Blairs Museum Trust South Deeside Road Aberdeenshire AB12 5YQ Tel: 01224 863767 |
| The house was converted into a school for Catholic boys and a seminary for those who believed they had a vocation to the priesthood.However this is really the middle of the story. Blairs was the last in a line of small 'secret seminaries' where young men had been educated for the priesthood in out of the way places in the Highlands and Islands. Boys began their education in Scotland, then went on to one of the Scots Colleges on the Continent to further their studies. Those who were completely trained in Scotland were affectionately known as 'Heather Priests'. These Colleges all had collections of fine and decorative art which found their way to Blairs. For example, during the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, the Scots College in Paris, like other institutions associated with the Papacy, was suppressed, and all its property, library and treasures were threatened. Enterprising men managed to save the bulk of the library and fine portraits and vestments and ship them to Scotland, where they were hidden until a safe place could be established for both them and those training for the priesthood. Other items were collected by the priests and bishops of the former Roman Catholic schools at Scalan on the braes of Glenlivet and Aquhorties, near Inverurie, from 1714 onwards. Come and find out about the part played by these fine painting and objects in the history of the Catholic Church in Scotland - its 'Survival and Revival'. Did you know that the famous Memorial Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots was rescued from a chimney? What is a monstrance? Who was Abbé Paul Macpherson, and why was a priest acting as a secret government agent in 18th century Europe? Find out the answers to these questions and more at The Blairs Museum, Scotland's Catholic Treasury. |
| Blairs, on the South Deeside Road, Aberdeenshire, is well known to local people as a former school for Roman Catholic boys. But did you know that from the day it opened its doors to those first 20 boys in 1829, it has also been home to a collection of important Catholic treasures? After the closure of the school in 1986, the Blairs Museum Trust was set up to preserve and exhibit this collection, Scotland's best-kept secret. Today you can uncover this secret at The Blairs Museum, Scotland's Catholic Treasury. The Blairs Museum holds an internationally renowned collection of fine and decorative art, embroidered vestments and church plate. Visitors can see objects and paintings relating to the Stewarts and Mary, Queen of Scots. Come and find out about the mysteries of the liturgy examined and illustrated for the visitor through our magnificent church gold and silver plate and vestments, used past and present in Roman Catholic worship. The most famous items are those relating to the House of Stewart. Because of the close links between the Jacobites and Catholicism in Scotland, items belonging to the Stewarts have been preserved at Blairs. As well as a magnificent portrait of the Old Pretender, James III, by the Italian artist Trevisani, we have personalia relating to that most romantic of rebels, Bonnie Prince Charlie - a ring with a lock of his hair, a silver snuffbox presented to one of his supporters, and a beautiful enamelled watch featuring the portrait of his daughter, Charlotte, Duchess of Albany. We are also the proud guardians of the Memorial Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, painted after her execution and saved from the mob at the French Revolution by being hidden up a chimney. The Blairs Museum is housed in part of the complex of granite buildings which made up St Mary's College, Blairs. Blairs College was founded in 1829 when a local Catholic laird, John Menzies of Pitfodels, donated his mansion house and an estate of 1000 acres to the Church. |
| Manager - Ian Forbes Curators - Vikki Duncan & Amy Miller |