Banff Councillor & MSP Welcome Duff House Agreement With Historic Scotland

Banff & District SNP councillor Ian Gray has welcomed the move to transfer the day-to-day running of Duff House from Aberdeenshire Council to Historic Scotland.  The move comes after the visitor attraction was threatened with closure over the winter months by the council, who are one of the partners responsible for the house and gallery.

Scottish Ministers, in the shape of Historic Scotland, and the National Galleries of Scotland are the other partners involved in the running of Duff House.  Following an intervention by First Minister Alex Salmond, who has always been a keen supporter of Duff House, winter closure has been averted with Historic Scotland now taking over the managing of the facility.

Commenting following yesterday’s meeting of the council’s Policy & Resources Committee which agreed the move, Cllr Ian Gray said:

“This is good news for Duff House.  We need to hold on to all the visitor attractions we have on the Banffshire Coast and this move should allow the staff at Duff House more freedom to promote and market what is a unique facility not just for the North-east but for the whole country.

“This is an exciting opportunity both for Duff House and the staff as Historic Scotland undoubtedly have much wider experience of promoting visitor attractions and can provide more effective support to the staff to carry out their job than the council ever could.”

Banffshire & Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson also welcomed the change, adding:

“I’m pleased that local councillors, working together with the Scottish Government, have managed to overcome the difficulties which faced Duff House.

“It would have been a great pity if the original plan to close Duff House for part of the year had gone through.  I look forward to this important visitor attraction being more rigorously marketed and promoted under these new arrangements, thereby providing a boost to the local economy in terms of, hopefully, increased visitor numbers.”