Arts & Culture

" 'I Kent His Faither’ is a celebration of Musselburgh’s long history and the part the town and its people have played in major and minor events in Scotland’s history.  The town’s strategic position, with its harbour of Fisherrow on the Forth; the land route between England and Scotland and its proximity to the capital means that in each century, there is something to say.

The exhibition, which is runs from 6 to 25 July daily except Sunday, tells of the major Roman Fort at Inveresk and the latest find in 2007 of the memorial to Crescens, an Imperial Guard.  The history of the 15th Century Tolbooth and its rare Dutch clock is told. The clock, one of a handful in Scotland, was a gift from the merchants of the Low Countries.

Musselburgh fed Edinburgh in days past, from its extensive market gardens, developed by the Lowe and Scarlett families.  Fish from the Forth was taken by Fisherrow fishwives in creels on their backs, walking or later on the trams (when the city first had trams).  The exhibition has two major displays about this, with the fishwife in her traditional costume and the field worker wearing her ‘Ugly’ to protect her head, from the weather.

It was often in Musselburgh drawing rooms and libraries that the ideas of philosophy, science, and morality were debated and developed by some of the leading minds of The Enlightenment: in the homes of Lord Hailes of Newhailes, with his library deemed the most cultured room in Europe, Alexander (Jupiter) Carlyle, David Macbeth Moir (Delta), physician and writer and companion of Christopher North in his tour of the Highlands. Coming forward to the present day, Musselburgh is now a university town since Queen Margaret University moved to its purpose built campus from Clermiston.

The exhibition celebrates the work of Alexander Handyside Ritchie, whose beautifully carved sculptures adorn memorials and buildings across central Scotland.  There are displays too of the work of his father and grandfather.  Moving to modern times, the exhibition also has examples of the work of the sculptor, Kenny Hunter, whose family live in Musselburgh.

With its status as the oldest course in Scotland verified by the Guinness Book of Records, we celebrate the playing of golf on Musselburgh Links and sharing the ground of the oldest purpose built race course in Scotland.

There are stories too of the Scottish Diaspora and links particularly with New Zealand.  There are also the poignant stories of Musselburgh descendents who returned from the Commonwealth to fight in two World Wars and the many who died.  A small project team, led by Dr Tom Renouf aims to commission a memorial to list all Musselburgh’s World War I dead."