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A Regiment’s Legacy Can Fuel Local Business Growth
We explore how a regiment’s legacy, a five-star museum at Stirling Castle, and a bold 2050 vision connect with business growth, education, and community. The links between archives, schools, tourism, and the high street show why heritage can power a modern city.
• origins of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and ties to the castle
• why the museum remains central to Stirling’s visitor economy
• 2050 strategy alongside near-term financial stability
• three registered charities and ring-fenced veteran welfare
• digitising archives for research and risk management
• Learning Never Forgetting programme at the national curriculum level five
• reaching remote schools with hybrid delivery and handling boxes
• practical synergies with local firms, events and chambers
• the Kruakin mascot story as cultural connector
• mutual value in hotel partnerships and referrals
• a personal legacy focused on education and community links
• where to find the museum online and on social
Visit argylls.museum.co.uk to enquire or call us via the website. Follow us on Facebook and main social channels.
Hello everybody, welcome back to Studio King Street, and today we have a fantastic episode uh planned for you with Aile Carmichael from the Argyle and Southern Highlanders Museum and Trusts. So Aile runs the Museum and Trusts and is the chief executive up there. And we're probably thinking, you know, what has the uh the regiment uh up at the castle that was garrisoned at the castle got to do with local business? Um hopefully when you get to the end of this uh episode you'll uh you it'll hopefully inspire for one, but it'll also give you a kind of view of uh how these two things come together. So welcome, Eile.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you very much. It's great to be here. Excellent. So can we just start off and kind of explain what your role is, what you do, and the context of the uh the function that you perform up with the museum?
SPEAKER_01:So um I'm employed as the chief executive of two trusts, the Regimental Trust and the Regimental Museum Trust. Uh they're kept separate for various reasons because the Regimental Trust is the umbrella to everything, Argyle and Southern Highlanders. And the Museum Trust is in partnership with Historic Environmental Scotland in the castle as part of the visitor experience of the castle.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so you're up at the castle, um, you've got your own location up at the castle. Can you tell us a little bit about the museum? And for those that have never been, it's an absolute must on any any visit to Stirling.
SPEAKER_01:So the reason we're in them in the castle is because of our heritage, the regimental heritage of the Argyll and Southern Highlanders. And we have routes going back as far back as 1639, the Stirling militia. Um, but the real heritage starts in 18, sorry, 1794, when the 91st Ergyllshire Highlanders, then numbered the 98th, was formed in the King's Knot, just below the castle. And from then on, there's always been a lineage or a link to the castle. But the real heritage starts in 1881 during the amalgamation of the 91st Argyleshire Highlanders and the 93rd Southern Highlanders, when we become the Argyll and Southern Highlanders, and the castle becomes the depot of the regiment. So that is the real start of the true link to the castle in 1881. And it goes on right up until 1964. Uh we had trained Argyles from the early stages, right up until 1964, through national service, etc. And the only reason that stopped is because the Scottish Division decided to have training depots elsewhere in Scotland. It still we still retained the the castle as our regimental headquarters of the Southern Highlanders right up until 2006. And in 2006, um we became what was known as the Royal Regiment of Scotland, became the 5th Battalion of Royal Regiment of Scotland, and that then ceased to be the regimental headquarters of the of our regiment. Um we retained the museum and we were given the honour by the ministers of Scotland to stay in the castle as long as we so wish because of the heritage that links to the castle.
SPEAKER_00:Fantastic. So the legacy lives on, um, so the connection with Stirling obviously uh lives on as well. So how are you um how are you advocating that and kind of promoting what you do up at the museum and up at the castle to the rest of the city?
SPEAKER_01:If I if I start with philosophy first, so the rock, the rock that the castle sits on is our foundation, the regimental foundation. The building on top of it is called the King's Old Building, it's the oldest building dating back to 1496. Um and the roof, the roof has slates on it, but the root the slates are falling off. Now, these slates are the association. As our guiles, we ceased to exist in 2006, and therefore our aging veterans are falling off their perches, they're you know, they're passing on. The legacy is the building, it's our showcase, it's a five-star visitor attraction within the castle. We class it as the jewel in the crown of the castle. Um, now what we what I've been asked to do by our trustees is to ensure that our legacy lives on well past our, you know, when once when we've all gone, that the future generations take on the legacy, the showcase museum, and our learning and never-forgetting program with school education at the national curriculum level five, and engaging with local community, whether it's organizations or whether it's business here in Stirling. And that's how the legacy will live on. We're working on our 2050 vision at the moment, our strategic vision. Okay. And it's very much the younger generations coming in and taking over from people like myself who were serving our guiles, but are very much there for the business to get the business to what we call steady state, to maintain that legacy.
SPEAKER_00:I did have a question later on that I was going to ask you about what horizon do you look at uh over in terms of a strategy? Um, I was thinking two, three years, like a lot of you know typical businesses would, but um 2050, that's a long way out.
SPEAKER_01:Well, 2050 is the regimental trust strategy, and inside that is the museum. Okay. So as a business, the museum, as I said, is separate from our regimental trust, so we are part of the museum trust. And my sort of short term, yes, over the horizon, 12 months, is to ensure the business is financially sound, it's steady state, and ensure we've got a clear plan of transition from my type of generation to the younger generations who are now taking on the mantle of maintaining our learning and never forgetting programme and ensuring that the museum, the jewel in the crown, will never leave the castle.
SPEAKER_00:Brilliant. Okay, so um, so if we kind of break down the different kind of objectives, uh so the museum, it sounds like it's about um you know education, um, you know, passing those kind of you know messages on to younger generations. Um, what about the charities uh specifically that you represent? What what's the foundation and the and and the core objective of uh fundraising for those charities?
SPEAKER_01:So the Regimental Trust is a charity, it's a registered charity in Scotland. Our Regimental Association is a charity. The funds within that charity of the association are very much ring-fenced for the welfare and the benevolence of the wet the veterans. Okay. Um so that can never be touched for the museum. The museum itself is a charity, so we've got three registered charities under the Regimental Trust. And as I said, we are very much part of the visitor experience here in Stirling Castle. Um and therefore we open the museum 363 days a year to the opening and closure times of the castle. And we must ensure that we're financially viable to maintain that. Now we do get some monies from Historic Environmental Scotland, um, but we still have to go out and and you know find grants, etc., to do special projects like uh digitalization of our archives, uh which could date back to 1794, the formation of the 91st Ergyels here in Stirling. And we're trying to digitalize not only to help with research but to for contingency reasons. For if there was devastating fire in the castle, we would lose all our collection and we wouldn't have any any digital form. So we're going through that programme, as well as uh raising funds to deliver our education program. And we have a fantastic uh education programme at the national curriculum level five. We've delivered since we reopened the museum in 21, uh 2021, we have delivered it across the central belt of Scotland, right out to the west coast of Scotland. We have a fantastic education team. If I tell you, since September last year, at the National Curriculum Level 5, 1,050 children have received their Learning Never Forgetting program, teaching them about the First World War, Second World War, and the Victorian era. And you're taking children who don't know anything about what a First World War was, and then they start talking about inflate, deflaged trenches in the First World War. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:So how far does that reach? Is it the Stirlingshire area, Clackmannshire, Fault Valley?
SPEAKER_01:So traditionally we we recruited from the from the central belt of Scotland, from Grangemouth right across to the south in uh Greenock, right up to the north, up in north of Oban. So that whole triangle of the central belt is very much our historical recruiting area, including the islands off the West Coast. And we try and even deliver to the more remotest part of our recruiting area, whether it's Tyree, Isla, Mull, or any of these places, by doing online training and sending our handling boxes to these remote areas. So we are at the moment, because of resource restriction, there is only what two education officers. We're very much restricted. We deliver it here in Stirling, as far out as Falkirk and Grangemouth.
SPEAKER_00:Brilliant. Okay. So some of our listeners are probably wondering uh the Argyle and Southern Highlanders, you know, uh, what does that have to do with business? And and and where where would you say the tyre hits the road in terms of the connection between what you guys do up the road there and and the local businesses so?
SPEAKER_01:As a businessman, because I was 32 years in the Argyle and Southern Highlanders, and when the Ergyos, which we became the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment Scotland, ceased to exist, they were basically reduced from 500 men and women down to 100 in 2013. I decided it was my time to leave service, so I went into business. I went into business in the Middle East and ran a business for over 10 years on the build-up to the World Cup of 2022 in the state of Qatar. And with my business Ackerman, you know, with my business experience, I was asked to come back to run the trusts. Um and very much looking into Stirling, had been out Stirling for over 15 years, was the last time I worked in Spring Cairs, and I thought, wow, we need to do something together. And I became part of the steering committee for the Stirling 900, that's the 900 Royal Borough anniversary. And very quickly I could see the synergies in the room. Whether you were in business, whether you were in the community, or you were doing something else. There was massive opportunity to build a very strong, coherent, transpar transparent opportunity to build Stirling into something really special. We are very much part of the Fourth Valley Chambers of Commerce, which is a fantastic forum for business here in Stirling. And I could see that I had something to give to that organization, to that group. It didn't matter if you were a jewellery maker here in Stirling or you were a hotelier, we could there is common themes and synergy in business. We can work together. Same with all the different uh events and organizations, the Stirling Highland Games asked for my support. The walking on the marches asked for my support. The local council asked for my support. And so therefore I s I got involved in very, very many activities through the 900 uh centenary, the annual, you know, the events that were taking place, and then thought, well, wow, this could be a foundation for the future of the city of Stirling, and we could build something really special, working with business, working with community. Uh and so and people automatically look up at the hill to the castle and say, Well, you can help us because you you work in the castle, so you must be able to support us and advise us on various things. And I I I I got that, I understand that having been in business for 10 years in the Middle East. The synergies between everyone, regardless of who you are, whether you're the community, the organization, the businesses, if we work together, we can turn the city of Stirling into a very, very special place for visitors. And we want visitors to come and stay and enjoy the hub that is the city of Stirling, and they can go and visit elsewhere. And so that's what I see as the opportunity, you know, here as the trust chief executive to help businesses thrive. And it's a two-way street, you know. The apart Kings Apart Hotels, for example, are now investing in supporting my charity with you know a room called Kruiken. It's a fantastic thing. So that's what I would suggest to the case. Okay, tell us a little bit about Kruiken. Kruiken. So for those who know Scotland, you'll know that Ben Kruakin is um a mountain outside um Oban on the west coast of Scotland. It's actually one of the biggest power plants in Scotland that powers most of Scotland, Ben Kruiken. But if you go back in history, Clan Campbell, uh, which is very much our pedigree in the Argyle and Southern Highlanders being the Duke of Argyll, um, their war claw when they would go into battle would be Cruakin, Kruakin, because it's the Rallying Call in the other, you know, the the Campbell clan area. Um the Argyll and Southern Highlanders uh was we had a chief um uh a colonel in chief named Princess Louise. She was the fourth child of Queen Victoria, and she was gifted the regiment by her mother, Queen Victoria, uh very, very keen designer in terms of drawing. She designed our cat badges and our insignia, and she also gifted a little pony, a little Shetland pony named Tom Thumb originally. But as a Highland regiment, Tom Thumb's not probably a name that you want to associate with your regiment. So we then renamed him Kruakin. And Krukin, we've had a Krukin since 1928, right up until present day, because the Royal Regiment of Scotland have adopted Kroakin, and we have Kroakin IV, who comes on parade and is very much the champion of the regiment, and he always leads the regiment when we're marching or wherever we've got.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I've seen him at the Six Nations last year.
SPEAKER_01:Did you? Yeah, so he likes to perform, he's uh he's a fantastic and you know, the late Her Majesty loved Kroakin. There's lots of great stories about Kroakin living in the castle, and you know, the Queen would turn up and he would be either drunk because he's had drunk too much beer or he's biting up the poses that the Queen's been carrying if you go back to 2017. Um so yeah, lots of great stories about Kroakin.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, fantastic. And we've named one of our rooms here at the Aparto Hotel. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:And as I said to uh previously, you know, that is fantastic. What a business vision you have, giving back to the charities, whether it was Struthkaran, whether it was Maggie's, whether it was the Church of the Kirk of the Holyrood, and of course the Argyle Museum Trust. We it's a two-way street. You're given to charity. I'm here talking about your fantastic business model, and you're giving to the business, you're giving to the high street with the cafeterias, the restaurants, etc. Um, the Kruikan suite, you know, with the pledge that you will give a certain amount of money per booking back to all these charities who we have just named, is a fantastic thing. And I can only thank you and Paul for for the fantastic gesture you're making to our charities.
SPEAKER_00:No, you're welcome. Um and the inspiration for that as well came from uh a conversation about community and how we can work with each other and integrate with each other's kind of purposes. Um and you know, the the conversation, uh the penny dropped, we need to do something, you know, for the museum, for the charity there, and the rest is history. So I'm glad we eventually got that off the ground a few weeks ago. So there will be a podcast coming very soon, if it's not already uh, you know, been been on air, um, to talk more specifically about uh what we've done for those charities, including the Argyles.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's it's uh it's fantastic. And you know, again, this is business synergies. You know, you've opened a fantastic uh showcase, I would say trailblazer here in Stirling in terms of the quality and standard of your your suites. And how does that work? Why would you want to speak to me as a charity? Well, we get three well, this year we've had 323,821 visitors through our museum, and some want to have a place to stay here in Stirling. Why wouldn't I showcase this fantastic place? So it's a two-way street. We we you know we we definitely pride this place as a fantastic place for our guests who come to our regimental balls in the castle to come and stay. So we can only thank, and it's as I say, it's a two-way street.
SPEAKER_00:Great. Okay, so we're coming to the end of uh our session here, uh Alia. So the Orgallen Southern Highlands are steeped in great history, second to none. Um its legacy lives on, right? Um, what do you as a veteran of the regiment and the leader of the museum and the trusts today want your legacy to be when you move on?
SPEAKER_01:My legacy is to ensure that um the the vision and the mission of our our museum trust and the regimental trust is that our memory will live on through our learning and never forgetting program, through our education, through our five-star visitor um museum and the engagement with the community. Because that will never stop. Business, community, working together, that is what a legacy to leave behind and give to somebody else to continue that great work. So that would be my personal um you know legacy to leave that behind for others to enjoy and keep the keep this moving, this business and this city moving to a fantastic place.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Brilliant. Okay, so how can our listeners kind of find out more about uh the Argyle and Southern Highlanders and uh which channels do you promote your We are on most channels.
SPEAKER_01:We you know we we've got our fantastic website, there is uh an inquiry portal on the Argyles um Argyllesmuseum.co.uk. You go on there, you can search, and there's various information on how to talk to us, whether it's through telephone, through um an inquiry um portal, we're Facebook, we're on all main um social media sites.
SPEAKER_00:That's great. Well, thank you very much for uh being a guest on the Sterling Business Podcast. Uh very um educational, and uh hopefully our listeners will uh will get a lot from the discussion. So thank you, Eiley. No, thank you, Neil. Thank you very much. So that's the end of another episode of the Sterling Business Podcast. Uh something a little bit different this week, um, with with Aile coming in to talk about the August and Sutherland Highlanders. Um hopefully you'll see how uh you know the the purpose of the uh the museum and the charity kind of resonates with local businesses. So until next time, thank you very much, and we'll talk again soon.