Doors Open Days 2012 - a time of

I'm enjoying being back working on Dumfries & Galloway Doors Open Days for 2012.  It's great to get back in touch with the Doors Open Days community here, who are such a friendly and positive group of people, many of them volunteers and all of them fired with enthusiasm for this warm-hearted national event.

This year the theme for the region is CHANGE.  Well, there's been a lot of it.  So we're recruiting sites which will reflect all kinds of Change - historical, scientific, domestic, professional and more.

You'll be able to go up lighthouses and into costume rooms, get down with archaeologists and out with the Green Energy Network... watch the Dumfries & Galloway Doors Open Days Facebook Page for frequent updates.

Doors Open Days success

Inside Cruck Cottage at Torthorwald

Debating green energy in Dalton Village Hall

Inside the Art Store at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries

Meet and greet with the heavy horses at Barfil Farm

The ruin, glory and ambition of Moat Brae in Dumfries

Well the weather was kind, and thousands of people fanned out across the region to find the 36 historic, brand new and downright curious places that hundreds of volunteers had opened for the weekend.  Here above are just a few of them.

I'd just like to say a special thank you to the rest of the team, especially Alison Caldwell and Aaron Edgar - and to the regional press and media, who gave this event such great write-ups.

Doors Open Days goes live

Cathy Agnew, Maggie Gordon of Barfil Farm
and intern Aaron Edgar cut the cake

Thrilled to announce that not only is the beautiful 2011 Doors Open Days brochure available in public places across the region, but it's now got its own webpages on the GCAT website click here. 

The theme is 'The Key of the Door' to celebrate 21 years of Doors Open Days in Scotland, and a real effort by GCAT, supported by the Holywood Trust, to improve access to the event for young people.

It's been a real pleasure working with a very capable and talented team, especially freelance writer Alison Caldwell, and of course all the folk up at The CatStrand.  And now we've just appointed Aaron Edgar as our intern.  GCAT has managed to create a short paid internship for Doors Open Days, in support of our 'youth' theme.  He's already an asset, proving he could serve up cake on paper plates at the press launch last Monday, and he can pick up two boxes of brochures at once.  Now you're talking.