A TREASURE trove of documents from the family of Scots author Robert Louis Stevenson have been found in the abandoned site of an old museum.
The documents, letters from the famous family of lighthouse builders and civil engineers, were found in an old tea chest, under a plank of wood, in the North Berwick Museum which closed down a decade a go.
The museum has stood empty for 10 years since it was closed by East Lothian Council in 2002 for failing to meet fire and disabled access regulations.
The documents, which included a letter from Robert Stevenson, the grandfather of Treasure Island writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who designed the Bell Rock Lighthouse, were found as workers surveyed the old building ahead of a planned £104,000 refurbishment.
Ian Goodall, of the Friends of the North Berwick Museum, said the discovery of the "treasure trove" of documents was an incredible find.
The documents were moved to the John Gray Archive Centre in Haddington, where they are now stored.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article