A new museum dedicated to an historic battle opens its doors this weekend.
The Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trust has taken over a town hall for five years to display its collection dedicated to the famous Jacobite victory.
And it has brought in a team of professional charity consultants to help it source up to £10million of funds to ensure it will have a permanent home once the lease is up.
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The Trust is leasing Prestonpans Town Hall from East Lothian Council and has invested thousands of pounds into refurbishing the Victorian building and creating a main exhibition area along with additional rooms dedicated to the town's own history as well as the battle and a gift shop.
From tomorrow (Saturday, April 3 0) the museum will be open free of charge to the public at weekends with groups able to book visits during the week.
Dr Gordon Prestoungrange, from the trust, said the museum is a "sampler" of the permanent centre which it is hoped will eventually open in the new town of Blindwells which is being built on part of the battle site itself.
He said: "We've leased the town hall for five years and it allows us to showcase what is really a taster of what we will have in our centre in the future.
"And we have used money donated to us to open the temporary museum and bring in experts to help us source the £10 million needed to establish a permanent home."
The trust has used around £92,000 of funds which have been donated by supporters to help set up the museum with half going towards the costs of the town hall refurbishment and maintenance.
The other half has been used to bring in Bruce Tait Associates, charity experts, to work with the trust to raise the millions needed for a permanent centre.
The firm is being asked to help source additional grants and revenue as well as scoping the capital expenditure appeal of the future centre.
Along with historical artefacts from the time of the battle, the new town hall-based museum will display sections of the Battle of Prestonpans Tapestry and is planning to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a special exhibition from June 4m featuring panels from the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry.
It is hoped the new permanent home at Blindwells will have space for the entire Battle tapestry which is over 100 metres long to be displayed in full.
For details of how to visit the museum and about the trust go to www.battleofprestonpans1745.org.
