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Meet the Team
Emma Sutcliffe - General Manager
Emma has been a part of the Dunollie team for almost two years. As General Manager, she advises and supports the rest of the team to ensure the smooth running of each department. She has put a lot of work into creating supportive and flexible working environment for the whole team. In addition to that, Emma also works closely with the Board of Trustees to realise the strategic vision for the site and is also responsible for all funding applications and budget management. She is a great believer in museums as a force for good and makes sure Dunollie Museum, Castle and Grounds leads as an example in that aspect.
Ann MacLean - Office Manager
Ann has been an essential part of the Dunollie team for nearly seven years, she has welcomed each of us into this office and is the first person we all run to whenever we need advice or anything unexpected happens (all the time).
She is responsible for the smooth running of our office and the administrative side of things. This includes making sure the accounts are in order and wages paid on time, to reporting on Grant Applications and acting as the Secretary to the Board of Trustees.
Florence Medard - Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Florence has been a part of the team for almost two years. As Marketing & Communications Coordinator, she is responsible for all public facing communications be they printed or digital. She runs our social media accounts, websites and promotes all aspects of our activities. She is the person to reach out to for any photography, filming, drone and media enquiries. Outside of her work with us, Florence is actively involved in several local heritage organisations and runs a small French conversation group.
Jamie MacGregor- Heritage Engagement Officer
Jamie has been a part of our team for over two years. As Heritage Engagement Officer, he is responsible for Dunollie Links, our community engagement programme. He manages and recruits our volunteers, facilitates our pathways projects with Oban High School and runs educational workshops for school groups throughout the year. He works closely with our volunteer archive group and museum stewards and has done significant research on our site history. He is also very involved with our visitors both as a tour guide and piper. Outside of his work with us, Jamie plays an active role in local heritage organisations and occasionally takes on personal/ family research projects and plays the bagpipes for private functions.
Iris Piers-Smith - Weddings & Marketing Coordinator
Iris has been a part of our team for just over a year. She initially joined us as Digital Assistant for the Dunollie GLAD project, a year-long project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for Scotland and quickly became an integral part of our team. Today, she is responsible for promoting and marketing weddings, engagements, vow renewals and elopements as well as managing enquiries and taking bookings for them.
Outside of her work with us, Iris is also the owner of The Dutch Bakery on Lismore and runs Explore Lismore with her family.
Caroline Boswell - Heritage Garden Leader
Caroline has been a part of the Dunollie team for just over a year. She too, initially joined us as Heritage Garden Leader for the Dunollie GLAD project and we are delighted that she agreed to stay on this year. She is responsible for our heritage woodland grounds and does a fantastic job looking after it herself, as well as planning and prioritising tasks for our various gardening volunteer groups to tackle each week. Outside of her work with us, Caroline is actually a qualified genealogist and a trustee of Historic Kilbride.
Shannen Calderwood- Curatorial Apprentice
Shannen joined the Dunollie Team in January 2023, for a year-long role as part of the Argyll Aspires Project, which is run by CHARTs and managed by the NLHF, where she will be combining working with us and studying. In the few months since she started, she has made herself indispensable and taken on a wide variety of tasks. This includes researching our collections, rethinking how to best care for it, updating our catalogue, taking on Guided Tours, writing blog posts, creating new signage for children in our museum, as well as filling in any front of house vacancies. She is especially passionate about social history which is one of the main factors that brought her to us.
Kylie Yap- Retail Coordinator & Duty Manager
Kylie has been a part of the team for almost seven years, and responsible for the Draper’s Shop for the last three. She is responsible for the shop in Dunollie as well as the online shop and works carefully with our volunteers and local artists to create a variety of bespoke items, gifts and souvenirs for our visitors to enjoy.
During the summer months, she also supports our Front of House Team and ensures our site is running smoothly as a visitor attraction. Outside of her time with us, Kylie is learning sign language and also works in the Oban Library.
Siubhan Griffin - Events & Visitor Services Coordinator
​Siubhan has been a part of the Dunollie team for just over a year. During the summer months she also manages and supports our Front of House team to ensure the smooth running of the site. She is responsible for planning and organising all our special events throughout the year. This is no easy task but she has done incredibly well so far. Outside of her work with us, Siubhan is the co-owner of Wee Bay Tepees, a business which rents out tepees for parties and events and now has a fantastic candy floss machine.
Ali Pate - Catering Coordinator
Ali has joined the team at the end of March 2023 and done a wonderful job reviving the Kettle Garden Café. She is responsible for making up our seasonal menus, purchasing and ordering ingredients and also does all the cooking and baking for our open days and events. Before joining our team, Ali was a teacher at Taynuilt Primary School. Today, in addition to running our café, she has also started her own bakery business in Oban- Western Isles Bakery.
Julia MacLeod - Visitor Services Assistant
​This is Julia’s second season as part of our Front of House team. As visitor services assistant, she welcomes visitors to our site and advises them about the various activities we organise, sells tickets and assists with shop purchases. She also helps in the Kettle Garden Café, where she takes people’s orders and gets them ready for them. Julia has just finished her last year at Oban High School where she was Head Girl and will be heading to university in September.
Nina Craig - Visitor Services Assistant
This is Nina’s first season as part of our Front of House team. As visitor services assistant she helps Ali in the Kettle Garden Café, making sure everything is running smoothly and taking and preparing people’s orders.
In 1592, the MacDougall of Dunollie, Maclean of Duart and Campbell of Ardkinglass were accused of having the Thane of Cawdor murdered. Spookily enough, Nina lives in the house where this murder is said to have taken place.
Katie Cook - Visitor Services Assistant
This is Katie’s first year as part of our front of house team. As visitor services assistant, she helps out in the Kettle Garden Café by making sure everything is running smoothly, taking people’s orders and preparing their food and drinks.
Originally from the isle of Lismore, Katie now spends most of the year in Glasgow where she is studying forensic psychology.
Judith McGregor - Visitor Services Assistant
Judith has been a part of the team for just over a year. During the summer months, she welcomes visitors to our site and advises them about the various activities we organise, sells tickets and assists with Shop Purchases. This summer, Judith is also going to be our storyteller for ‘A Book, A Rhyme and a Crafty Time’ our new children’s activity.
Outside of her time with us, Judith is a keen golfer.
Charis Simpson - Visitor Services Assistant
​This is Charis’ first year as part of our Front of House team. As visitor services assistant, she welcomes visitors to our site and advises them about the various activities we organise, sells tickets and assists with shop purchases. She also helps in the Kettle Garden Café, where she takes people’s orders and gets them ready for them. Outside of her time with us, Charis has recently started beekeeping and is hoping to have her own honey soon.
Ashleigh Williams - Visitor Services Assistant
​This is Ashleigh’s second season as part of our Front of House team. Originally from Texas, she recently relocated to Oban with her family and has been building her life here since. As visitor services assistant, she welcomes visitors to our site and advises them about the various activities we organise, sells tickets and assists with shop purchases. She also helps in the Kettle Garden Café, where she takes people’s orders and gets them ready for them.
Fee Shaw – Gathering Coordinator
Fee first joined our team for a year in 2018 and we are delighted to have her back. She has two young children who are also thrilled as as they consider Dunollie their extended home from spending so much time there when they were little. Since May 2023, Fee has been working with us one day a week to plan next year's international clan gathering. The rest of the week, she works as the Network Manager for the Touring Network, helping ensure live performances tour to the Highlands and Islands and rural Scotland. You may also know her as the Lego Lady as she runs the town's Lego Club.
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​Happy Kincaid – Team Morale Officer & Expert Ball Catcher
Happy lives in the gardener’s cottage just beside the castle hill and comes to say hello to us every day on his walks. Although he has many talents, ball-catching is by far his area of expertise. He brings his own tennis ball with him everywhere he goes and pushes it slightly towards the person of his choosing to signal it is their turn to throw it for him. Beyond his tennis ball passion, Happy is calm and good natured, we all love him very much.
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