Nestled in the hills of rural Angus, the Glenesk Folk Museum has been a welcoming space for all creatures great and small for decades. Alongside our human visitors we often play host to Red Kites, Red Squirrels, stray sheep, and bats!

The museum has been closed for the last year, and in that time some little fluffy friends have made the shutters to our Agricultural Display Building their new home. They've tucked themselves into a snug little space and are hoping to stay there long term as the nights get colder and they start to get ready for hibernation.

"That's adorable!" I hear you say. "What a lovely story! ...but wait, what does that have to do with fundraising?"

An excellent question, give yourself a pat on the back and a crisp high five. You see, in Scotland bats are a protected species, and disturbing them deliberately or otherwise is a crime. Usually this isn't a problem as they will nest out of the way of humans, but unfortunately these bats are mistaken in their choice of roost. While the doors have been shut for a while, we need to be able to open them to let light into the displays, without which our human visitors would be as blind as ... moles. If we were to leave them alone the building would be unusable (boo!) but if we disturb them we go to prison (also boo!).

And holy snug lodgings batman we have a solution! With proper consultation we can rehome these bats, giving them a lovely winter home that they can come back to for years to come. This is where we need your help.

Getting the bats rehomed involves working with a Consultant Ecologist (the lovely Steff from Landcare Northeast) to understand what species are living at the museum, and providing them with a bat box to move into. Our modest fundraising target will pay for the box and consultation fees to make sure this work can happen in time for hibernation. If by your kindness and generosity we end up beating our target all the extra money will be used to teach people about the bats when they visit the museum. Our big dream is to have a live feed of the bat box available for viewing, giving people a look into the lives of these cute little fluffballs. But really anything we can do to teach people about the fascinating lives of bats and how they can be good neighbours to nature will be an amazing opportunity.

No home should be without a name either, so feel free to suggest one in your donation comment and we'll pick our favourite from the suggestions :)

Thank you for your support and we look forward to showing off our new bat residence soon!

Update - you were all so immediately generous that we've been able to order the bat home already! Let's keep going to make this the fanciest bat space in all of Angus!