Introduction

Heritage (hi)stories, digital skills enhancement and community empowerment are frequently cited ingredients in the mix of approaches to promoting community regeneration and development. Between October 2014 and March 2015 two University of Leeds-led projects explored some of these themes with residents of the Isle of Bute, Scotland. Jointly, the projects brought together community, academic, institutional and private sector partners to create new digital tools to support heritage-based community research and creative expression, and to further explore questions about heritage perception and digital engagement.

In this chapter, I reflect on my experiences as the local partner lead for both projects and explore what can be understood from them about the relationship between communities, digital heritage archives, institutions and heritage engagement. I also discuss the meaningful contribution that projects such as Pararchive can make in the wider context of national ambitions for digitally engaged communities, and how project implementation might usefully be aligned with local communities in the future.

Introduction to the Isle of Bute

The Isle of Bute is a small island situated in the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. It is 15 miles long and 4 miles wide. The majority of the island's (circa 6500) residents live in an extended urban ribbon along the central east coast, focused around the main town of Rothesay. The remainder are mostly scattered throughout the rural hinterland in small villages, farms and in former farm buildings.

The island is well positioned in respect to the central belt of Scotland and enjoys transport links that allow a journey to/from the centre of Glasgow in 90 minutes. Despite best efforts, however, uncertain island sustainability has had a corresponding negative impact on community resilience. Economic changes in the second half of the 20th century, particularly a collapse in tourist numbers and an increasingly technologised agricultural economy, led to a loss of around 35 per cent of residents between 1951 and 1971, and by 2011 it was estimated that Bute had only around 50 per cent of the 1951 population level. Social and local employment statistics mirror this decline, highlighting the weak performance of the Bute economy compared to both regional and national averages (Ekos, 2010; HIE, 2014).