A project to match hundreds of keys with cabinets and cupboards is under way at the National Trust for Scotland’s House of Dun near Montrose.
Four people, including a retired detective who volunteered to tackle the job that could take months, made a start to their task this week.
Property manager John McKenna said the National Trust for Scotland put out a call for help earlier this year when it discovered that identification tags had fallen off hundreds of keys kept in a safe at House of Dun.
Now, some of the furniture is being moved elsewhere and the House of Dun staff want to be able to send it off with the appropriate keys but do not know which keys belong to doors, cupboards and drawers staying on the premises and which belong to items on the move.
“Twenty-two years ago somebody put the key safe together and Sellotaped identification tags to every key,” said Mr McKenna. “Unfortunately, when we went to open it up, the Sellotape had dried out and all the tags had fallen off and were lying in the bottom of the safe. We had hundreds of keys and didn’t know where they fitted.”
He said there had been a phenomenal response to the earlier call for help, with interest from all over the UK. A small team of locals has been chosen, including retired scenes of crimes officer Bob Stirling and librarian and archivist Sheila Henderson.
“We were really pleased with the response to our call for volunteers to help us marry up all our keys with all their relevant locks wherever those may be,” he said.
“We have assembled a crack team, including a former scenes of crimes officer and a librarian and archivist, so solving riddles and dealing with the treasures that are uncovered will be no problem for them.”
He added, “When you look at historic furniture, most of it has locks on every drawer and a key for each one … I think the gentry was twitchy about servants with their valuables.”
He said the project and transfer of furniture could uncover surprises.
“There might be a Faberge egg hiding behind a cupboard here,” he said.