The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has revealed that an anonymous £600,000 donation to the Hugh Miller Museum and Birthplace Cottage in Cromarty was made in memory of three of his direct descendants.

The descendants are Hugh and Lydia Miller’s three great-great-granddaughters, the recently deceased sisters Marian McKenzie Johnston, Bright Gordon and Lydia Clarke. The gift will be used to create the Middleton Fund, which is to be used solely to meet the costs of staffing and keeping the properties open.

The NTS has confirmed that it will shortly reinstate a full-time curator/manager, and restore the museum’s opening hours to seven days a week during the 2011 summer season. Hugh Miller rose from being a journeyman stonemason to receiving international acclaim as a geologist, editor, writer and folk historian. He also won fame as an evangelical church reformer.

The museum bearing his name comprises two buildings - Miller House, a Georgian-period villa, and the iconic 17th century thatched Birthplace Cottage. The three sisters were born Middleton, granddaughters of Sir Thomas Middleton of Rosefarm, Cromarty, whose wife Lydia was Hugh Miller’s granddaughter. The Middletons have been farmers in The Black Isle for over 200 years, with Bright Gordon being the last.