Glencoe Folk Museum

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Glencoe Folk Museum Now CLOSED for Redevelopment! We will reopen in 2027. Keep up to date here or on our website! We are currently CLOSED for Redevelopment. We will reopen in 2026.

Keep up to date with our Redevelopment project here and on our website, where we will be bringing you behind-the-scenes snippets, photos, progress reports and more! Set within traditional, heather-thatched 19th Century cottages, Glencoe Folk Museum holds an eclectic array of objects celebrating local heritage and providing an insight into the history of the area and its people. Our collections include the Jacobites, archaeology, medicine, slate, ceramics, toys, costume, military and more! Learn about the infamous Massacre of Glencoe * Explore an authentic croft cottage * Take part in craft activities and other fun events * Browse our gift shop * Become a volunteer

It's so here's a photograph from our archives, of staff at Ballachulish Railway Station before its closure in 1966. We...
12/10/2026

It's so here's a photograph from our archives, of staff at Ballachulish Railway Station before its closure in 1966.

We unfortunately don't have a date or any other information about it - can anyone put any names to faces for us?

Discover Glencoe, Scotland

Glimpses of a lovely autumnal day here today ⛰️🍁☀️😍Discover Glencoe, Scotland
06/10/2026

Glimpses of a lovely autumnal day here today ⛰️🍁☀️😍

Discover Glencoe, Scotland

Today is ! 🥳🏛️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 This year's theme is "The ABC of Scottish Museums", celebrating the extraordinary objects, stor...
03/10/2026

Today is ! 🥳🏛️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This year's theme is "The ABC of Scottish Museums", celebrating the extraordinary objects, stories, and collections that make up Scotland’s museums, libraries, galleries, archives, and heritage sites! Check out Scottish Museums Federation A-Z of Scottish Museums, bringing together weird and wonderful objects from museums across the country! 🔤

We've chosen our letter and claimed our place in SMF's collective alphabet, but we decided to be greedy and do our own one too! So, here is the ABC of Glencoe Folk Museum - can you name all the objects? And can you notice which letter we had to skip!? 🙅‍♀️👀

Discover Glencoe, Scotland
Museums and Heritage Highland

It's ! 🥌 Did you know that curling is thought to have originated in Scotland in the 16th Century? The earliest known cu...
30/09/2026

It's !

🥌 Did you know that curling is thought to have originated in Scotland in the 16th Century? The earliest known curling stone dates to 1511, and the first known written record of (an early version of) the sport - by notary John McQuhin - details a challenge between a monk and a relative of the Abbot in Paisley in 1540.

📸: This photo from our collection shows a local curling game taking place on a frozen loch near Glencoe House nearly 400 years later!

Discover Glencoe, Scotland

Sometimes redeveloping a Museum means site visits, exciting building updates, steel beams being erected and concrete bei...
29/09/2026

Sometimes redeveloping a Museum means site visits, exciting building updates, steel beams being erected and concrete being poured, incredible object restorations, celebrating successful funding bids, and seeing exhibition designs come to life...and sometimes it is sitting in front of a laptop all day, balancing accounts, working out tricky object placement issues, rewriting text, hours spent writing and submitting funding applications, funding rejections, project delays, endless meetings, and being unable to access objects for years because our stores are so full!

Obviously it's the shiny stuff that get shared on socials the most, so here are some of the bits you don't usually see - the boring but necessary work behind the scenes that keeps everything moving forwards and lets us reach those "yays!"

Discover Glencoe, Scotland
Museums and Heritage Highland
The National Lottery Heritage Fund

⚔️ It's a ! 💫 The Highland Museum of Childhood challenged us to share one of our star objects - so here is our Clan Don...
25/09/2026

⚔️ It's a !

💫 The Highland Museum of Childhood challenged us to share one of our star objects - so here is our Clan Donald Genealogical Chart, an item that people visit our museum specifically to see in person!

✒️👑 Compiled in 1814 by John Brown, genealogist to the Prince of Wales, it is a beautifully written and illustrated chart depicting the various branches of Clan Donald and including both the ancient Kings of Scotland and the Lords of the Isles. Each name featured includes a short fact, for example how they died or who they married, and other information is depicted by images – a crown represents a sovereign prince, shaking hands show a marriage between branches and a baton sinister denotes illegitimacy.

🤴 Famous names featured include King Duncan I (“he was a mild, good and virtuous prince, but was traitorously murdered by his cousin Macbeth in the castle of Forres in the sixth year of his reign”), Flora MacDonald (“This lady is famous for the protection she afforded to Prince Charles after his defeat at Culloden”) and Alastair "MacIain" MacDonald, 12th Chief of Glencoe who was murdered during the infamous Massacre of Glencoe in 1692.

🔥 The chart was damaged by smoke and water in 1984 when an arsonist set fire to our thatched roof, but it was later restored by a paper conservator, framed and sealed to prevent damage from fluctuations in environmental conditions and protected by UV film to avoid any further fading. It will be displayed in "Our Clans" when we reopen next year, but in the meantime you can get a close-up view of all the names on our website: https://www.glencoemuseum.com/clan-donald

🪾 Fancy seeing your own name on this chart? It will form the template for our "Family Tree" of Sponsors - anyone who donates £50 or more will appear on the chart in our reception, celebrating those who supported our Redevelopment. https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/glencoemuseumredevelopment

🤺 We nominate Ullapool Museum and West Highland Museum to join the challenge next - show us what you've got!

Discover Glencoe, Scotland
Museums and Heritage Highland

Today marks the last day of astronomical summer, with the autumn equinox occurring in the early hours of tomorrow mornin...
22/09/2026

Today marks the last day of astronomical summer, with the autumn equinox occurring in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The nights are drawing in, the colours are turning, the brambles are ripe, the stags are roaring - and Glencoe will soon look like this! 😍🍁🍂🦌

Discover Glencoe, Scotland

Steeling the show this week are our builders who have completed the framework for our new extension building! 🪏😁Thanks t...
18/09/2026

Steeling the show this week are our builders who have completed the framework for our new extension building! 🪏😁

Thanks to the teams at Taylor & Fraser and Parkhead Welding our redevelopment plans are leaping off the drawing board and into reality 🖍💭👷‍♀️

🏛️ Read about our Redevelopment plans and stay up to date by signing up to our newsletter on our website here: https://www.glencoemuseum.com/redevelopment

☕️ Thirsty work hauling steel beams around - support our project and keep the builders supplied with caffeine by chipping in the price of a coffee! https://buymeacoffee.com/glencoemuseum

Discover Glencoe, Scotland
Museums and Heritage Highland
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Museums Galleries Scotland

It has been an unseasonably wet September so far, but here are some glimpses of sun, late summer colours and local views...
15/09/2026

It has been an unseasonably wet September so far, but here are some glimpses of sun, late summer colours and local views from the past couple of weeks - do you recognise them all? 💜⛰️

Summer in Glencoe was honestly a bit of a washout this year, so we're already looking forward to the autumn colours and hoping for some crisp, dry days 🍂🍁🙏

Discover Glencoe, Scotland

Here's one for the train enthusiast in your life! 🚂 Steam locomotives once carried people, goods, and stories across Sco...
13/09/2026

Here's one for the train enthusiast in your life! 🚂

Steam locomotives once carried people, goods, and stories across Scotland - and each one proudly bore its own nameplate. This “Clan MacDonald” nameplate once adorned British Railways locomotive No. 72004, one of a class of steam engines built in the early 1950s and popularly known as the “Clans”.

Could you adopt our Clan MacDonald Nameplate to help preserve our artefacts for generations to come? It costs just £20 to adopt the nameplate and currently your adoption is valid for 3 years! However, anyone donating £50 or more will be recognised through their very own leaf on the redeveloped Museum's Tree of Sponsors.

You can adopt the Steam Locomotive Nameplate here ❤️:
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/glencoefolkmuseum-clanmacdonaldnameplate

When making your donation, you must tick the box that says; “I’m happy for Glencoe Folk Museum to keep in touch with me by email” so we can send you the digital adoption pack. Otherwise, we won’t know your contact details.

Address

Glencoe Village
Ballachulish
PH494HS

Opening Hours

Tuesday 11am - 3pm
Wednesday 11am - 3pm
Thursday 11am - 3pm
Friday 11am - 3pm
Saturday 11am - 3pm
Sunday 12pm - 4pm

Telephone

+441855811664

Website

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