Nairn Museum

Nairn Museum Celebrating the rich history and culture of Nairnshire. Nairn Museum is currently open for the 2026 season. https://ko-fi.com/nairnmuseum
(1)

Mon-Fri: 10am-4:30pm
Sat: 10am-1:30pm
Last entry 30 minutes before closing. Nairn Museum offers fascinating insights into the life and times of the town and surrounding area. Permanent displays illustrate various aspects of Nairn's history, and there is a new programme of changing exhibitions every year. The museum particularly welcomes children, providing a range of hands-on exhibits and a safe p

lay area. Facilities for the disabled include a wheelchair and stair lift. A broad range of archive material is available to help with local and family history enquiries, along with over 5,000 digitised photographs covering all aspects of life in Nairnshire. Nairn Museum is an independent museum and registered charity (SC019425). It is indebted to Highland Council for an annual grant towards running costs

📣 We’re hiring: Come join us at Nairn Museum!We’re looking for an Outreach Coordinator (0.8 FTE, 2-year fixed term) to h...
10/04/2026

📣 We’re hiring: Come join us at Nairn Museum!

We’re looking for an Outreach Coordinator (0.8 FTE, 2-year fixed term) to help us connect with diverse communities and bring our collections to life in new and creative ways.
Salary: £33,000 per annum (pro rata)

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a new chapter in our journey, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Communities & Collections Fund. You’ll lead our community engagement work: building relationships, co-creating projects, and exploring themes of inward and outward travel.

Link in the comments for more information.

31/03/2026

🎉Nairn Museum is open for 2026!

⚒️We have a wee bit of building work as essential repairs are underway, but we still have four galleries open, and we make up for inconvenience with enthusiasm!

🎓Here’s our Collections Assistant Lucy, glad to be born in the 21st century so she never experienced the classroom horror of the strap, also known as a belt or tawse!

06/02/2026

Nairn Museum’s Valentine countdown brings you a butter curler! Annie is besmitten with dairy folklore of Scotland and the Highlands, and nothing inspires whimsy quite like a butter curler.

We’ve found some really lovely stories of fairies stealing milk in the Lochloy area of Nairn, so there will be more dairy folklore soon! 💌

03/02/2026

💌 Catching up on Nairn Museum’s Valentine’s calendar, Lucy shows us a beautiful embroidered postcard from the First Word War. Lucy has been working on cataloguing our military collections over January, and has already made some fascinating discoveries.

What an absolute joy and privilege it is to be showing these wonderful objects from Nairn Museum’s collections! 🌷

03/02/2026

💌 Nairn Museum is back with a countdown to Valentine’s Day, offering obscure Valentine advice with the more unusual objects and museum mysteries we come across.
Here, Annie kicks us off with the classic Victorian dried up squid te****le in a jar. What do we do when a wet specimen starts running dry because porous cork is letting the fluid escape? We call in a conservator, the specialist museum professional who deals with the science of repairing and preserving our collections. Although this te****le may only have a little fluid, it’s not dry yet, and so can likely be refilled safely.

Is there a valuable lesson in love to be learnt from this Victorian calamari? Perhaps not. But is wee video from your favourite wee Highland Museum the perfect start to February? Definitely; if you enjoy strange museum musings 🦑

25/12/2025

Here’s a Second World War Extract of Malt and Cod Liver Oil that we found in the attic of Nairn Museum. You may have seen it before, but it was Annie’s highlight of the year finding this, especially after a volunteer told her that they remembered it from childhood and it tastes like fishy toffee! 🐟 🍬 🐠
An absolute pleasure to be making these wee videos and hearing the reflections and connections from folk just down the road to people across the world.
Part 2 of 2 of our Christmas Day advent offering, have a lovely Christmas and a brilliant New Year from all of us at Nairn Museum!

25/12/2025

🥂A very unexpected Second World War Champagne story of resistance. Part 1 of 2 for the final day of Nairn Museum’s wee advent calendar.
Thanks for all the support this wee series has had, it has been a delight to read the messages from across the world.
Slàinte mhath to everyone, have an exceptionally merry Christmas! 🍾🎄

24/12/2025

⚔️Annie and Lucy examining some of Nairn Museum’s Culloden artefacts, and asking how can we tell what’s authentic?
We explore the histories of a battered sporran and a tartan scrap, possible remnants of the Battle of Culloden.
Promise a more festive entry for tomorrow, but at the moment, we’re just honoured to be sharing Highland history online with folk around the world. Thank you so much for all the encouragement we’ve received for our wee videos, and to everyone who has contributed to Nairn Museum: from volunteers keeping the place in order, to Friends and patrons. All your support keeps us going!
Hope you all have a peaceful and warm Christmas Eve!🎄

23/12/2025

Bright clothes for dark days including a fishwife’s skirt and a pair of handmade gloves from 1805.
Day 23 of Nairn Museum’s advent calendar, hope you’re all doing well this festive season! 🎄

22/12/2025

🧶Have you heard the folklore that a drowned fisherman could be identified by the pattern of his gansey?
Rumours of this seem to appear in the mid-20th century, with the decline of the fishing industry and a romanticisation of old ways of life.
However aren’t the unique knitting patterns of each town wonderful? We’re really fortunate that a diligent volunteer knitted samples of them all.
🎄Day 22 of Nairn Museum’s advent calendar!

21/12/2025

☀️Have a marvellous Winter Solstice everyone, as we look forward to brighter days ahead!
For day 21 of Nairn Museum’s Advent Calendar, Annie takes a look at a lovely signal lamp from the very early 1900s.💡

Address

Viewfield House, Viewfield Drive
Nairn
IV124EE

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 10am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 10am - 4:30pm
Thursday 10am - 4:30pm
Friday 10am - 4:30pm
Saturday 10am - 1:30am

Telephone

01667 456791

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Nairn Museum posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category