Highland Folk Museum

16/06/2026

IT’S OUR 90TH BIRTHDAY!

On June 16th 1936, Isabel Grant welcomed the first visitors into her museum which she’d established on the island of Iona.

She’d collected hundreds of objects which told the story of Highland culture and history, and of how people had lived and worked in the past.

She called her museum Am Fasgadh, the Shelter. This unique collection of irreplaceable objects from across the Highlands included everything from furniture to peat spades, tartan plaids to horn spoons, ploughs to silver jewellery.

By the time she retired in 1954 she’d collected over four thousand objects, and also built three traditional Highland houses.

We’ve continued with her original vision and the collection has tripled in size and we now have nearly 40 historic buildings!

Isabel Grant opened the doors to her museum 90 years ago today and we’re so proud to continue her legacy of sharing history with visitors from all over the world. Happy birthday to us!

Read more about the Highland Folk Museum in this new blog post, out today to celebrate our anniversary:
https://www.highlifehighland.com/blog/posts/celebrating-90-years-of-the-highland-folk-museum

Our open-air site is open every day until October 25th. The museum collections can be viewed on bookable store tours, every Wednesday afternoon at 2pm, email [email protected] or phone 01349 781650.

Museums and Heritage Highland
High Life Highland
Museums Galleries Scotland

11/06/2026

Outlander Day 2026 - Thank you!

On the 6th June we celebrated our 10th Outlander Day in our 1700’s township, and what a great day it was! We met loads of visitors in fantastic costumes and had some brilliant exhibitors/speakers throughout the day, we even had some shinty and lacemaking activities this year too.

Congrats to our costume competition winner, we hope to see you in 2027 where you can help judge the next one!

A huge thank you to Inverness Outlanders for hosting the event with us, our speakers Marion Smart, Dr Alex Dold, and Lorraine from Clan Pictures, The Outlandish Jacobite, the Badenoch Waulking Group, and our other exhibitors, volunteers and staff – we couldn’t do it without you!

If you’d like to learn more about Outlander day this year, you can check out our new blogpost ‘The 10th Outlander Day at the Highland Folk Museum: a look back at a brilliant day’ at the link below –

https://www.highlifehighland.com/blog/posts/the-10th-outlander-day-at-the-highland-folk-museum-a-look-back-at-a-brilliant-day

See you next year!

Clan Pictures Comhlan Luadh Bhàideanach Inverness Outlanders The Outlandish Jacobite High Life Highland VisitCairngorms Cairngorms National Park Museums and Heritage Highland Badenoch The Storylands

05/06/2026

It’s Volunteers’ Week, and we want to say a huge thank you to all of our volunteers who support the museum in so many different ways!

In total these wonderful folk have volunteered over 1000 hours of their time in the past year, from providing regular guided tours in the Am Fasgadh collections store, to cataloguing hundreds of books in our library and helping to digitise our irreplaceable museum records. They assist our curators with all kinds of hands-on jobs like cleaning objects, freezing items to prevent any pest activity, and auditing the collection.

They also help our visitors to have a truly unique experience taking coracles out on the calm waters of our curling pond, and seeing traditional metalworking in the Smiddy.

Thank you to Chris, David, Nigel, Lillias, John, Erika, Liz, Nick, Raymond and Jeremy for your time, dedication and passion!




Museums and Heritage Highland
High Life Highland

04/06/2026

2 Days to Outlander Day!

Join us at the Highland Folk Museum for our annual Outlander Day this Saturday from 11am to 4pm in our Township.

There will be a programme of talks led by Marion Smart, historian Dr Alex Dold, and Lorraine Cullin from Clan Pictures , as well as demonstrations on thatching, lacemaking, and weaving throughout the day.

We'll also be joined by The Outlandish Jacobite this year, who'll be selling handmade 18th Century inspired clothing and taking custom orders!

There'll also be a small pop-up shop at the event selling books, jewellery, drinks and snacks. 🙂

We hope to see you there!

Inverness Outlanders High Life Highland VisitCairngorms Badenoch The Storylands Cairngorms National Park Museums and Heritage Highland VisitScotland

01/06/2026

Thank you Am Baile - Highland History and Culture for featuring Am Fasgadh, we are very proud to now have Dr Grant's collection all on one site, almost ninety years on from when the Museum was created on Iona in 1936 😊

High Life Highland VisitCairngorms Museums Galleries Scotland Museums and Heritage Highland VisitScotland Badenoch The Storylands Cairngorms National Park

On this day in 1944, Dr Isabel F. Grant opened 'Am Fasgadh' ('The Shelter'), aka the Highland Folk Museum, to the public at its new home at . The "relics of the old way of life" which she had gathered had previously been exhibited in Iona and at Laggan in the 1930s. An additional site at Newtonmore was opened in 1987 and 20 years later, this became its sole home.

[souce: Highland Folk Museum]

28/05/2026

Vintage Day 2026 - That's a wrap! 🚜

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our annual Vintage Day this year, we had some brilliant exhibitors who brought a range of exhibits for people to enjoy including motor bikes, Raleigh choppers, cars, tractors, stationary engines, and even a bus!

An extra big thank you to our museum staff, helpers, and volunteers who worked the event - we couldn't do it without you.

We've got more events in the coming weeks including Outlander Day and the Highland Rising, we hope to see you there!

High Life Highland VisitCairngorms Cairngorms National Park Badenoch The Storylands Museums and Heritage Highland

24/05/2026

We're Hiring - General Site Attendants

We're looking for a new member to join our General Site attendant team here at the museum.

Our site attendants are responsible for opening the museum site and buildings, making sure we're ready for visitors each day, as well as assisting our reception with welcoming visitors.

The post closes on Sunday the 31st of May, if you'd like to learn more about the role and how to apply please visit the link below -

https://www.highlifehighland.com/about-us/recruitment/jobs/seasonal-visitor-experience-assistant-general-site?_gl=1*np3r3q*_up*MQ..*_ga*OTE5OTI5NDIwLjE3Nzk1NDMxODY.*_ga_45TXEQCDF7*czE3Nzk1NDMxODUkbzEkZzEkdDE3Nzk1NDMyMzgkajckbDAkaDA.

23/05/2026

Just 2 weeks to Outlander Day!

On the 6th of June from 11am to 4pm we'll have our annual Outlander Day, organised in collaboration with the Inverness Outlander Association.

You can enjoy a programme of talks/demos including Alex Dold - Dr of Outlander, Marion from our Township team on 17th century dyeing and weaving, and a demonstration by the Badenoch Waulking Group.

Why not dress up and join in our costume competition? Or try some traditional crafts?

We hope to see you there!

Inverness Outlanders High Life Highland Badenoch The Storylands VisitCairngorms Cairngorms National Park Museums and Heritage Highland

20/05/2026

4 Days to Vintage Day!

Join us on the 24th of May at the Highland Folk Museum for our biggest event of the year - Vintage Day!

Enjoy vintage cars, motorbikes, stationary engines, buses, tractors, choppers, lorries, auto jumble, BBQ, stalls and more - fun for all the family.

As always there's no set charge for entry and donations are welcome.

The event runs from 10am to 4pm, we hope to see you there!

High Life Highland Badenoch The Storylands VisitCairngorms Cairngorms National Park Museums and Heritage Highland Museums Galleries Scotland

20/05/2026

PLAID NAN GRANNDACH

We're delighted to have two plaids from our collection on display at Grantown Museum, as part of their exhibition of Strathspey textiles.

One plaid dates from the 18th century, and one from the 19th century. They were donated to the Highland Folk Museum collection from the Grant family of Achnarrow, which is a few miles from Grantown. The plaids had been passed down through the generations - the older one is embroidered with the initials "I M", believed to refer to Isabella McGregor, born in 1843, whose mother was a Grant.

The exhibition is on until the end of July - do take a visit to see these fantastic local plaids and other fascinating textiles on display!