WWI John McCallum and Mary Anne McCullan (nee Cameron) on their wedding day 1916
Small wooden bowl possibly for soup of porridge. It was found in the Governor's House at Fort William when the fort was demolished in 1938.
The perception of the Highlands changed radically during the Victorian era. Queen Victoria popularised Highland culture and the growth of the road and rail networks made the Highlands more accessible to visitors. At the same time the expansion of the British Empire encouraged Highland folk to emigrate and explore the world. Our Victorian collection includes important artefacts directly associated with Queen Victoria. Some of our most interesting 19th century objects are featured in the gallery. Highlights include the elaborate Highland outfit gifted by Queen Victoria to her Highland servant, John Brown and a fabulous beetle wing dress owned by a crofter’s daughter who travelled to India with the British Army.
Sport has always been pursued enthusiastically in the Highlands and participants often take advantage of our unique landscape, whether it be for mountaineering, mountain racing, or hunting. Shinty is still the most popular sport in the Highlands and a Camanachd Cup medal from the second ever final in 1897 is featured in the gallery. Other highlights of the gallery include the Lochaber strongman, AA Cameron’s championship belt, and the Ben Race medal won in 1902 by Lucy Cameron. She ran up Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, in a record time of 2 hours and 3 minutes.
Our fascinating archaeology collection includes ancient pottery and metalwork, arrowheads and stonework, salvage from the wreck of a Spanish Galleon, and clothing and artefacts from a 1500-year-old crannog site. Highlights from our collection have been showcased in this gallery. Don’t miss the 3D model of our Neolithic stone axe, found near Roy Bridge in 1876, or our late Bronze Age gold armlets unearthed by a crofter who dreamt he would find treasure if he dug in a certain place.
The museum is located in Fort William. The town is named for the fort built here in 1690 and the area has historically been of great strategic and political importance to the control of the Highlands. Much of the area's military stories revolve around the 1745 Jacobite Rising, but the museum also holds a fascinating collection of clothing, guns, medals, and other objects associated with Highland regiments, from the Boer War to the Second World War. One highlight of the gallery is a 360-degree tour of the Governor’s room from the old fort; this is where the order for the Massacre of Glencoe was signed in 1692. Don’t miss the opportunity to find out about the history of our Victorian pistols used in India in the 19th century, or examine the 1st Marquis of Montrose’s helmet close up.
Lochaber is known as the cradle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. It was here at Glenfinnan that Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his father’s Standard to signal the start of the Rising and here that the Prince hid in the hills, hunted by the British Army after the Jacobites were defeated at the Battle of Culloden. The museum’s Jacobite collection is world famous and features numerous objects associated with key figures from the campaign such as Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald. Gallery highlights for objects associated with the Prince have fascinating stories to tell, from a tree root stool which sisters feuded over, to banknotes he commissioned to pay his Army. Not to be missed is our iconic Secret Portrait, an anamorphic hidden image of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
The rugged landscape and geographical isolation of much of the Scottish Highlands made it a relatively inaccessible place for much of its political and cultural history. This resulted in the evolution of its own very unique traditions, cultural life, and folklore. Our Highland Life gallery includes a diverse selection of objects relating to important personalities such as the outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor and the Gaelic poet Iain Lom. As you explore the gallery, look out for the legendary Faery Pipes, bagpipes said to have been played at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, or the St. Kilda mailboat, a unique system used by the residents of this archipelago to deliver their post to the mainland.
The museum has an important collection of fine art and photography in its collections from the 18th to 20th centuries. It was difficult to choose examples for this gallery so we have featured a diverse selection of images that showcase our collection. Highlights include, an oil on canvas by Sir D Y Cameron depicting October in Knoydart from the 20th century, and a watercolour by renowned Victorian artist and illustrator Jemima Blackburn. Both artists have links to the west Highlands, Cameron was an early member of the museum and prints he prepared from the Strange Plate in 1928 are on display in the Jacobite gallery. Blackburn lived locally at Roshven and was described by contemporaries as one of the most talented illustrators of her day.
These images were created as part of the Highland Threads digital exhibition - an online collection curated from fourteen Highland museum collections which tell the stories of their best costumes. you can visit the full exhibition here - https://highlandthreads.co.uk/
This pot still has a mysterious history. It was found abandoned anonymously on the steps of the museum in the 1920s. The damage was caused by some over-zealous excisemen determined that the still would not be used again. There was a long tradition of illicit distilling in the Highlands. The government tried to control whisky production, and the 1788 Excise Act banned the use of stills making less than 100 gallons (450 litres) at a time. Legal whisky was poor quality, due to the high taxes imposed on the malted grain used to make it. Since the illicit stills paid no tax, and could use good malted grain, their whisky could be smuggled to markets where it would fetch a higher price than that made by the licensed distilleries.
This glass bottle contains a fine whisky said to be almost 200 years old. The faded label reads "from Jas. Young, Family Grocer, Wine & Spirit Merchant, High St. Fort William". James Young died in 1894. The whisky was gifted to the museum by Young’s successor, Walter Cameron. The second object is a copper smuggler's measure. The measure has been holed by the dastardly Excise men so that it could not be used again. It was found under the old hotel at Invergarry and gifted to the museum in 1926.
West Highlands Museum Blog - New Hidden Portrait Jacobite Snuff Box
West Highlands Museum Blog - A Fragment of Prince Charlie’s Tartan Plaid
West Highland Museum exhibition catalogue
A catalogue for the 1925 West Highland Museum’s exhibition titled “Prince Charles Edward and the ’45 Campaign”. The West Highland Museum was founded in 1922 by a group of local history enthusiasts under the guidance of museum founder, Victor Hodgson. The museum did not have a permanent building until 1926, but ran a series of summer exhibitions as it started its fledgling collection. The 1925 exhibition was the museum’s first major exhibition and significant loans and acquisitions were obtained to make the event possible. This book illustrates how the Jacobites have been at the core of the museum’s collections policy since its inception. This copy of the catalogue belonged to one Duncan Grant and tucked inside is a letter from our founder Victor Hodgson thanking him for sending the packages which arrived safely “which are lying in the bank safe until we arrange the Exhibition”.
West Highland Museum Blog - WORN AT CULLODEN
West Highland Museum Blog - THE STORY OF THE GAELIC BARD IAIN LOM
West Highland Museum Blog - The Prince's Gift
West Highland Museum Blog - THE HEPBURN BEQUEST
West Highland Museum Blog - THE GLEN ROY CRUET AND CRANACHAN ROAD MASS STONE
West Highland Museum Blog - THE BEETLE WING DRESS
West Highland Museum Blog - ST KILDA, THE PEOPLE
West Highland Museum Blog - ST KILDA, THE EVACUATION
West Highland Museum Blog - ST KILDA AND THE LAST OF THE "PENGUINS"
West Highland Museum Blog - ST KILDA - SMALLPOX, OR WAS IT?
West Highland Museum Blog - PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART'S PRAYER BOOK
West Highland Museum Blog - MAJOR MACFARLANE'S PISTOLS
West Highland Museum Blog - JEMIMA BLACKBURN: A VICTORIAN PIONEER
West Highland Museum Blog - ALUMINIUM IN LOCHABER
West Highland Museum Blog - A LOCHABER LOVE STORY
West Highland Museum Blog - A GLIMPSE INTO THE HISTORY OF THE WEST HIGHLAND MUSEUM: THE 1925 JACOBITE EXHIBITION
The West Highland Museum 100 project showcases digital cultural heritage from the Western Highlands of Scotland. This collaboration between West Highland Museum and the University of St Andrews is exploring new ways of interacting with heritage, taking the museum experience into the home.
This blackthorn walking stick is special for its association with the 1745 Rising. Soon after Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720 - 1788) first arrived on the Scottish mainland he stayed at Kinlochmoidart House before he proceeded to Glenfinnan where he raised the Standard and signalled the start of the 1745 Rising. This walking stick was carried by Donald Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart (born before 1705 – 1746) at the raising of the Standard on 19 August 1745. He was captured during the rising and executed at Carlisle in October 1746.
Two pairs of pistols that belonged to Lochaber man Major James MacFarlane (1774 - 1849) who worked in India with the Honourable East India Company. The first pair are percussion pistols with octagonal barrels, a ramrod, and a belt hook, and were made by gunsmith W. Powell. They date from the 1830s or early 1840s. There is a pistol and a spare. They would probably have been sold together in a presentation box, usually with gunpowder and a bullet making kit. The second pair are percussion mechanism pistols made by Hewson of London, a fairly big gun manufacturer of the era. These pistols have been dated to the first decade of the 19th century. They are a last defence weapon and a person would conceal the weapon on their person and use it to either end their own life, or the life of their attacker.
A two-sided chair with an embroidered velvet seat said to have been used by Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720 - 1788). The embroidered inscription reads “August 23 1745 Prince Charles Edward stayed the first night of his march to Inverness with John and Jean Cameron at Fassiefern by Kinlochiel”. Three white feathers in a crown and a white rose are embroidered.
This unimposing curved stool made from a tree root has a fascinating history. A label attached to the object states “Stool on which Prince Charlie sat when in hiding in Uist after Culloden.” It was given to the pioneering Victorian folklorist Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912) by Rachel MacDonald, the great granddaughter of Morag MacDonald. Legend has it that three sisters living on a croft on Uist provided food to Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720 - 1788) one evening when his party passed through the area when they were on the run from Hanoverian troops in 1746. When the sisters realised who their visitor was, they quarrelled as to whom should keep the stool. Morag won the fight and the stool became a treasured family heirloom, until it was gifted to Alexander Carmichael. Part of the Carmichael Collection is now in the museum’s care, while his archive is in the care of Edinburgh University.
Print made by the prominent Scottish artist and etcher Sir D Y Cameron (1865 -1945). In 1928 The Strange Plate came into the museum’s collection, a copper plate made in 1746 and intended to print bank notes for the Jacobite cause. Cameron, was one of the earliest supporters of the museum which was founded in 1922. As one of the foremost printers of his day, he printed 57 signed proofs from the plate and these were sold for 10/6 to raise funds for the museum. Prints sold at auction in 2019 and 2020 made £875 and £1,625 respectively. The object featured in the West Highland Museum’s “Prince Charles Edward and the ’45 Campaign” exhibition, 1925.
A copper printing plate commissioned by Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720 - 1788) in 1746. Designed and etched by the artist Robert Strange (1721 -1792), the plate is completely unique and was intended to be used to print bank notes during the 1745 Rising, but was never used. When the Jacobite army was defeated at the Battle of Culloden, the army fled and the plate was found abandoned at Loch Laggan. It was presented to Clan MacPherson and remained in their care until the museum purchased it in 1928. The object featured in the West Highland Museum’s “Prince Charles Edward and the ’45 Campaign” exhibition, 1925.
Blog looking at the history of the mort safe
An anamorphic hidden painting of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720 - 1788). At first glance the object appears to be a smear of oil paints on a black wooden board, but when paired with a mirrored cylinder, the true nature of this unique object is revealed. Prince Charlie is reflected right back at you! Discovered by chance in a London junk shop in 1924 and purchased for £8 by the museum’s founder, Victor Hodgson, it has been a star object in our collection ever since. In the 18th century it was treasonable to support the exiled Stuart dynasty, so their supporters known as Jacobites, devised ways to secretly display their loyalty. They developed an elaborate series of codes and symbols to hide their allegiances from the ruling Hanoverian regime. This is one of the most unusual examples of Jacobite material culture. The portrait would have been used to drink toasts to the exiled Prince. If a non-Jacobite came into the room, the cylinder could be whisked away and allegiances hidden. The Secret Portrait featured in the West Highland Museum’s “Prince Charles Edward and the ’45 Campaign” exhibition, 1925.
A tooth mounted in a hand-carved ivory frame. The tooth is said to have belonged to Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720 - 1788). It is very rare and thought to be the only known example of a tooth from the Prince in any museum collection. The tooth is barely worn and would suggest it was probably removed from him as a child. It was gifted to the museum by the Fairfax-Lucy’s of Callart House in 1975.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart's (1720 - 1788) death mask. Thought to be a copy of an original made by Barnar dina Lucchesi, one of a family of modellers in Rome. brought this mask to Scotland in 1839. The mask had been handed down through his family. Lucchesi settled in Glasgow where he continued to work as a modeller until 1863. Lucchesi fell on hard times and some of his belongings, including the mask, were sold. Eventually the mask ended up being purchased by a sculptor named Ferguson. When it came into Ferguson's possession it was said to have hairs attached adhering to the eyebrows and eyelids! This bronze cast of the death mask was loaned to the museum in 1951 by the Scottish independence campaigner Wendy Wood.
This basket hilted broadsword dates from either the late 17th or early 18th century. Basket-hilts were swords with a basket-shaped guard to protect the hand, and were common throughout Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The most famous of this type in Scotland was the Scottish Claymore. Although this sword is in fairly decayed condition it has been included in the gallery because it has fascinating story behind it. It was found by chance in a cave at the head of Loch Treig called Craig-guanach in 1880 and given to Sir Alfred MacAulay, who gifted it to the museum in 1938. When it was found the bones of a man's arm and hand were found holding the sword. Tradition has it that there was a big clan battle near Craig-guanach and it is possible that a clansman injured in the battle crawled into the cave and died there.
This is the largest object in the West Highland Museum collection and maybe one of the most intriguing. It came from the old fort (An Gearasdan) at Fort William and dates back to 1690. This was a strategic strong hold at the southern end of the Great Glen. Built in 1654 it was named Fort William, after King William III. The fort gained notoriety for its role in the infamous Glen Coe Massacre of 1692. It was unsuccessfully besieged by the Jacobites during the uprising of 1745, and served as a disembarkation point for those leaving Scotland during the Highland Clearances. When the old fort at Fort William was demolished, the wooden panelling from the Governor's house dining room was dismantled and re-erected inside the museum in 1937. Money for restoration was raised by a public appeal. When the layers of paper and colour wash had been scraped off the original eau de nil colour was revealed. The panelling was then restored to this original 17th century colouring. This room is very popular with Outlander fans because it featured in the first novel. Inside the room is a round mahogany Cromwellian wine table. It is reputed to have belonged to Colonel Hill, who was Governor of Fort William during the Massacre of Glencoe. There are other objects on display in the room relating to the old fort including the iron door key to the Governor's house and the lock to the gate of the old fort.
A large round boulder with a hole bored partially through it. This is a stone with an iconic history. It was originally from Glenfinnan and by tradition is thought to have been used to support the Standard of Prince Charles Edward Stuart when it was raised in August 1745 to signal the beginning of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. The stone remained in situ at Glenfinnan until 1989 when it disappeared from a knoll near the Glenfinnan Monument. It was discovered in an English rockery in 2009 following a BBC programme. The stone is in the care of the museum until a suitable home can be found for it at Glenfinnan.
Said to have been made more than 800 years ago, the Faery bagpipes of Kinlochmoidart, are very special as they are thought to be one of the oldest set of pipes in existence and the first with two holes, adding an extra sounding hole at the end of the chanter. The legend is that the MacIntyre piper made the pipes after he had a dream where a “faery” came to him and told him to ‘Heat up your poker until it’s white hot and pierce the bottom of your chanter side to side and it will make the sweetest sound in Scotland.’ The pipes were said to have been played at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 by MacIntyre, Clanranald's piper. The pipes are supposed to be enchanted and never been played by the losing side of a battle. Only the chanter now survives of the original, the blow-pipe, the drone and the tartan bag date from a later period. An engraved silver plate has also been added to the drone to commemorate the pipe’s importance. When Macintyre's descendant emigrated to America early in the 19th century, the pipes were left in the care of Lieut. Colonel Donald Macdonald of the Royal Scots, 7th of Kinlochmoidart, so that they should not leave the Highlands. They are now on long term loan to the museum. In July 2018 the pipes were played at the Clan MacIntyre clan gathering. This was only the fourth time they had been played in 200 years. The video shows Ruaraidh Petre MacIntyre playing the pipes in Glenoe by Loch Etive, the ancestral lands of MacIntyres.
This object is a bit of a mystery. Known as the Clanranald Anvil, it probably dates back to the 14th or 15th century. It is a very heavy irregular lump of iron, and could also be called a swaging block, for the precise shaping of sheet metal by an armourer. There is some speculation it could be a meteorite, but this has yet to be proven. It was found in the 1920s by a man named John MacDonald among the remains of a deserted settlement at Upper or High Mingarry on the rugged and remote Moidart peninsula in the western Highlands. It was then given to the parish priest, one Father Campbell, who kept it on the outside windowsill of his house for many years. It was by tradition in the custodianship of the priest of Moidart. However, after it was twice stolen from the church it came into the care of the West Highland Museum in 1987.
This decorative dirk is part of a Highland outfit. In addition to the blade there is small knife and fork that fit neatly into the leather scabbard. The handles are carved from wood and decorated with metal studs. The dirk belonged to the Earl of Breadalbane. He wore this dirk in Edinburgh for the visit of George IV (1762 - 1830) in 1822. The visit of George IV was a very special occasion full of pomp and pageantry. It was the first time a reigning British monarch had visited Scotland since Charles II in 1651. The visit was orchestrated by the writer Sir Walter Scott who organised a Highland festival to celebrate the visit of the King. The event was important as it reinvented many Scottish traditions for its Georgian audience, including a passion for all things tartan. This somewhat false image of Highland heritage persists to this day.
This gun by tradition is the Appin murder weapon. The Appin murder took place on 14 May 1752 in the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. It is an infamous and unsolved murder, and the story became the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped. Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, Argyllshire, also known as The Red Fox was murdered. He was the factor of several estates which had been forfeited from pro-Jacobite clans and had the challenging task of collecting taxes from the defeated clans. James Stewart, also known as James of the Glen, helped Campbell collect rents. On the day of the murder Campbell was collecting taxes. When he was passing the road at Lettermore Wood he was shot with a musket ball and died on the spot. Within two days, James Stewart had been arrested and taken to Inveraray to face trial. No real evidence was presented to prove he had been involved in the murder, and the main witness could only state that he had seen a man with a gun some distance away but was unable to identify who the man was. The presiding judge was the chief of clan Campbell, the Duke of Argyll. The jury of 15 contained 11 Campbells. James Stewart was found guilty of the murder, and sentenced to death. Who actually committed the murder remains a mystery, although Stewart's half-brother, Allan Breck Stewart, was suspected. This gun was given to the museum as the "Gun of Appin”. Legend has it that after the murder it was hidden in a tree then taken to a croft house. Eventually it ended up at Dalness House, Glen Etive. In November 1937 the Earl of Antrim gifted the gun to the West Highland Museum.
A hard tartan jacket made in Uist. With linen lined sleeves. The colourful tartan lining differs between the skirts and bodice. It is a fantastic example of 18th century textile design. It is said to have been worn at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The battle on Drummossie Moor outside Inverness, was the last pitched battle to be fought on British soil and the final engagement of the 1745 Rising fought between the Jacobite and Hanovarian armies.
This Neolithic stone axe was found at Keppoch near Roy Bridge in 1876. It came into the museum’s collection in 1936. Axes were adapted for many uses and vary in size and shape. The axe has been ground and polished, a new technique introduced during the Neolithic period.
This leather-bound stalker’s telescope has been selected because of its association with the Highlands. It is a typical example of equipment ghillies would use when deer stalking in the hills around the area. This telescope is particularly special as it was presented to Duncan McColl, head gamekeeper on the Mamore estate by King Edward VII in September 1909.
By the late 1890s a unique system of mail dispatch had developed on the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda. Letters were enclosed in a waterproof receptacle, usually a sheep’s bladder, attached to a homemade buoy, and launched into the sea in the hope that they would wash ashore on the mainland and be forwarded on by whoever chanced upon them. They were aiming for them to find land in the Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis, but depending on the current, it could take weeks or months for letters to reach their destination. There are records of mailboats washing ashore as far afield as Norway. Life of these remote islands was harsh and in August 1930 the island was evacuated on the request of the islanders and the archipelago abandoned. This mailboat came into the museum’s care sometime before 1938.
This spinning wheel used for spinning thread or yarn from fibres was made in the French pattern, and was gifted to the West Highland Museum along with spindles, whorls, and a bobbin. The objects are exceptional because of they are said to have once belonged to Flora MacDonald (1722 – 1790), the heroine of the 1745 Rising and came from her home, Kingsburgh House, on Skye. This was the family home of Allan Macdonald, who married Flora Macdonald in 1750. After a brief emigration to America, the family returned to Kingsburgh House and Flora died there in March 1790. These are among the earliest objects to come into the museum’s collection in 1927.
These are two silver Spanish pieces of eight found in Tobermory Bay off the Isle of Mull. The coins made an unusual journey to arrive in the West Highlands. In July 1588 the Spanish launched their armada of 130 ships with the intention of invading England. After the failure of the attack storms forced the remaining ships from the Armada north and some tried to return to Spain navigating the north coast of Scotland. One of the galleons, the Florencia, sheltered in Tobermory Bay in October 1588. According to documents she carried pay chests for the Spanish army. On the point of departure from the bay, the ship was damaged by an explosion and sank 275 metres off what is now the New Pier. Attempts to salvage the treasure have been made over the years, though Sacheverell, Governor of the Isle of Man is reported to have recovered most of the lost bullion on the first salvage expedition in 1688.