Highland Folk Museum

The Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore is Britain's first open-air museum, and after more than 80 years it remains one of Scotland's most evocative places to understand how ordinary Highlanders lived through three centuries of extraordinary change. Spread across 80 acres, it brings history to life through reconstructed buildings, working demonstrations, and costumed interpreters who inhabit this vanished world.

The journey through time begins in the 1700s township, where turf-roofed houses cluster around a central area just as they would have in the years before the Highland Clearances. Peat fires smoulder in the hearths, chickens scratch in the yards, and you can step inside to see the cramped, smoky conditions in which whole families lived alongside their precious cattle. It's a visceral encounter with a world that was swept away within a generation.

Further along, the museum traces Highland life through the Victorian era to the 1930s, with a working croft, a water-powered sawmill, a village school, and a post office that could have served any small Highland community within living memory. Costumed staff demonstrate traditional crafts—spinning, weaving, woodworking—and are happy to explain the harsh realities and simple pleasures of Highland life. The museum is free to enter, making it an exceptional value and a must-visit for anyone wanting to understand the human story behind the Highland landscape.