4 Best Sights in Inverness and Around the Great Glen, Scotland

Explore reconstructed Highland buildings, including a Victorian-era schoolhouse, at this open-air museum 2 miles west of Kingussie. You can also watch tailors, clock makers, and joiners demonstrating their trades. Walking paths (or old-fashioned buses) take you to the 18th-century township that was a setting for the hit TV show Outlander and includes a peat house made of turf and a weaver's house. Throughout the museum there are hands-on exhibits like a working quern stone for grinding grain.

In the town center, the small but fascinating West Highland Museum explores the history of Prince Charles Edward Stuart and the 1745 rebellion. Included in the museum's folk exhibits are a costume and tartan display and an excellent collection of Jacobite relics. One of the most intriguing objects here is a tray decorated with a distorted image of Bonnie Prince Charlie that only becomes visible when reflected in a wine glass or goblet. This elaborate ruse enabled clandestine supporters among the nobility to raise a (treasonous) toast without fear of discovery.

The small but excellent Inverness Museum and Art Gallery covers archaeology, art, local history, and the natural environment in its lively displays. The museum is also home to the Highland Photographic Archive.

The fishing boats have moved to larger ports, but Nairn's historical flavor has been preserved at the Nairn Museum, in a handsome Georgian building in the center of town. Exhibits emphasize artifacts, photographs, and model boats relating to the town's fishing past. A genealogy service is also offered. A library in the same building has a strong local-history section.