57 Best Sights in Scotland

As is the style in Angus, the local museum doubles as the visitor center, meaning you can get all the information you need while admiring a few stuffed birds and artifacts, including the Glasswell coin hoard. Rock fans will appreciate the exhibit celebrating a local lad made good (or rather bad), the late Bon Scott, original lead singer of the rock band AC/DC.

The high point of a visit to Fofar is the Meffan Museum and Art Gallery, which displays an interesting collection of Pictish carved stones, a recreation of Forfar's cobbled street The Vennel, and artifacts from the dark days of burning witches. Two galleries host frequently changing exhibitions by leading local and Scottish artists. The museum also houses a tourist information desk.

The town of Meigle, in the wide swathe of Strathmore, has one of the most notable collections of sculpted stones in western Europe, housed at the Meigle Sculptured Stone Museum. It consists of some 25 monuments from the Celtic Christian period (8th to 11th century), nearly all of which were found in or around the local churchyard. The large 9th-century prayer cross-slab known as Meigle 2 shows Daniel in the lions' den. Local legend holds the slab marked the grave of Guinevere, wife of King Arthur; in the story, Arthur sentences her to death by being torn apart by wild animals.

This converted mill is a reminder that this tranquil town was for more than a hundred years the center of the region's cotton industry. You can learn more inside, where arts and crafts are also on display. The tearoom serves light lunches and delicious home-baked goods. The building also houses the town's tourist information center.

The town's museum—housed in a neoclassical building that also contains the tourist information center—exhibits some fascinating bequests by the local gentry, including an early-19th-century ship carved from bone by French prisoners in the Napoleonic Wars.

A must-see if you're interested in the details of Old Town life, this bright yellow, 16th-century building is home to a fascinating museum of local history. It houses some of the most important artifacts in Scottish history—including the National Covenant, a document signed by Scotland's Presbyterian leadership in defiance of a reformed liturgy imposed by King Charles I of England that ignited decades of civil war—alongside Scottish pottery, silver, and glassware, as well as curios like Greyfriars Bobby's dog collar.

A converted church is home to this local museum, a loveable haphazard collection of local artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia. There is also a local history archive.

The Lochnell Mine was abandoned in 1861, after 150 years of operation, and the mine and miners' homes now form part of this museum re-creating their lives. The isolated village of Wanlockhead, where the mine is located, has not changed a great deal since then—there was little alternative employment for the miners and their families. In the visitor center, housed in the old smithy, there are tableaux depicting the work of the miners and explanations of the nature of the ore from which the lead was taken. A visit consists of a tour of the miners' library, followed by a walk through the long gallery of the mine itself as well as some of the miners' houses. Hard hats are included, but it is still wise to keep your head down. The nearby Leadhills and Wanlockhead Narrow Gauge Railway runs on weekends throughout the summer and costs £7.50 for a round-trip ticket. There is a pleasant tearoom and shop in the visitor center, and you can also pan for gold.

The fishing boats have moved to larger ports, but Nairn's historical flavor has been preserved at the Nairn Museum, set 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.

This free museum recalls Oban's history through two World Wars (there's less emphasis on peacetime) in photographs and other exhibits including a short cinema presentation. Always a fishing harbor and a ferry port, during the Second World War the town became a key naval command center.

With artifacts from the Picts, the Vikings, and other ancient peoples, this museum—the former town house of the prosperous Bakie family of Tankerness—has the entire history of Orkney crammed into a rabbit warren of rooms. It's not easily accessible for those with disabilities, but with the help of staff, it can be done. The setup may be old-fashioned, but some artifacts—especially those from everyday Orcadian life in the 19th century—are riveting. Lovely gardens around the back provide a spot to recoup after a history lesson.

The excited conversations among local visitors are the evidence that this museum tells the story of everyday lives in Glasgow. There is always something that sparks a memory: a photo, an object, a sound. Inside you'll find the writing desk of John McLean (1879–1923), the famous "Red Clydeside" political activist, and the banana boots worn onstage by Glasgow-born comedian Billy Connolly. On the top floor a sequence of fine murals by Glasgow artist Ken Currie tells the story of the city's working-class citizens. In contrast, the Doulton Fountain opposite the entrance celebrates the British empire. The museum is housed in a Victorian red-sandstone building at the heart of Glasgow Green, and behind it are the restored Winter Gardens (a Victorian conservatory) and a popular café. To get here from the St. Enoch subway station, walk along Argyle Street past Glasgow Cross.

Just opposite the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, this museum explores the centuries-old relationship between St. Andrews and golf and displays golf memorabilia from the 18th century to the 21st century.

Some will tell you the Black Watch was a Scottish regiment whose name is a reference to the color of its tartan. An equally plausible explanation, however, is that the regiment was established to keep an undercover watch on rebellious Jacobites. The Gaelic word for black is dubh, meaning, in this case, "hidden" or "covert." A wide range of uniforms, weaponry, and marching banners are displayed in this museum in Balhousie Castle, and there's a very good café and shop. Be sure to book ahead if you would like a guided tour.

Exhibits of medals, badges, and uniforms relate the history of a famous, much-honored regiment and the men who served in it.

Not surprisingly, Dumfries has its own Robert Burns Centre, housed in a sturdy 18th-century former mill overlooking the River Nith. The extensive yet compact exhibition commemorates Burns's last years in Dumfries. The center has an audiovisual program; it also houses Dumfries's only cinema. Tours of the center are available, but should be booked in advance.

This modern museum tells some fascinating stories about Scalloway and its well-traveled locals. There is a section dedicated to the exploits of the Shetland Bus, the WWII resistance movement that operated between Norway and Shetland, and cabinet upon cabinet of maritime artifacts and proil (sailors' booty) donated by locals.

In the early 19th century, Arbroath was the base for the construction of the Bell Rock lighthouse on a treacherous, barely exposed rock in the Forth of Tay. A signal tower was built to facilitate communication with the builders working far from shore. That structure now houses the Signal Tower Museum, which tells the story of the lighthouse, built by Robert Stevenson (1772–1850) in 1811. The museum also houses a collection of items related to the history of the town, its customs, and the local fishing industry: look out for the 1813 Book of Signals and the witch's eye, a blue-glass buoy hung from the window to ward off evil spirits.

Discover the old crofting ways of the local population at this collection of traditional thatched cottages close to the tip of the Trotternish Peninsula. Informative displays and exhibits, from reconstructed interiors with traditional implements to historical photographs and documents, show life as it was on the island merely a century ago.

This small but intriguing museum in a neoclassical building, founded in 1874, houses The Stirling Story, a comprehensive social history of the town. It holds the oldest (reputedly) football in the world, as well as the charming 16th-century portraits of the Five Stirling Sybils. Closer to the present are banners and memorabilia from the great miners' strike of 1984–85. The chiming clocks remind us, on the hour, of the present. The museum also holds regular temporary art and historical exhibitions and has a pleasant café.

An outstanding collection of artifacts, including Celtic crosses and statuettes of Hindu gods, reflects the many religious groups that have settled throughout the centuries in Glasgow and the west of Scotland. A Zen garden creates a peaceful setting for rest and contemplation, and elsewhere stained-glass windows include a depiction of St. Mungo himself. Pause to look at the beautiful Chilkat Blanketwofven, made from cedar bark and wool by the Tlingit people of North America.

Stuffed with all manner of local paraphernalia, the delightfully old-fashioned Stewartry Museum allows you to putter and absorb as much or as little as takes your interest in the display cases. Stewartry is the former name of Kirkcudbright.

This thought-provoking mix of displays, artifacts, and audiovisual materials portrays the history of the area, from the Stone Age to the brief 1869 gold rush in the Strath of Kildonan. There's a geology exhibit in the garden and a tour of the Kildonan gold-rush site. The complex also includes a café and an art gallery that often hosts visiting artists and changing exhibitions.

Films, photographs, and audiovisual displays tell the story of Ullapool and the local area, from the Ice Age to modern times. There's a particularly fascinating display on the the "klondyking" period between 1970 and 1990, when foreign boats, mainly from the former Eastern Bloc, filled the loch to fish the mackerel. The historic church building that houses the museum was designed by Thomas Telford and dates from the early 19th century.

The unique and colorful history of the people of Unst is told in this fascinating assemblage of artifacts, tools, photographs, and reconstructions, including a classroom and a ben or "good" end (sitting room) of a croft house. It will leave you with an enduring visual memory of the ways in which the locals learned, crofted, knitted, fished, and worshipped through the last two centuries.

In a former jute mill, Verdant Works houses a multifaceted exhibit on the story of jute and the town's involvement in the jute trade. Restored machinery, audiovisual displays, and tableaux all bring to life the hard, noisy life of the jute worker. A light and airy café serves Dundee cakes.

The locals who run this lovely town museum are real enthusiasts, and they will take you through Wick's history from its founding by the Vikings to its heyday in the 1860s as a leading herring port. The collection includes everything from ancient fossils and a 19th-century cooperage to the Johnston Photographic Collection, a set of 40,000 images that show more than a century of life in Wick through one local family's eyes. There's also an art gallery and lovely terraced gardens that overlook the town.