Skara Brae Visitor Centre

This stunning archaeological site on the shores of the bay of Skaill is reputed to be the best preserved Stone Age village in Europe. It is one of Orkney’s most popular attractions. Prepare to be amazed!

Sitting proudly within the Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site, Skara Brae is accorded the same status as the pyramids in Egypt. However, the village is in fact much older, dating from 3200BC compared to 2700BC when the building of the pyramids began.

Melrose Abbey Commendatorʼs House Museum

Discover a place so beloved by Robert the Bruce, he chose it as the final resting place for his heart. Melrose Abbey is a magnificent ruin on a grand scale, and it was a highly desirable place to be buried.

David I founded Scotland’s first Cistercian monastery in 1136. Being so close to the border, Melrose Abbey suffered at English hands during the Middle Ages. Rebuilt in the 1380s, it was used as an abbey until the Protestant Reformation of 1560. Afterwards, the existing monks were allowed to stay on: the last died in 1590.

What to see and do

• Admire the graceful architecture of the abbey church, among Britain’s finest church architecture of the late 1300s
• Take in the charming sculpture – look out for the famous bagpipe-playing Melrose pig
• Step inside the chapter house, where a heart believed to be that of Robert the Bruce is buried
• Visit the Commendator’s House Museum to see a rich collection of medieval objects found in the abbey cloister

Royal Academy of Music Museum

Visit the Royal Academy of Music Museum to explore unique instruments, manuscripts and art, and discover behind-the-scenes stories from the United Kingdom’s oldest conservatoire.

In permanent galleries and temporary displays, visitors will see star items such as the ‘Viotti ex-Bruce’ 1709 violin by Antonio Stradivari once played to Queen Marie Antoinette, Gilbert and Sullivan’s original score for ‘The Mikado’, and a Viennese piano from 1815 with six pedals. You can learn about the role the Academy and its alumni have played in musical development for nearly 200 years, and perhaps hear a live gallery demonstration of a clavichord or a 19th century piano.

Our friendly Gallery Assistants are Academy students who will tell you more about the displays and talk about their studies at the Academy. The Museum regularly holds free public musical and lecture events, museum tours, and offers children’s trails with quizzes and puzzles.

Mid-Antrim Museum

The Mid-Antrim Museum offers a range of talks, events and excursions which provide enjoyable ways to get involved with local history. From family activities to topics of special interest – there’s something for everyone. Of course, there’s an unmissable range of changing exhibitions too!

FLAME: The Gasworks Museum

The gasworks opened in 1855 and supplied the town with gas made from coal until 1967. It was subsequently used to distribute gas piped from Belfast until its closure in 1987.

The gasworks was restored by the Carrickfergus Gasworks Preservation Society and opened to the public as a visitor attraction in 2002.

Flame Gasworks is one of only three preserved gasworks in Britain and Ireland. It boasts Western Europe’s largest set of retorts (in which the gas was made), and an extensive collection of gas appliances and documents.

Unst Heritage Centre

The Unst Heritage Centre owes its existence to the foresight and effort of the original Unst History Group.

Realising that a way of life linked to the old methods of crofting and fishing was disappearing, they organised an exhibition of old artefacts in the Haroldswick Hall.

The response was encouraging, making visitors realise that many similar items had already been cast aside.

A further exhibition was organised to coincide with the 1985 ‘Hamefaring’.

It became a priority to save both these artefacts and their stories so the hunt was on to find a suitable permanent home for them. Cost and availability were to make the task very difficult. However, Mouat’s Shop at Haroldswick became vacant and available in 1997.After alterations, much of it carried out by volunteers, it reopened to the public as the Unst Heritage Centre.

Joan Mouat and May Sutherland, with their extensive knowledge of Unst and its people did a sterling job as its main curators. Over the following years old treasures gathered till the building was groaning at the seams.

When the Haroldswick School closed in 1997 the History Group saw the possibility of a larger and suitable venue where the growing collection could be extended and developed.

The Shetland Amenity Trust came to the rescue by purchasing the School and leasing it back to the History Group. The move was made and the old school, which had served the area for 117 years, found a suitable role as Unst’s Heritage Centre.

At this stage the Unst Heritage Trust was formed to manage the Unst Heritage Centre and the Unst Boat Haven.

Unst Boat Haven

For many hundreds of years Unst has lain in the midst of one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. The small wooden boats fished for cod and ling which were cleaned, split, salted and dried on the stony beaches. The dried fish were then shipped abroad in massive quantities. Boats like the sixereen ‘FAR HAAF’ were capable of fishing thirty miles off shore., while sturdy fourereens fished nearer the coast. With the onset of sudden storms there were disastrous results.

From the middle of the 1800’s herring fishing played an increasingly important part. It is difficult today to look round Unst and believe the following : In 1861 Unst had a population of 3000, In 1869 there were 28 fishing boats registered in Uyeasound. In one week in 1904 seven steamers sailed from Baltasound with 3000 tons of cured herring. In the three summer months of 1905 almost a quarter of a million crans of herring were landed at Baltasound (1 cran =4 herring baskets).

There were 40+ herring stations in Baltasound with their coopers, gutters, and labourers, – a huge extra summer population. It will help to bear this in mind when walking round the Boat Haven. The wooden boats all have one thing in common. They are all built in the Scandinavian style of construction.

Tate Modern

Tate is an executive non-departmental public body and an exempt charity. Its mission is to increase the public’s enjoyment and understanding of British art from the 16th century to the present day and of international modern and contemporary art

Potters Bar Museum

Potters Bar Museum opened in 1990 and displays material relating to Potters Bar and the local area.

It is in one of the earliest known sites of interest in the area, facing the timber-framed Wyllyotts Manor, part of which dates back to the 14th century (now used as a restaurant and a public house).

There is reason to believe that the site has been occupied since the Iron Age and certainly Roman times. The museum contains much pottery and artefacts which were found during the construction of the Wyllyotts Centre and allows visitors to relive some of the history of the place.

The museum also contains many items from other sites in and around Potters Bar and from the motte-and-bailey castle at South Mimms, which for many years lay unrecognised or forgotten.

Some natural history items are also on display, together with fossils, geological specimens like Hertfordshire pudding stones, and a selection of Mesolithic stone implements used by the earliest known inhabitants.

Parts of a Zeppelin which crashed in Potters Bar in 1916 are also on view.

Highland Folk Museum, High Life Highland

Here at the Highland Folk Museum we give our visitors a flavour of how Highland people lived and worked from the 1700s up until the 1950s! We do this by displaying over 30 historical buildings and furnishing them appropriate to their time period.  Some have been built from scratch on site and some have been moved here from other locations.

Our site is a mile long with our 1700s Township (featuring 6 houses) at one end through to our 1930s working croft at the other.We have an cafe, gift shop and a fantastic children’s playground. We are located at Newtonmore in the Scottish Highlands amidst some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.