FAMILY Tales & Legends · Story 3 of 3 Auf Deutsch

A Journey Back in Time at the Highland Folk Museum

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A Journey Back in Time in the Highlands

Imagine you get into a car and drive to Newtonmore. But as soon as you enter the Highland Folk Museum, you travel to another time. Some houses tell of life around 100 years ago. Others show you how people in the Highlands lived 200, 300 or even more years ago.

At the Highland Folk Museum you can walk through a historic village. There are old houses, small workshops, a school and buildings where people used to work. There are more than 35 historic buildings. They show how people in the Highlands lived, worked and spent their free time from the 18th century to the middle of the 20th century.

Living with Fire and Peat

Imagine you lived here in the year 1700. There were no cars, no computers, no televisions, no smartphones and no central heating. On cold days a fire burned in the house. Peat was often used for it.

Peat forms in very wet bogs. It is made of plant remains that break down very slowly over a very long time. People cut the peat out of the bog, let it dry and later burned it in the house. Peat gave warmth and had a very special, strong smell.

Many old houses had no proper chimney. The smoke from the peat fire drifted through the room and slowly out through the roof. That is why the air inside was often smoky. Dark soot collected on the walls, beams, furniture and roof. People breathed in tiny bits of smoke and soot too. That was certainly not pleasant, and from what we know today it was not healthy.

But the smoke also had practical uses. It kept some insects away. It also passed through the straw or turf in the roof. When the old roof material was replaced later, it could be used as good fertiliser on the fields.

Discovering How People Used to Live

In the houses you can see where families slept, cooked and ate. In the workshops you find out how clothes, tools and other things were made. Some people at the museum wear historic clothing and explain what life might have been like back then.

The museum is especially exciting for children because history is not just written on information boards. You can walk through the houses, explore the little paths and imagine what it would have been like to go to school there or help out on a farm.

The Highland Folk Museum goes really well with Lochindorb and the story of the Wolf of Badenoch. At Lochindorb you discover a story from the Middle Ages. In Newtonmore you see how people in the Highlands lived, worked and got by many centuries later.