West Highland Museum: Secrets, Jacobites, and Daring Rescues

Join us as we bring you on a wee journey to the Scottish Highlands for a visit to the West Highland Museum in Fort William, Scotland!

Our tour of the West Highland Museum begins outside in Cameron Square with a fascinating sculpture known as ‘The Bronze Ford’. It was created to commemorate the ascent of Ben Nevis by Ford dealer, Henry Alexander, in his Ford Model T in May 1911. His journey began in Cameron Square and took nine days before he successfully returned. We can only imagine how difficult that trek must have been!

We’ll now head inside for more artefacts and history of Fort William and the region.

Take your time as you explore the Museum as it’s filled with objects that can be found in so many different nooks and crannies- make sure to look high and low so as not to miss anything. Their diverse collection reveals intriguing historical stories from across the centuries. Let’s take a closer look at a few objects from their collection.

The table below seems rather mundane. However, it has a rather dark history as it was used for corporal punishment. Criminals were tied down on the table (their arms would go through those two holes) and whipped on the bottom with a bundle of stripped rods of birch. According to the West Highland Museum, this table was from the old court house in Fort William, and last used in 1948 for a 15 year old boy who was birched for shoplifting.

Below is a Duff Mountain Rescue Stretcher from 1946. It was designed and patented by surgeon, Donald Duff. He was also instrumental in creating the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Association.

Lochaber Mountain Rescue was most recently featured in a news story that reached around the world when they rescued a Black Labrador, Tokyo, from Ben Nevis. It’s believed that she ate some cannabis that had been carelessly discarded which resulted in her losing the use of her legs and going in and out of consciousness. Fortunately, she made a full recovery, thanks, in part, to the magnificent volunteers who work with the Lochaber Mountain Rescue. They are based in Fort William and rely completely on donations and volunteers. We are so thankful that they are there to help both humans and canines in need of rescue! You can find out more about them on their website.

Image Credit: Lochaber Mountain Rescue Facebook Post

The Museum also has an interesting collection from the Victorian period- with some objects having direct connections to Queen Victoria. The case below has the set of Highland regalia that Queen Victoria gave to her Balmoral servant, John Brown, to mark the marriage of her daughter, Princess Louise to the Marquis of Lorne (you can read more about them in our Inveraray Castle article).

Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne

After Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria relied heavily on John Brown and found his support comforting. There has been much speculation about their relationship- with some even suggesting there was a secret marriage. While there is no evidence of this, we will just point out that Queen Victoria was buried with John Brown’s portrait, a lock of his hair, and a ring he had given her. He clearly played an extremely important part in her later life. Their relationship was portrayed in the 1997 movie, 'Mrs. Brown', that starred Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as John Brown.  

The West Highland Museum is especially known for its incredible Jacobite collection. The Jacobites were supporters of the Stuart line- the name comes from Jacobus, Latin for James. The trouble began when James VII was forced to abdicate because of his Catholicism. Those in power were so desperate to keep a Catholic off the throne that they installed his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange- a Dutch prince- instead. When Queen Anne died in 1714, rather than restore James VII’s son (James Edward Francis Stuart) to the throne, they brought in George I of Hanover, a German Protestant with tenuous ties to the crown. James VII’s grandson, Charles Edward Stuart (better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie), led the most famous of the Jacobite uprisings- many of which took place in the Highlands- trying to reclaim what his family had lost, but it ultimately failed against George II. Many of the objects have some connection to Bonnie Prince Charlie. The tartan trews (long hose) pictured below were thought to belong to him.

This was Bonnie Prince Charlie's waistcoat:

Here are more photos from our visit to the West Highland Museum:

Well, that’s going to do it for this post. However, we have only covered some of the highlights from our visit, and we highly recommend you visit the Museum in person if you are in Fort William. Head over to the West Highland Museum website for more information.

If you have enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to our blog so you get our travel articles from around Scotland as soon as they are published.

Also, if one of your stops on your Scotland trip includes Edinburgh, be sure to join our human tour guide, Sami, and our Golden Retriever tour guide, Walter, as they would love to bring you on one of our entertaining Edinburgh walking tours.

Until next time- Explore & Discover!

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