West Highland Museum, Fort William

The West Highland Museum stands on Cameron Square in the middle of Fort William and is one of the oldest museums in the Highlands, having been founded in 1922. It occupies a handsome former British Linen Bank building and covers the history, culture and natural environment of Lochaber and the surrounding West Highlands, from prehistory to the 20th century.

Displays include Jacobite relics, tartans, weapons and portraits linked to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the 1745 rising, along with material on clan history, crofting life, Gaelic culture, geology, and local wildlife. The museum's most famous single object is the 'secret portrait' of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a smear of paint on a flat tray that only resolves into a recognisable image when viewed as a reflection in a polished cylinder, a coded piece of Jacobite loyalty from a time when open support was dangerous.

Other galleries look at the West Highland Railway, the Commando training carried out at nearby Achnacarry during the Second World War, and the archaeology of Glen Nevis and Glencoe. The museum is small enough to see thoroughly in an hour or so, and its central location makes it an easy pairing with a walk along the pedestrianised High Street or a visit to the Old Fort by the loch.