Highland Archive Service offers a range of activities and events for all ages across our four archive centres and online. Find out what’s on and how you can join in…
We do not charge for most of our activities and events, but Highland Archives Service is a charity and we rely on your donations to support our work. If you would like to make a donation to any of our archive centres, or our history and heritage website Am Baile, click on a button below to take you to our donation pages.
Thank you for your support.
What's On... May to December 2024
The Story of Lord Lovat & Duncan Forbes
- 14th August 2024
- 7pm
- Online
- Free (donations welcome)
- Booking essential (see link below)
Join us online to hear about two key figures of the Jacobite era – ‘the Old Fox’ and ‘the Old Woman’.
Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, and Duncan Forbes of Culloden were central to the story of Jacobite Risings and at the heart of many of the 18th century’s most tumultuous events. Join Highland Archive Service Family Historian, Anne Fraser, and Community Engagement Officer, Lorna Steele-McGinn, to hear about their fascinating lives and dramatic deaths – one on the scaffold and the other of ‘heartbreak’.
The event is free, but booking via Eventbrite is essential. To book click here.
For further information please call Highland Archive and Registration Centre on 01349 781130 or email [email protected]
Seinn Spioradail Exhibition
- 24th June to 11th November
- See archive centre opening times
- Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre
- Free (donations welcome)
- Booking is not essential
Aberdeen University’s Dr Frances Wilkins’s research into traditional forms of Gaelic singing, including hymnody, Gaelic psalmody and spiritual bàrdachd which are diminishing in Hebridean communities, forms the basis of this new interactive exhibition which explores the incredible wealth of sights, sounds and memories of spiritual singing and song writing in everyday life in Highland and Island communities.
Visitors can learn more about sacred song traditions of the region and explore sound recordings, film, objects, and a digital archive, soundmap and interactive virtual tour.
The exhibition, co-curated with designer Ronan Martin, will visit Skye & Lochalsh Archive Centre as part of its Hebridean tour.
The opening event is on Friday 21st of June from 5:00-7:00pm at Skye & Lochalsh Archive Centre. Entry is free with refreshments provided.
For further information please call Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre on 01478 614078 or email [email protected]
Doors Open Days 2024
- 7th September
- 10am - 3.30pm
- Highland Archive and Registration Centre
- Free (donations welcome)
- Booking is only essential for guided tours
To book a tour of Highland Archive and Registration Centre as part of Doors Open Days 2024, please call us on 01349 781130 or email us at [email protected]
Archive Afternoons
- The third Wednesday of the month
- 2.30pm - 4.30pm
- Lochaber Archive Centre
- Free (donations welcome)
- Booking is not essential
From the 18th October onwards, the Lochaber Archive Centre will be launching its own monthly Archive Afternoons. These afternoon’s will give the public the opportunity to learn something new, chat with staff and other visitors, and interact with our collections in a fun and informal atmosphere.
Everyone is invited to come and explore the fascinating history of Lochaber and its surroundings.
For further information please call Lochaber Archive Centre on 01397 701 942 Archives or email us at [email protected]
Archive Afternoons
- Every Wednesday
- 1pm - 4pm
- Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives
- Free (donations welcome)
- Booking is not essential
Joint the archive team at Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives every Wednesday to explore the past, reminisce with friends and enjoy a cuppa and a biscuit. Each week archives from our collections will be on display in the public searchroom.
Everyone is invited to come and explore. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available in The Hub at the front of the building, alongside displays of digitised vidoes and photographs showing Caithness in the past.
For further information please call Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives on 01955 602 444 or email [email protected]
Online Exhibitions
Our online exhibitions are curated by our archive teams from all four archive centres. Using our rich and varied collections, the exhibitions cover an array of topics from The Battle of The Braes to the history of modern education in Scotland. To explore our online exhibitions click on any image below.
Regular Features
Learn With Lorna
Learn With Lorna, our series of short films about the documents in our collections, is broadcast weekly on Facebook with all films subsequently made available on the High Life Highland YouTube channel.
All the films to date can be found here.
- Every Thursday
- 11am - 12pm
- Online (see any of our Facebook pages)
- Free (donations welcome)
- Booking is not required
