Local area resource pack

The Highland Archive Service looks after thousands of documents which tell stories of life across the Highlands in the past. On this page you can watch videos about certain Highland communities, look at some examples of documents, and find some related activities!

Learn with Lorna videos about some of the places in the Highland Archive Service collections:

LWL 3: Local Area LWL 18: Inverness Burgh LWL 43: Lochaber in the 40s, 50s & 60s LWL 151: Stories from Thurso LWL 153: Stories from Nairn LWL 157: Stories from Dingwall LWL 163: Stories from Fortrose LWL 167: Tales from Tain LWL 175: Stories from Dornoch LWL 180: Stories from Fort William LWL 181: Further stories from Inverness LWL 184: Stories from Cromarty LWL 192: Stories from Badenoch LWL 196: Stories from Invergordon LWL 202: Tales from Grantown LWL 239: Old Aviemore

Examples of documents in the Highland Archive Service collections:

Maps

You can learn a lot about your local area by looking at different maps. The examples below all show different information. Some show houses and streets, and others cover a very large area.

A white page showing a map of the county of Caithness. Coloured lines show parish boundaries.

Blackwood map of Caithness, 1838

A black and white section of a 1:500 scale map of Inverness town centre.

1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of Inverness, 1869

The top half of the image shows part of a map from 1753. The bottom half of the images lists householders in the community of Gordonsburgh (Fort William)

Map of Gordonsburgh (Fort William), 1753

A coloured map showing Glendale estate in the parish of Durinish on the Isle of Skye. It bears the date 1849

Plan of Glendale estate, Isle of Skye, 1849

Industry

It’s not just maps that can tell us how our local area has changed. Some areas once had booming industries that have now almost disappeared. The pictures below show Lybster Harbour. In the 1830s Lybster was home to the third largest fishing station in Scotland, and in the 1840s there were 263 boats fishing from the harbour! Nearly 200 years later, the harbour still exists but is much quieter than it once was, although the stone pier and jetty you can see there today were built in 1830s.

A black and white photograph showing a small harbour full of sailing boats. To the right hand side a quayside is stacked with barrels

Lybster Harbour, 1903

A sepia photo shows a a busy quayside and the hilly landscape beyond. The quay is stacked with hundreds of barrels and people in Victorian dress can be seen

Lybster Harbour, late 19thC

A colour photograph taken from the top of a hill looks down on an empty harbour and quayside

Lybster Harbour, 1990s

Landmarks

Prominent buildings or features in the landscape often have stories attached to them. Ben Nevis, near Fort William is famous for being the tallest mountain in the UK. But did you know that from 1883 to 1904 it had an observatory on the summit, which in 1894 had a small hotel attached to it. Below you can see a visitors' book which shows the names of some of the people who came from all over the world to climb Ben Nevis and visit the observatory. This is accompanied by a photograph of Inverness Castle and the old road bridge (which no longer exists), and a photograph of Fyrish monument. Fyrish Monument was built in 1792 on Fyrish Hill (Cnoc Fyrish), in the parish of Alness. It replicates the Gate of Negapatam in India that General Munro captured for the British In 1781 and is a prominent local landmark.

A section of a page with the printed heading 'Ben Nevis Observatory - Visitors' Book'. Below the headings 'Date, Name. Residence, Remarks, and Subscriptions' are handwritten entries

Ben Nevis Observatory visitor book, 1885

A sepia coloured photograph with a bridge and road in the foreground and a 19th century castle on a hill in the background

Inverness Castle and road bridge, early 20th C

A sepia photograph of a tall three-arched stone monument on a hillside. A group of people in Victorian dress are gathered in front of it

Fyrish monument, c1900

Buildings

Buildings can tell you lots of interesting things about an area. For example, the buildings pictured below are of Tain Royal Academy and Inverness Royal Academy (in its original location on Academy Street). If you look at the early records of these schools, you can see lots of the funding for building them came from wealthy Highlanders living in the Caribbean. Many of these Highlanders made their money from enslaved people and plantations in places like Jamaica, Grenada and St. Kitts. Also pictured is part of a list of enslaved people on one plantation in Jamaica showing every individual's name, age, occupation and 'value'.

A black and white photograph of a two-storey school building dating from the 1700s. The photograph is taken from an angle which shows the the front and one end of the building.

Inverness Royal Academy, 1870s

A sepia-coloured photograph of a two-storey school building with children standing and lying in front of it. A typed caption reads 'Photograph taken between 1860 and 1870'

Tain Royal Academy, 1860-70

A beige-coloured piece of paper with a handwritten list of names with the the individual's age, condition, occupation and valuation given.

Inventory of Airy Castle estate, Jamaica, 1819

Local area activities

Create a map of your local town or area. Try to put on as much detail as you can about houses, businesses, parks, landscape features etc. It’s quite tricky to draw something from above when you can’t see it so see if you can use an online map to get started!
Write a letter to an older person in the community to ask them what they know about the history of the local area.
Imagine you’ve been asked to plan a new town – draw a plan of it and create a town crest and motto (have a look online for some examples of these).
Draw, paint or make a model of a local landmark.