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Inverness Museum and Art Gallery

Collection highlights

A large, triangular shaped stone with a smooth, brown surface. A line drawing of a wolf has been carved into the surface. One of the back legs and the end of the tail are missing.
Ardross Wolf, Pictish symbol stone

Top 10 Highlights Audio Tour – SMARTIFY App
We’ve specially selected 10 fascinating objects from the museum’s collections for visitors to explore on our audio tour, narrated by Carrie Forbes.  Listen to their stories and discover their connections to the history of Inverness and the Scottish Highlands.  

You can choose to enjoy the tour in the gallery where you can see the items on display, or listen from the comfort of you own home or while you're on the move.  Either download the SMARTIFY App from Google Play Store or Apple App Store, or click on the link above to open in your device’s browser.  

If you visit the museum, you will see other items also identified with a Smartify label - you can find out more about these objects, and see more photos of them, by scanning the object using the Smartify app.  This Smartify project was funded by XpoNorth Digital.

Our collections are full of wonderful and curious items.  Explore the pages below where you can meet some of our famous – and some not-so-famous but just as fascinating – collection favourites.  

Highlight objects

A large, triangular shaped stone with a smooth, brown surface. A line drawing of a wolf has been carved into the surface. One of the back legs and the end of the tail are missing.

Adross Wolf Stone

A famous Pictish symbol stone

A large, long rectangular canvas painted with the chaotic scene of a battle in progress. There are lines of soldiers in red coats and Highlanders in tartan and clouds of smoke from muskets. In the foreground there are field guns (cannon) with clouds of smoke. Several horses and men have been injured and lie bleeding. In the distance there is a cottage and hills beyond. The sky is grey.

Battle of Culloden

An unusual oil painting by Rev. Peel Ross

Two vases on a white background. On the left, a shorter green vase with blue stripes, and the right a tall deep pink vase with blue stripes. The stripes run diagonally in both directions, giving the appearance of tartan.

Caithness Glass

From the Graham Cooley Collection

A taxidermy puma, lying down but with head raised, looking away to the left. The puma has brown fur with small white patches around the eyes and muzzle, a black nose and yellow (glass) eyes.

Felicity the Puma

Our celebrity big cat!

A round terracotta garden pot with three heart-shaped handles fixed around the rim and an inscription running between the handles.

Garden pots by Aldourie Pottery

Arts and Crafts pottery in the Highlands

A wooden box with a white lining, with moth specimens pinned in vertical rows. Most are shades of speckled brown or orange, but two are bright yellow in colour.

James H. Rosie Moth Collection

The comprehensive collection of a Caithness lepidopterist

A silver chalice, with a deep cup and trumpet-shaped stem and foot. On the front an oval panel with engraved inscription.

Kirk of Pettie Communion Cup

A silver chalice by John Baillie of Inverness, c.1737

Close-up view of the central head from Man and the Enironment tapestry by Fiona Mathison. A cream head against a blue sky with colourful insects contained within the outline of the head.

Man and the Environment

Tapestry by Fiona Mathison, 1977

An oil painting showing two brown and white dogs in a hilly landscape. The dog in the foreground is holding a dead bird in its mouth. The sky above is very blue with fluffy white clouds.

On the Moors

Oil painting by Richard Ansdell RA, 1865

Two black and white photos, side-by-side. On the left is a man standing upright, and wearing a suit and a clerical collar. He is standing in a garden by a house. On the right is a woman wearing a dress with buttons down the front and holding a cat in her arms. She is standing by the same house.

Wartime love letters

Christmas in the Highlands, 1940

More pages you might be interested in