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Tuesday 10am - 4pm Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm

Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross Centre

Name: Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross Centre
Address: Tower Street, Tain, IV191DY, GB
Telephone: 01862894089
Price range: Not Applicable

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Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross Centre

Local museum with artefacts, photographs and information covering the Easter Ross area. Meeting place for Rosses from around the world.

03/06/2026

🎬 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐦 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐬 🎬

As we have our large projector screen set up ahead of Saturday's film event, we will be screening a selection of historic films from the Tain & District Museum collection tomorrow.

The films will be shown throughout the day in the Collegiate Church.

28/05/2026

𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧

This portrait shows Alexander Ross of Kindeace, later a merchant in Copenhagen, whose descendants spread across Denmark and Norway. Over the years, the museum has welcomed several families descended from Alexander, many of whom travelled to Tain and Easter Ross to reconnect with their Ross roots.

One family generously sent us a fascinating book on Danish families, which included this portrait of Alexander himself — a rare surviving image linking the Highlands of Scotland with the merchant world of seventeenth-century Scandinavia.

Alongside the portrait is part of the Kindeace family tree, tracing Alexander’s descent from the Rosses of Pitcalnie and Balnagown. The document reflects the wide-reaching connections of Highland families, whose stories often extended far beyond Scotland through trade, military service, and migration.

It is always remarkable to see how the history of Easter Ross continued far beyond the Highlands, carried overseas by families who still remember where they came from centuries later.

27/05/2026

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀

Tain & District Museum & Clan Ross Centre would like to thank Bannerman Seafoods for generously sponsoring one of our exhibition cases for the 2026 season.

As an independent museum and charity, support from local businesses helps us care for our collections, share the history of Tain and Easter Ross, and welcome thousands of visitors each year.

We are extremely grateful for their support and commitment to preserving and promoting our local heritage.

Thank you for helping to keep the stories of our community alive.

26/05/2026

🎬 𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟔 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍

Sixty years ago, on 6 June 1966, Tain celebrated its 900th anniversary with a remarkable day of events, including the opening of the Rose Gardens by the Queen Mother and the opening of Tain Museum.

On Saturday 6 June 2026, along with the Tain and Easter Ross Civic Trust, we will be screening the original film of those celebrations at St Duthus Collegiate Church, allowing many local people to see themselves, their families and friends on screen once again.

The event will also include displays of photographs and memorabilia connected with the 1966 celebrations.

📍 St Duthus Collegiate Church, Tain
🕛 Film screenings from 12 noon–3pm
🏛 Museum open 11am–3pm
🎟 Free admission (donations welcome)

If you or your family took part in the 1966 celebrations, we'd love to see you there.

22/05/2026

𝐌𝐫 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬, 𝐋𝐞𝐝𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧

While researching the identity of the gentleman in this photograph, labelled simply "Mr Ross, Ledston", I discovered he was almost certainly John MacGilchrist Ross (1832–1915), also known as Ross of Teaninich Distillery.

Born at Balblair, Edderton, and educated at Tain Academy, Ross became one of Ross-shire's leading distillers. He was also a prominent supporter of the Highland Land League and was described by Joseph MacLeod in Highland Heroes of the Land Reform Movement as "A Teaninich Hero" for his advocacy of crofter land reform.

A successful distiller, farmer and businessman, Ross used his influence as President of the Ross-shire Liberal Association to support the cause of land reform throughout the Highlands.

20/05/2026

On this day in 1910, Tain marked the 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐕𝐈𝐈 with a large public procession and memorial services across the town.

Local newspaper reports describe businesses closing and “the town wore the aspect of a Sunday” as a procession formed at 12.30 pm outside the Courthouse. Schoolchildren from the Public School and Academy marched alongside the Tain troop of Boy Scouts, the 4th Seaforth Territorial Band, members of the Town and Parish Councils, the St Duthus Lodge of Freemasons, and the Oddfellows.

The procession made its way to the Parish Church, where the Dead March was played and a memorial service held before the procession re-formed and returned through the town. A separate memorial service also took place at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church.

These remarkable photographs from the collections of Tain & District Museum & Clan Ross Centre capture that extraordinary day of mourning in Edwardian Tain over 115 years ago.

19/05/2026

𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬, 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩

On Saturday, Sian Mackenzie and I attended the Tain Royal Academy Open Day ahead of the school’s closure next month. We took along some spare copies of old Tain Royal Academy School Magazines to give away, and they proved very popular, full of wonderful social history, photographs, memories of former pupils, and silly poems.

A big thank you to Sian Mackenzie, who has done a huge amount of work collecting and digitising the magazines.

Thanks to her, we are now only missing a few years to complete the collection: 1970, 1978, 1979, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1994.
If anyone has copies they would be willing to donate or loan for scanning, please get in touch with the museum.

14/05/2026

𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐭

The Tain & Easter Ross Civic Trust is delighted to host a talk by Jim Mackay of the Kirkmichael Trust on the remarkable tombstones and grave slabs of Tarbat.

13/05/2026

𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐏𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐆𝐎

After 57 years at Scotsburn Road, the old Tain Royal Academy building is preparing to close its doors for the final time.

As a former pupil, I plan to attend and have a look around. I will also take along copies of old school photographs and a selection of school magazines from the museum archives to share.

If you have memories of the old TRA, it should be a very special afternoon and well worth a visit.

Address

Tower Street
Tain
IV191DY

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

01862894089

Website

http://www.tainmuseum.org.uk/

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