Abertarff House NTS

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Abertarff House NTS

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Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Abertarff House NTS, Landmark & historical place, 71 Church Street, Inverness.

The oldest house in Inverness; witnessing civil wars, Jacobite risings, and even a cheese riot! 🏠

Open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10:00 to 16:00 (last entry 15:30)

17/10/2026

Only a couple weeks left until our spooky seasonal event! 🎃

Book your tickets soon for an exploration of all things spooky Scottish folklore with host of The Scottish Folklore Podcast, Jenny Johnstone. Join us at 7pm on the 30th of October for a fireside storytelling session, autumnal treats, and an evening exploring the spookier side of Scottish Highland folklore.

Jenny Johnstone is a storyteller and podcaster based in the Scottish Highlands. Her engaging, vibrant storytelling is fuelled by a love of Scottish folklore, mythology, and nature, and plunges the listener into the past, while immersing them in the rich world of the Scottish oral storytelling tradition.

Through her podcast, 'The Scottish Folklore Podcast' she has amassed a vast repertoire of traditional tales from all around the country, and tailors each storytelling session to the occasion, bringing age-old adventures, local lore, seasonal stories, and strange creatures to life.

Halloween Highland Folklore with Jenny Johnstone
📅 Friday 30th October 19:00-20:30
📍 Abertarff House in Inverness city centre
🎟️ Book now via our Eventbrite page.

15/10/2026

Have you ever noticed the building with the beautiful tower near Inverness Castle?

This building is known as Ardkeen Tower, but it was initially built in the 1830s for the Inverness United Charities Institution to house the Inverness Juvenile Female School, the Ladies' Female Work Society and the Inverness Infant School, with the dome being used as an observatory. As you can see in the artist rendering from the 1867 Ordnance Survey, the original building had a more ornate entrance than can be seen from the street today.

In the late 19th century, architect Alexander Finlay Mackenzie renovated and added to the building to create a private residence. The beautiful bay window facing Culduthel Road was added in 1906 and the home remains largely unchanged today.

Looking from the street, the only visual remnants of the past are a stone above the bay window marked 'United Charities 1834.'

What is your favourite building in Inverness?

📸 United Charities Institution, Inverness - The Highland Council Planning Department, Am Baile - Highland History and Culture
📸 Ardkeen, Inverness 1968 - Edward Meldrum, Highland Libraries, Am Baile - Highland History and Culture
📸 Ardkeen Tower in Inverness, Scotland - Encriclephotos
📸 Ardkeen Tower, Ordnance Survey map of 1867 - Lost Inverness, Missing Inverness, Dave Connor, https://www.lostinverness.co.uk/missing-inverness/

13/10/2026

We have exciting news! Shona MacLean, the best-selling, award-winning author of The Bookseller of Inverness, and her latest book, The Cromarty Library Circle, is joining us for a fireside book signing event!

Next Thursday, the 22nd of October, Shona MacLean will be joining us at Abertarff House, a house that is featured in The Bookseller of Inverness.

Shona's stop at Abertarff House is on the same day as the paperback release of The Cromarty Library Circle. Her newest book takes us to Cromarty on the Black Isle in the 1830s. Set around the lives of Cromarty locals, MacLean explores their interconnected relationships in a changing world, while local events complicate their small-town lives.

'A truly immersive read' Lesley McDowell
''A riveting portrait of small community' Daily Mail

Come along to get your signed copy and have a chat with Shona about her latest, award-winning book.

📆 Thursday 22 October, 17:00-19:00
📍 Abertarff House
🎟 No tickets are required for this drop-by event!

09/10/2026

Our friends at Hugh Miller's Birthplace NTS are partying this weekend as they celebrate Hugh's 224th birthday! 🎂

Fossil hunter, folklorist, champion of the scottish people: Hugh Miller was one of the great Scots of the 19th century, and this weekend the team in Cromarty are holding the best birhday party this side of the Black Isle! 🥳

Catch science experiments in the museum gardens, living history inside the cottage, and you may even spot a Tyrannosaurus rex! 🦖

Hugh Miller's Big Birthday Weekend
🗓 THIS WEEKEND - Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October
📍 Hugh Miller's Birthplace Museum
⏰ 11am to 3:30pm
🎟 Free with museum entry - find out more at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hugh-millers-big-224th-birthday-weekend-tickets-1996333996724

National Trust for Scotland

08/10/2026

The Autumn & Winter edition of our award-winning members’ magazine has landed! 🍂❄️

Packed with inspiring stories from across the Trust and the people who help care for our special places, it’s full of ideas for your next day out and what’s coming up in the Trust over the next few months… 👀

Family members can also enjoy the special Autumn adventures magazine, which provides inspiration for our younger members to keep them busy both indoors and out!

By becoming a member of the National Trust for Scotland, you receive your own copy plus much more! 🤩

05/10/2026

Fancy an evening of folklore in the oldest house in Inverness? Join us for a storytelling event in a house brimming with its own spooky history!

This Halloween, we'll be welcoming host of The Scottish Folklore Podcast, Jenny Johnstone, for an evening of spooky Highland folklore in a beautiful, historic setting. Join them at 7pm on the 30th of October for a fireside storytelling session, autumnal treats, and an evening exploring the spookier side of Scottish Highland folklore.

Jenny Johnstone is a storyteller and podcaster based in the Scottish Highlands. Her engaging, vibrant storytelling is fuelled by a love of Scottish folklore, mythology, and nature, and plunges the listener into the past, while immersing them in the rich world of the Scottish oral storytelling tradition.

Through her podcast, 'The Scottish Folklore Podcast' she has amassed a vast repertoire of traditional tales from all around the country, and tailors each storytelling session to the occasion, bringing age-old adventures, local lore, seasonal stories, and strange creatures to life.

Halloween Highland Folklore with Jenny Johnstone
📅 Friday 30th October 19:00-20:30
📍 Abertarff House in Inverness city centre
🎟️ Book now at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/halloween-highland-folklore-with-jenny-johnstone-tickets-2002713675515

03/10/2026

Next Saturday, Culloden Battlefield NTS is hosting their last Jacobite Afternoon tea of the season is taking place! 😮

Have you ever been curious about the role of women and tea, how letters were written in the 18th century, or wanted to enjoy an afternoon tea at a historic site? Make sure to join us next week at Culloden Visitor Centre! 🫖

You’ll be treated to tea, sandwiches, and cakes, a costumed presentation, and a letter writing activity. You can even keep the letter and quill! 🪶

Don’t miss the last afternoon tea of the season!

📅 Saturday 10th October 14:00-16:00
📍 Culloden Battlefield & Visitor Centre
🎟️ Tickets can be found vis the Culloden Eventbrite. Make sure to buy your tickets soon as sales will end the night before.

28/09/2026

It's time to start thinking about your Christmas plans! ❄️

This winter, Culloden Battlefield NTS will be hosting four Culloden Christmas Wreath Workshops and two Choose Your Own Culloden Christmas Tree events.

In the 2-hour wreath workshop, you’ll craft a beautiful wreath using leaves, berries, and other decorations sourced directly from the historic battlefield. All materials needed to make a wreath will be provided, and you’ll be guided by the Culloden team to create this one-of-a-kind decoration. By the end of the workshop, you’ll be an expert wreath maker and have a beautiful and meaningful wreath to decorate your house for the festive season! You'll also be treated to a warm cuppa and mince pies to fuel you through the creative process.

If your looking for a bigger decoration, walk the field and choose your own Christmas tree, which also helps us remove an unwanted plant species from the field. The event is £5, however, NTS is a charity and every penny we generate goes back into supporting, protecting, and caring for the battlefield and all NTS sites and by donating more, you can help our work continue. 🎄.

Culloden Christmas Wreath Workshop
📆 28 November and 6 December 10:00-12:00, 14:00-16:00
📍 Culloden Battlefield & Visitor Centre
🎟 Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite for £45.

Choose Your Own Culloden Christmas Tree
📆 29 November and 5 December 10:00-14:00
📍 Culloden Battlefield & Visitor Centre
🎟 Tickets are £5 on Eventbrite, but donations are encouraged.

25/09/2026

InverNess Fringe Festival is starting next week! 🤩

Have you bought your tickets yet?

We still have tickets available for the After-School Storytelling with Barbara Henderson and the Bothy Tales play by John Burns.

After-School Storytelling with Barbara Henderson
Visit Inverness’s oldest residence for an hour of interactive story-magic: costumes, drama and puppets. Expect giants and jeopardy, fairies, fire, quests and treasure.

Barbara Henderson is a multi-award-winning children’s author, storyteller and drama teacher. Based in Inverness, she loves nothing more than getting kids on their feet and spreading the story-love across Scotland and beyond — in her trademark interactive style.

📅 Wednesday 30th September, 16:30-17:30
📍 Abertarff House
🎟️ Tickets are by donation and can be booked through the Inverness Fringe website.

Bothy Tales
Burns has spent forty years in the Highland hills — Inverness-based author of The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales, former Cairngorm Mountain Rescue, one-man shows that have already done the Edinburgh Fringe and the mountain-festival circuit. This is the stage version: bothy monsters, an avalanche that nearly finished him, a lion, and the kind of stories that only get told when the stove is going and nobody is going anywhere till morning.

Directed with Gerry Flanagan of Shifting Sands. Funny, light on its feet, stuffed with hill characters. He calls it a night beside a bothy fire — just a bigger bothy, and more folk than usual.

Both Friday evening and Saturday afternoon in one of the city’s oldest houses. Come in off the street. Leave with wet boots in your head.

📅 Friday 2 October 18:00-19:00, Saturday 3 October 14:00-15:00
📍 Abertarff House
🎟️ Tickets are by donation and can be reserved through the Inverness Fringe website.

23/09/2026

Have you booked your ticket for Culloden's last Jacobite Afternoon Tea of the season?

In less than a month, Culloden Battlefield NTS will be hosting the final afternoon tea to close out the season. If you've ever been curious about the role of women and tea, how letters were written, and wanted to enjoy an afternoon tea at a historic site, then join them at Culloden Visitor Centre! 🫖

You’ll be treated to tea, sandwiches, and cakes, a costumed presentation, and a letter writing activity. You can even keep the letter and quill! 🪶

Don’t miss the last tea of the season!

📅 Saturday 10 October, 14:00-16:00
📍 Culloden Battlefield & Visitor Centre
🎟️ Tickets start at £38 with an optional upgrade to include a dram of wh**ky for £43. Booking information can be found via our Eventbrite.

Address

71 Church Street
Inverness
IV11ES

Telephone

+441463226348

Website

https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/abertarff-house, https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/abertarff-house-33768914225

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