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A lighthouse lens.
The great glass lens from Noss Head lighthouse is on show in the museum.
Caithness
Wick Heritage Centre
The Wick Society's museum of the town's herring days, room after room of fishing, lighthouse and family life, with a lighthouse lens, a printing works and the Johnston photographs.
Welcome
In Wick, behind a modest stone front lettered Wick Heritage Centre in gold, the story of a herring town unfolds through room after room.
Visitors call it a Tardis: it is far bigger inside than it looks, and every corner is full.
The Wick Society has run it since the 1970s, and its volunteers have gathered the whole life of the town. A great banner reading We go a fishing, may God go with us hangs from the rafters above model boats, nets and oilskins; there is a canvas diving suit, the huge glass lens from Noss Head lighthouse, and a printing works with its presses and Linotype machine. A Victorian schoolroom, kitchen and parlour show how Wick families lived.
The society also cares for the Johnston Collection, a century of photographs of Caithness life, and the Isabella Fortuna, a fishing boat of 1890. The centre opens Monday to Saturday, and on summer Sundays.
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Before you go
Open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 3.45pm, and on Sundays in July and August from 11am to 3pm, according to the Wick Society.
Adults £7.50, children £1.
- Where
- Wick.
- Open
- Mon to Sat, 10am to 3.45pm.
- Adults
- £7.50.
Opening hours
- Monday
- 10am–3.45pm
- Tuesday
- 10am–3.45pm
- Wednesday
- 10am–3.45pm
- Thursday
- 10am–3.45pm
- Friday
- 10am–3.45pm
- Saturday
- 10am–3.45pm
- Sunday
- Closed
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Add your reviewDid you know
Did you know
A boat of 1890.
The Wick Society also owns the Isabella Fortuna, a Fifie fishing boat launched in 1890.
Ben Lerwill
From our guide to Caithness
Wick’s fortunes rose and fell on the back of the herring industry – the mid-19th century was a particular golden era – and this large heritage museum does a brilliant job of recounting the tales behind the town. It touches on all sorts of other aspects of life, from household furnishings to hordes of local photographs.
Read moreWhat is on
What is new across Caithness, day by day.
New places, news and stories, as we find them.
What is on in CaithnessWhere it is
In the town of Wick, on the east coast of Caithness.
Close byWick.
Wick Heritage CentreThe main Caithness town of Wick has one of the best local museums, and it is bigger inside than it looks from the street.Under a mile 1 min by road
CaithnessCaithness runs from the Pentland Firth to the Moray Firth and together with Sutherland covers the north coast of Scotland.Under a mile 1 min by road
Bord de l'EauUnder a mile 1 min by road
Old Pulteney DistilleryWhisky in Pulteneytown.Under a mile 2 min by road
Noss Head LighthouseThe lighthouse whose lens is here.4 miles 13 min by road
Whaligoe StepsHerring steps cut into the cliffs to the south.7 miles 12 min by road
Stay nearby
Places to stay near the museum, and when each is next free.
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Read on
What we have written about it and more in Caithness.
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Find out more
For further reading, before you go. The details on this page were checked on .