About
The National Museum of Rural Life stands at Wester Kittochside, a historic farmstead near East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, and tells the story of farming and rural life in Scotland from the eighteenth century to the present day. The museum represents a genuine partnership arrangement between two national bodies: the site and its historic farmhouse and steading buildings belong to the National Trust for Scotland, which acquired Wester Kittochside as one of the best-preserved examples of a traditional Scottish farm still in family occupation at the time of transfer, while the museum itself — the modern exhibition building, working farm, and collections — is developed and operated by National Museums Scotland, making this one of the relatively few sites in Scotland where these two major national heritage bodies work together so directly.
Wester Kittochside farmhouse dates from the seventeenth century and was farmed continuously by generations of the Reid family for over three hundred years before its transfer to the National Trust for Scotland in the 1990s, giving the site an unusually long and well-documented continuity of agricultural occupation that underpins much of the museum's interpretation. The modern museum building, opened in 2001, presents the sweeping history of Scottish farming from the agricultural improvements of the eighteenth century, through the mechanisation and social upheaval of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the challenges and technologies of contemporary Scottish agriculture, drawing on National Museums Scotland's extensive national collection of agricultural machinery, implements, and rural life material.
A particular strength of the museum is its working farm, managed using techniques and rotations appropriate to different historical periods, allowing visitors to see traditional breeds, crops, and farming methods in practice across the surrounding fields rather than purely through static museum displays. Seasonal demonstrations of activities such as ploughing, harvesting, and traditional livestock husbandry connect the museum's historical collections directly to the working landscape immediately outside its doors, an approach that distinguishes it from smaller local rural life museums elsewhere in Britain.
As a major national-tier site jointly stewarded by National Museums Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland, the National Museum of Rural Life offers a depth of collection, historical scholarship, and working farm interpretation considerably beyond that of a typical small local heritage centre, and it serves as Scotland's principal dedicated national museum addressing the history of farming, land, and rural communities.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Allow a full half-day or more to properly see both the main exhibition building and the working farm and historic farmhouse at Wester Kittochside.
- Check the seasonal programme for farm demonstrations, including ploughing, harvesting, and livestock activities, as these vary through the year.
- The tractor-trailer ride to the farmstead is popular with families and provides an easy, accessible way to reach Wester Kittochside from the main car park.
- Visit in spring for young farm animals, a particular highlight for family visitors.
- The on-site café makes a good stop for lunch, particularly if combining a visit with a full farm walk.
- Free museum entry means the site is well suited to repeat visits across different seasons to see the working farm at different points in its agricultural year.
- Combine your visit with Calderglen Country Park nearby if you have additional time in the East Kilbride area.
- Check accessibility arrangements in advance if visiting the historic farmhouse with mobility considerations, as some areas of the historic buildings have natural constraints.
Highlights
Wester Kittochside — Three Centuries of the Reid Family Farm
The historic farmstead at the heart of the site was farmed continuously by generations of the Reid family for over three hundred years before its transfer to the National Trust for Scotland, giving Wester Kittochside an unusually well-documented and continuous history of agricultural occupation. The seventeenth-century farmhouse and its associated steading buildings are presented largely as they existed during the later generations of Reid family occupation, offering visitors a rare direct window into the domestic and working life of a long-established Scottish tenant farming family.
The Working Farm
A defining feature of the National Museum of Rural Life is its actively managed working farm, where traditional breeds and historically appropriate crop rotations and farming methods are demonstrated across the fields surrounding the museum building and farmstead. Seasonal activities including ploughing, sowing, and harvesting are carried out using techniques appropriate to different historical periods, giving visitors the opportunity to see farming history in active practice rather than solely through static displays.
National Museums Scotland's Agricultural Machinery Collection
The museum draws on National Museums Scotland's extensive national collection of agricultural machinery, implements, and rural technology, tracing the mechanisation of Scottish farming from horse-drawn implements through to modern tractors and combine harvesters.
This collection, one of the most comprehensive of its kind in Scotland, allows the museum to present the full sweep of agricultural technological change across more than two centuries.
The Story of Scottish Farming Since the Agricultural Improvements
The museum's core narrative exhibition traces the history of Scottish farming from the eighteenth-century agricultural improvements — which transformed land management, crop rotation, and enclosure across much of lowland Scotland — through the social and economic upheavals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including mechanisation, rural depopulation, and the changing structure of land ownership, to the challenges facing contemporary Scottish agriculture including sustainability and climate change.
Collections
The National Museum of Rural Life holds one of Scotland's most comprehensive collections of agricultural machinery, implements, and rural life material, developed and managed by National Museums Scotland, alongside the historic fabric and contents of Wester Kittochside farmhouse and steading, owned by the National Trust for Scotland.
The collection spans farming technology from pre-mechanisation hand tools through to modern agricultural machinery, alongside domestic and social history material illustrating rural community life in Scotland from the eighteenth century to the present, supported by an actively managed working farm demonstrating historical farming methods in practice.
Farming Scotland — From Improvement to the Present Day
The museum's principal exhibition tracing the history of Scottish agriculture from the eighteenth-century improvements to contemporary farming challenges.
Wester Kittochside Farmhouse
The historic seventeenth-century farmhouse and steading, presented as the long-term home of the Reid family, illustrating three centuries of continuous farm occupation.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.