The Meffan Museum and Art Gallery

Pictish Carved Stones

The Meffan's Pictish carved stones are among its most important and internationally significant treasures, dating from the 6th to 9th centuries when the Forfar area lay at the very heart of the Pictish kingdom. These remarkable standing stones display the distinctive artistic traditions of the Picts — intricate interlace patterns of astonishing complexity, vigorous hunting scenes with horsemen pursuing deer and wild boar, fantastical beasts and serpentine creatures, and the famous Pictish symbols whose meaning has defied scholarly interpretation for centuries.

The carving quality rivals the finest early medieval sculpture anywhere in Europe, demonstrating an artistic sophistication that challenges lingering misconceptions about the Picts as a primitive or backward people.

Interpretive panels explain current understanding of Pictish society, religion, and the possible functions of these enigmatic monuments, while placing the Forfar stones within the broader network of Pictish carved stones found across eastern Scotland.

Forfar Witch Trials Exhibition

One of the museum's most powerful displays addresses the Forfar witch trials of the 17th century, a dark episode when dozens of local people — predominantly women — were accused of witchcraft, tortured into confessions, and executed. Forfar was one of the worst-affected towns in Scotland during the witch-hunting panic that gripped the country between the 1590s and the 1660s.

The museum presents this traumatic history with sensitivity and scholarly rigour, using contemporary documents, trial records, and modern research to explore the social, religious, and political contexts that produced the trials.

The exhibition examines who the accused were, what motivated their accusers, how confessions were extracted, and the terrible consequences for individuals and communities.

Rather than sensationalising these events, the museum uses them as a lens through which to explore broader themes of prejudice, power, and the persecution of the vulnerable.

Scottish Art Collection

The Meffan's art gallery holds a growing collection of Scottish paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture spanning the 19th century to the present. Particular strengths include works by Angus-born artists and those who have depicted the local landscape — the rich agricultural lowlands of Strathmore, the dramatic Angus glens, and the North Sea coast.

Regular temporary exhibitions by contemporary Scottish artists keep the gallery programme fresh and relevant, bringing new perspectives into dialogue with the permanent collection.

The gallery space itself, with its high ceilings and natural light, provides an attractive setting for viewing art.

For visitors expecting a small-town museum with limited artistic ambitions, the quality and range of the Meffan's art programme comes as a pleasant surprise, demonstrating the Angus region's significant contribution to Scotland's artistic heritage.

Angus Agricultural Heritage

The rich agricultural lowlands of Strathmore, stretching through the heart of Angus, have supported farming communities for millennia, and the museum's agricultural displays trace this long tradition from prehistoric cultivation through the medieval period to the revolutionary improvements of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Angus played a significant role in the Scottish agricultural revolution, with pioneering landowners introducing new crop rotations, improved livestock breeding, and mechanised farming methods that transformed productivity. The famous Angus cattle breed, developed in the region during the 19th century, became one of the world's most important beef breeds — a remarkable contribution from this small Scottish county to global agriculture.

Implements, photographs, and personal accounts document the lives of farm workers whose labour sustained the county's prosperity through centuries of change.