This graduate level course was designed by Dr Thea Stevens as Course Instructor, with Dr Sally Tuckett as Summer School Director. Sessions were led by Dr. Thea Stevens with additional guest lecturers and contributors. The course explored the decorative arts, material culture, architecture and social identity of royal and noble sites in Scotland from the Stuart monarchy to the Victorian era. The main focus was on how objects, interiors, and exterior spaces functioned in their historical contexts and how these factors intersect with current trends in cultural heritage presentation and museum interpretation. Centering on sites of royal and noble connection, the two-week intensive study block explored their historic fabric, material culture and expression of dramatic narratives within evocative settings; and, embracing the chequered histories of royalty in Scotland, museum and gallery collections were utilised to encompass the various discourses of image, object and display that lie at the heart of issues of national identity. The course encompassed differing approaches to collecting and connecting, informed by constructions of identity and pride in ancient family, the Enlightenment, concepts of antiquarianism, scholarship and connoisseurship, and the introduction of new and varied courtly tastes. As the course was founded upon principles of direct learning, most of the classes took place in situ on visits to key examples of historic sites and museum collections, and they featured study sessions and master classes by curators and specialists active in the research, preservation and conservation of Scotland’s historic buildings and collections.