The Smith Institute, as it was originally called, opened in 1874 with money left by the local painter Thomas Stuart Smith. It is the kind of provincial museum that combines a serious art collection with a vivid local history gallery — and admission has always been free, on Smith's instructions.
The art collection is stronger than you might expect. Smith's own paintings sit alongside works by William McTaggart, James Guthrie and other Glasgow Boys, plus a small but respectable holding of European art. The local history galleries trace Stirling from the Bronze Age through the medieval royal city to the present, and include the famous football, Mary Queen of Scots' coiffure, and the oldest curling stone in the world (dated 1511).
The museum is on Dumbarton Road, a five-minute walk from the city centre. It has a good café and a programme of contemporary exhibitions that runs alongside the permanent collection. Allow 90 minutes to two hours.