See History Brought to Life in 10 Amazing Open Air Museums

Beamish, in County Durham, captures a slice of life in early 20th-century northern England. From the terraces and coal mines to the photographer's shop and bakery. The on-site farm even helps to preserve rare breed livestock.

Fish oil lamps and peat fires - life in the highlands and islands of Scotland was tough by any standard. The Museum of Island Life on the Isle of Skye lets you step back in time to see exactly how simply crofting families lived barely a hundred years ago. 

This huge open-air museum in Bagac, Bataan, Philippines recreates a typical 18th-century Filipino-Spanish town. The buildings were originally collected by Jose Acuzar, and were dismantled brick-by-brick before being reconstructed on-site by traditional craftsmen.

The water mill's wheel still turns, and every now and then the blacksmiths anvil ringsat Toronto's Black Creek Pioneer Village. Over 40 19th-century buildings make up this living musem, together they tell the story of Canada in the 1850s.

At the other end of the country, the Weald and Downland Living Museum collects and preserves buildings dating back to the tenth century CE. Re-enactors bring the buildings to life, and demonstrate crafts such as weaving, brickmaking, joinery, and milling.

Japanese architecture is recognised around the world for its. The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum aims to present a cross section of society, from the homes of ordinary people to those of the powerful, such as Prime Minister Takahashi Korekiyo.

Sovereign Hill open-air museum depicts life as-it-was-lived in Ballarat, following the discovery of gold in 1851. The gold rush that followed brought people and materials from all around the world to this dusty station - even today, you can grab a shovel and go panning.