Paganism, Wicca, or witchcraft has a long history in this corner of Scotland. East of Elgin Cathedral lies a deep pool called the Order Pot, used to test alleged witches from the Nairn area up to 1560. Over fifty people were tried and killed within two miles of Nairn during the 16th and 17th centuries, including Issobel Nicoll, Margaret Wilsone, and Allexander Ledy. The most famous case is Isobel Gowdie of Auldearn, two miles from Nairn, who in 1662 confessed - voluntarily, according to the records, which makes her case unusual - to four counts of witchcraft. Her testimony is preserved in extraordinary detail and became one of the most important sources scholars use to understand early modern Scottish witchcraft beliefs. The composer James MacMillan immortalized her in The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, an orchestral piece premiered in 1990. The accused women and men of the witch trials were not witches in any meaningful sense - they were ordinary people, mostly poor and mostly female, who were tortured into confessions and killed for the reassurance of communities that needed someone to blame. Practices traditional folk-magic continued informally for centuries after the trials ended - in 1848 a clay figure filled with needles was discovered on the bank of the River Nairn, designed so that water dripping over its heart would, supposedly, kill the man it represented as the clay dissolved.

The Nairn Highland Games have been held yearly since 1867 and remain the only completely free entry Highland Games in Scotland. Tug-of-war, shot put, Highland dancing, tossing the caber, and now a half-marathon all share the program. The Nairn Curling Club, established before 1854, is the oldest sporting club in town. But Nairn's international reputation rests on golf. The Nairn Golf Club, founded in 1887, was designed by Archie Simpson, Old Tom Morris, and James Braid - three names from the Mount Rushmore of Scottish golf course architecture. The club hosted the 1999 Walker Cup and the 2012 Curtis Cup. Nairn Dunbar Golf Club, founded in 1899, runs the World One-Arm Golfers Championship. Nairn Academy traces back to 1832 as Rose's Academical Institution, founded by Captain James Rose, and now serves Nairn and the surrounding villages of Cawdor, Croy, and Auldearn.

Lady Evelyn Cobbold, born in 1867, was the daughter of the 7th Earl of Dunmore and a Nairn-area figure of note. In 1933, taking the name Zainab, she became the first known British woman to complete the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. She continued to practice Islam until her death in Inverness in 1963 and was buried in Glencarron in accordance with Islamic principles. Her story sits oddly in the broader history of Nairn - a Highland town where the nearest mosque today is Inverness Mosque, sixteen miles west, and the next is Elgin Mosque twenty-one miles east. Nairn falls within the historical diocese of Moray, believed to have been formed during the reign of Alexander I around 1122. Nairn Castle was built on land that the Bishop of Nairn ceded to King William the Lion in the 12th century. The bishopric had to be compensated with the lands of Auldearn instead. Even in the medieval church, real estate negotiations were part of the work.

James Augustus Grant was born at Househill outside Nairn, attended Nairn Academy, and in 1862 became, with John Hanning Speke, one of the first Europeans to confirm that the White Nile flowed out of Lake Victoria. Britain had been chasing the source of the Nile for centuries; Grant's expedition with Speke produced the definitive answer that ended a long argument. He died at Nairn in 1892, and a plaque to his memory hangs in St Paul's Cathedral in London. The town has continued to attract people doing notable things elsewhere. William Whitelaw, Conservative deputy Prime Minister from 1979 to 1988, was born in Nairn. Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator since 2009, was raised here. Tilda Swinton settled here in 2007, and in 2007-2008 created the "Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams" film festival in the Public Hall, attracting global press to a town that was used to being overlooked by everyone except Charlie Chaplin.