Scottish Maritime Museum

 

Scottish Maritime MuseumThe Irvine site of the Scottish Maritime Museum opened in 1983. On show is a nationally recognised and varied collection of historic ships, artefacts, shipbuilding machinery, machine tools, several small vessels, canoes, lifeboats and other fascinating personal items.

Many of the exhibits are in the unique Grade A listed, 19th century, historic Linthouse Engine Shop, at Irvine. Other exhibits are at the Denny Tank in Dumbarton, the world’s first commercial ship model experiment tank.

At Irvine, you can:

  •  Explore the Linthouse Engine shop, Scotland’s ‘Cathedral of Engineering’, a Victorian glass-roofed building of 1872.
  •  Build and test your own model boat, or learn to manoeuvre a remote-controlled boat in our indoor boating ponds.
  •  See the collection of floating vessels, including ‘Spartan’, Scotland’s last Scottish-built puffer, the harbour tug ‘Garnock’, and ‘Carola’, a steam yacht built in 1898.
  •  Learn about Scotland’s importance to maritime history, and about the people that built and sailed Scottish ships around the world.
  •  Visit the shipyard worker’s tenement flat, a ‘room and kitchen’ restored to its pre-1920’s appearance.
  •  Discover ship models, photographs and historic objects in the museum’s Boatshop.
  •  Climb aboard the MV Kyles and tour the Captain’s cabin, crew’s quarters and the engine.
  •  Relax, with a view over the harbour, as you enjoy a refreshment or meal in the ‘Puffers’ café.

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