Dumfries Museum
Dumfries Museum and Camera Obscura, located in Dumfries in Dumfries & Galloway, is the largest museum in the region. The museum has extensive collections relating to local and history from the pre-historic era. The museum also has the world's oldest working camera obscura. Admission is free, though a small fee applies for the camera obscura.
Collections
The museum's collections cover all material relating to the natural history and human pre-history of the region, from geology to dress, folk material, archaeology and early photographs.Notable artefacts include:
- A cast of the skull of Robert the Bruce as well as femur and foot bones.
- A Bronze Age cist burial including the remains of a 35-year-old man from the beaker people.
- A large collection of Roman and Celtic stone crosses and funerary monuments.
- A replica of the first bicycle, as designed by Kirkpatrick Macmillan.
- The photographic archive of Dr Werner Kissling.
- Personal items belonging to Thomas Carlyle
- Fossil reptile tracks from the local Permian sandstone including Corncockle Quarry.
History
Originally built as a four-storey windmill on Corbelly hill, the highest point in Maxwelltown, in 1798, the site was purchased by Dumfries and Maxwellton Astronomical Society in 1834. Over a two-year period the tower was converted into an Observatory, and with advice from polar explorer Sir John Ross, a telescope was purchased from a Mr Morton of Kilmarnock. With its completion in 1836, unfortunately the observatory missed the arrival of Halley's Comet; however, it was used in this role until 1872.The main hall of the museum was built in 1862, and housed the collections of the newly founded Dumfries and Galloway Natural History & Antiquarian Society. In 1981 a major addition of a new gallery, shop, search room and offices for curatorial staff was added. In 2011 the exterior of the windmill tower was refurbished.