A World in Miniature Museum
Houghton Hall Garden Centre
Houghton, Carlisle CA6 4JB
This truly amazing museum contains of one the world's top three collections of quality miniatures, from remarkable 1/12 scale copies of antique furniture, paintings and china in beautiful room settings, to everyday items at sizes you just won't believe..
Acorn Bank - National Trust
Temple Sowerby
nr Penrith CA10 1SP
Delightful sheltered garden, renowned for its herbs and orchards growing old English fruit varieties. Ancient oaks and high enclosing walls keep the extremes of the Cumbrian climate out of the garden, resulting in a spectacular display of shrubs, roses and herbaceous borders.
Allan Bank & Grasmere - National Trust
Allan Bank, Grasmere
Ambleside LA22 9QB
Opened to the public for the first time ever in March 2012, Allan Bank is a place to relax in front of a warm fire with a cup of tea while the children play. Once home to William Wordsworth and National Trust founder Canon Rawnsley, Allan Bank was rescued from the ravages of fire in 2011.
Armitt Library & Museum
Armitt Library and Museum Centre, Rydal Road
Ambleside LA22 9BL
The Armitt is a unique place combining Gallery, Museum and Library. It is a treasure-house for scholarship and fun, art and entertainment.
Beacon Museum, The
West Strand
Whitehaven CA28 7LY
The Beacon Museum, situated on Whitehaven's beautiful Georgian harbourside, tells the story of the rich history of this fascinating corner of the Western Lake District. There is a fantastic interactive exhibition which tells the story of the nuclear industry in West Cumbria, past, present and future. Beginning at the top of the museum, visitors can expect to enjoy the best view in town in our viewing gallery, looking out across the Solway.
Beatrix Potter Gallery - National Trust
Main Street
Hawkshead LA22 0NS
Gallery showing original watercolours by world famous author Beatrix Potter and displays on her life & work. 2008 features The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck and The Tale of Samuel Whiskers - which are celebrating their 100th birthday - as well as displays on the major film 'Miss Potter'. This 17th-century building was once the office of her husband, William Heelis.
Border & King's Own Royal Border Regiment Museum
Queen Mary's Tower, The Castle
Carlisle CA3 8UR
cumbriasmuseumofmilitarylife.org
The museum founded in 1932 is located in Queen Mary's Tower a 16th century building in Carlisle Castle. This superb medieval fortress founded in 1092, houses the military barracks of the Border Regiment's Depot, the regiment's home since 1873. Collections: Includes a wide range of uniforms, equipment, badges and insignia, firearms, artillery and edged weapons, personal items, silver, china, musical instruments, medals including those of six of the Border Regiment's Victoria Cross winners, pictures and paintings, and a large archive of photographs, and documents relating to Regular, Volunteer, Militia, Territorial and Home Guard units of the regiment and other military units from Cumbria. Archive and items not on display can be viewed by prior arrangement.
Borrowdale - National Trust
Head of Colesdale, above Braithwaite
Keswick CA12 5UP
Last mineral mine processing mill to operate in the lake district. The last operating mineral mine in the lake district.
Carlisle Castle - English Heritage
Carlisle CA3 8UR
Wander the passages of this medieval fortress and discover nine centuries of bloody warfare across the Anglo-Scottish border. Learn about its role in sieges, and its connections with Mary Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Cumbria's Museum Of Military Life
Alma Carlisle Castle
Carlisle CA3 8UR
cumbriasmuseumofmilitarylife.org
Cumbria's Museum of Military Life is located right in the heart of historic Carlisle Castle. Telling the story of how ordinary people did extraordinary things serving with the local infantry regiments and how they affected the county and the world.
Dalton Castle - National Trust
Market Place
Dalton-in-Furness LA15 8AX
14th-century tower, containing a local history exhibition organised by Friends of Dalton Castle. Also houses a display about painter George Romney, a native of Dalton.
Derwent Island House - National Trust
Derwent Island, Lake Road
Keswick CA12 5DJ
18th-century house on an idyllic woodland island in Derwentwater. The house has a restrained classical interior and restored garden.
Dock Museum, The
North Road
Barrow-in-Furness LA14 2PW
Set in a dry dock, the Dock Museum tells the fascinating story of Barrow, the Victorian boom town and 20th century centre of innovation including airships and submarines. A new archaeology gallery explores the area's rich prehistory from stone circles to Viking booty.
Dove Cottage, The Wordsworth Museum & Art Gallery
Dove Cottage, Town End
Grasmere LA22 9SH
Visit the traditional Lakeland cottage and home of the poet William Wordsworth, who in 1799 went on a walking tour of the Lake District and fell in love with Grasmere and Dove Cottage, and within a few months had set up home here with his sister, Dorothy. Collections: The museum covers not only the lives and works of Wordsworth and his circle, but the wider phenomenon of British Romanticism, and the role of the Lake District in inspiring writers and artists of the Romantic Movement.
Guildhall Museum
Greenmarket
Carlisle CA3 8JE
The Guildhall Museum can be found in Carlisle's only medieval house. Each of the Guild Rooms has its own attractions. - ranging from the ship's cabin-like atmosphere of the Shoemakers room to the Victorian character of the Butcher's room. There are displays of objects relating to the history of the Guilds throughout the museum, including items of Guild silver dating back to the early 18th century.
Haig Colliery Mining Museum
Solway Road, Kells
Whitehaven CA28 9BG
Haig Colliery Mining Museum is situated high on the cliffs above Whitehaven with magnificent views across to the Scottish Hills and the Isle of Man. The museum is a twenty minute detour from the famous Coast to Coast Walk and within yards of the Cumbria Coastal Way.
Hawkshead Grammar School Museum
Hawkshead Grammar School
Hawkshead LA22 0NT
The museum in the Old Grammar School building in the village of Hawkshead, Cumbria, houses a unique collection of historic artefacts relating to the ancient school, some of which date back to the 16th century. The museum operates a guided tour which brings the school to life. You can feel the atmosphere and almost believe you are in a working schoolroom of 200 years ago.
Helena Thompson Museum
Park End Road
Workington CA14 4DE
The Helena Thompson Museum, originally known as Park End, was the home of Helena Thompson, MBE, JP, for over seventy years and it was her gift to the people of Workington upon her death, on the condition that it be made into a museum for Workington and the surrounding district. Miss Thompson's family had been associated with the house since the late 18th century.
Kendal Museum of Natural History & Archaeology
Station Road
Kendal LA9 6BT
Kendal is situated on the edge of the English Lake District and is home to one of the country's oldest museums. Founded in 1796, Kendal Museum's fascinating collections include local archaeology, history, geology and a natural history collection from around the globe.
Keswick Museum & Art Gallery
Fitz Park, Station Road
Keswick CA12 4NF
The museum tells the story of Keswick and the surrounding area. Keswick has a unique history, with lots of firsts, including the first pencils, some very famous residents, and lots of beautiful scenery. It was purpose built in 1897 of local green volcanic state and St Bees sandstone and is set in the beautiful Fitz Park.
Lakeland Motor Museum
Old Blue Mill, Backbarrow,
Newby Bridge LA12 8TA
The Lakeland Motor Museum has a fascinating collection of over 30,000 cars, motorcycles, scooters, cycles and auto memorabilia and is housed in a restored mill and ultramarine pigment factory in the heart of The Lake District. Highlights of the museum include a Campbell Bluebird Exhibition with replicas of the record-breaking machines that saw the famous Campbell family break 21 world and land speed records. In addition to the fascinating exhibits from the world of motoring, the museum also features displays about the local Lakeland motoring heritage, period shopping displays, electric cars and cycles and the history of Old Blue Mill that now houses the collection.
Laurel & Hardy Museum
4c Upper Brook St
Ulverston LA12 7BH
The museum started life as one man's collection stemming from his lifelong love of 'the boys'. Starting out as a few scrapbooks of photos, the collection grew over time until it filled this museum.
Maryport Maritime Museum
1 Senhouse Street, Shipping Brow
Maryport CA15 6AB
The museum houses a wealth of objects, pictures, models and paintings that illustrate Maryport's proud maritime and painting tradition. The collection at the museum was initially based on the donations of items by local resident Miss Annie Robinson, and consisted almost entirely of artefacts from or linked to the Town of Maryport.
Millom Heritage Museum & Visitor Centre
Station Building, Station Road
Millom LA18 5AA
Millom Folk Museum Society was founded in 1973, some five years after the Ironworks closed down. Its founders were a handful of local people all with a shared passion to preserve the town's mining heritage.
Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry
Abbot Hall
Kendal LA9 5AL
The museum takes you back through time to explore the story of the Lake District and its inhabitants. Isolated before the arrival of the railway and motorcar, this area developed its own unique customs and traditions. Recreated period rooms and workshops reveal how rural people lived and worked and played and how different life was before the introduction of machinery.
Nenthead Mines Heritage Centre
Nenthead
Alston CA9 3PD
A museum dedicated to both showing and telling the 'story' of the mineral mining past of the North Pennines. Prepare to launch on a voyage of discovery at Nenthead Mines, learning more about the people, places, tools, lifestyle, and legacy of the mining industry that at one time completely dominated the landscape of the North Pennines.
Pencil Museum
Southey Works, Greta Bridge
Keswick CA12 5NG
The first pencil factory in Keswick opened in 1832. The second and current factory was started in the 1920s and completed in 1950. The museum opened in 1981. Discover the colourful world that is home to a giant, an escape artist's pencil, art adventures and the world's longest colour pencil.
Penrith & Eden Museum
Robinson's School, Middlegate
Penrith CA11 7PT
Penrith and Eden Museum is located at the heart of the bustling market town of Penrith. The museum is housed in Robinson's School, an Elizabethan building dating from 1670 and used as a school until the early 1970s.
Quaker Tapestry Museum
Friends Meeting House, Stramongate
Kendal LA9 4BH
The award-winning Quaker Tapestry is a masterpiece of storytelling and a celebration of life, revolutions, and remarkable people.. Often compared with the Bayeux Tapestry, this modern, internationally created exhibition, made by 4,000 people, reveals a myriad of stories within 77 captivating and colourful embroidery panels.
Ravenglass Railway Museum
The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
Ravenglass CA18 1SW
The railway runs for seven miles (11.3 kilometres) from the Lake District National Park's only coastal village of Ravenglass in the Western Lake District, through hidden Miterdale, to the grandeur of the Eskdale valley. The terminus at Dalegarth for Boot - home to our new visitor centre - nestles at the foot of England's highest mountains. The story of the Railway is outlined in the Railway Museum, situated in Ravenglass Station car park.
Ruskin Museum, The
Yewdale Road
Coniston LA21 8DU
Ruskin gave a collection of minerals/crystals to Coniston Mechanics' Institute in 1884. Local objects were added.
Sellafield Visitor Centre
Sellafield
Seascale CA20 1PG
Sellafield is probably BNFL's most well known site, and is home to the Sellafield Visitors Centre. The Visitors Centre presents a unique educational experiene and contains interesting and innovative exhibitions providing an insight into the world of BNFL and Sellafield.
Senhouse Roman Museum
The Battery, Sea Brows
Maryport CA15 6JD
Dramatically sited on cliffs overlooking Maryport harbour and the Scottish coast, this unique and award-winning Museum is next to the site of the Roman fort built at the centre of Hadrian's coastal defences on the Solway. It is housed in a Royal Naval Reserve Battery building, and a new display covers the history of the building and of the military units associated with it.
Solway Aviation Museum
Aviation House, Carlisle Airport, Crosby-on-Eden
Carlisle CA6 4NW
The Solway Aviation Museum is run by volunteers from the Solway Aviation Society, with a theme of British Military Aircraft manufactured in the North West of England between the 1950s and 1960s. With the kind permission of the Carlisle Airport management, and with help from sponsors the collection is housed in 'Aviation House' to the right of the main Airport entrance.
Townend - National Trust
Townend, Troutbeck
Windermere LA23 1LB
Fine example of Lake District vernacular architecture. Largely 17th-century, the solid stone and slate house is an exceptional survival.
Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery
Castle Street
Carlisle CA3 8TP
Discover, explore and enjoy award winning Tullie House, where historic collections, contemporary art and family fun are brought together in one impressive museum and art gallery. Set in beautiful gardens, Old Tullie House is a Grade 1 listed building, and is home to a nationally important collection of Pre-Raphaelite art.
Windermere Steamboat Museum
Rayrigg Road
Bowness-on-Windermere LA23 1BN
The Lakeland Arts Trust has embarked upon an ambitious project to redevelop the Windermere Steamboat Museum. Collections: The collection of historic vessels at the Windermere Steamboat Museum is one of the most important in the world, telling the story of boating in the Lake District from early mediaeval log boats to record- breaking speed boats of the 1960s and 70s.