Scottish Maritime Museum

The Scottish Maritime Museum currently has collections located at two sites in the West of Scotland, both with strong maritime connections. The museums, located in Irvine and Dumbarton, each portray different areas of Scotland’s maritime heritage. A third museum, Clydebuilt at Braehead, originally opened in 1999 but was closed indefinitely during October 2010 due to lack of funding.

The Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank, in Dumbarton, offers the opportunity to step back into the world of the Victorian naval architect. Inspired by the work of eminent naval architect William Froude and completed in 1883, it was the world's first commercial example of a ship testing tank.

Re-opened as a museum in 1982, it retains many of its original features, including the 100-meter-long ship testing tank, as long as a football pitch, which although demonstrated from time to time, lacks instrumentations and can no longer be used for hydrodynamic research and testing. The museum also tells the story of the test tank's original owners, William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton; one of the most innovative shipbuilding companies in the world, until their closure in 1963.

The Irvine museum is located at Irvine Harbour, situated within the category A listed former Engine Shop of Alexander Stephen and Sons, which was salvaged and relocated from their derelict Linthouse shipyard in Glasgow during 1991. The Linthouse engineering shop is now home to many industrial exhibits, including a model boat pond and the boatshop on the quayside, which contains an exhibition of ship models and children’s activities. Visitors can step into the past by touring the Shipyard Workers' Tenement Flat where they can see a typical 'room and kitchen' worker's tenement flat, restored to its 1920s appearance.

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