A new home for our Museum

The museum will tell the stories of the island, with galleries focused on maritime heritage, island spirit, island life and island nature.

We want to provide a first-class museum to showcase our permanent collections, library and archive - with the potential for exciting visiting exhibitions and loans. The refurbishment and renovation of the former Town Hall allows us to provide a new home for the Isles of Scilly Museum.

The museum will tell the stories of the island, and the main themes we’ve proposed for the galleries are based around maritime heritage, island spirit, island life and island nature.

Explore the themes for our new galleries

Island Life

Since the first settlers, life on the Isles of Scilly has been a story of resilience, creativity and mutual support. Scillonians have had to live in harmony with nature, using natural resources and the capricious bounty of the sea in an enduring struggle to earn a living, build homes and sustain their communities.

Island Nature

Our cultural and natural landscapes, flora and fauna are uniquely rich, rare, beautiful and precious.

Protecting our environment is deeply important to us, including issues around sustainable water use, invasive species, tourism and climate change.

Maritime Heritage

As an island community, our maritime heritage is all-encompassing.

Maritime trade and travel have been the basis of our economy, society and community since pre-history, and still define island life in the age of tourism today.

Island Spirit

The Isles of Scilly are a magical place. Since the first settlements, people have lived, worshipped and died here. We see evidence of their lives and deaths in the landscape, in the names of the rocks and islands, in the literature, art and music they created, and in the wild beauty that has drawn people here for millennia.

Archaeology on Scilly

The Isles of Scilly are fortunate in having one of the densest concentrations of archaeological sites in Britain, as is reflected in the Isles of Scilly Museum collections.

Over 60% of the islands are classed as archaeologically important with 239 scheduled monuments in a land area of 16 square kilometres.

Many of these sites cover extensive areas on the islands and sometimes, as in the case of Samson, the whole island.

Find out more

“There are downs covered with the golden glory of the gorse, with the pink of the sea-thrift, with the purple of the heather… lovely beaches of white sand… all seen against a background of that wonderful and ever-changing sea.”

—Jessie Mothersole, The Isles of Scilly: Their Story, Their Folk and their Flowers
“With its amount of sunshine, with its equable temperature, and its air charged with ozone, I believe Scilly will be the sanatorium of the future.”

—S.Baring-Gould, A Book of the West Being an Introduction to Devon and Cornwall, Vol. II.
“Endless walks along Pentle Beach, in sun and wind and rain… oyster catchers piping… off to the beach swimming with little silver fish in the turquoise water.”

—Michael Morpurgo, A Stream of Isles of Scilly Memories

Duke of Connaught and Mr Dorien Smith the Governer landing at St Marys Sept 22 1905 by Gibson.jpg

Aunt Sarahs Tearoom on Bryher by Gibson.jpg

BEA plane on the Airport St Marys by James Gibson.jpg

Passage to Scilly Scene on Deck by Gibson Penzance.jpg

A Holiday Trip series No 6 A General Collapse by Gibson of Penzance.jpg

Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have commissioned heritage design specialists, Imagemakers, to create designs which offer an interpretation of what future museum exhibitions could look like in the new facility. The designs have been created in discussion with the Isles of Scilly Museum Association and other stakeholders.

A new home for our Museum

The museum will tell the stories of the island, with galleries focused on maritime heritage, island spirit, island life and island nature.

We want to provide a first-class museum to showcase our permanent collections, library and archive - with the potential for exciting visiting exhibitions and loans. The refurbishment and renovation of the former Town Hall allows us to provide a new home for the Isles of Scilly Museum.

The museum will tell the stories of the island, and the main themes we’ve proposed for the galleries are based around maritime heritage, island spirit, island life and island nature.

Explore the themes for our new galleries

Island Life

Island Nature

Maritime Heritage

Island Spirit

Archaeology on Scilly

“There are downs covered with the golden glory of the gorse, with the pink of the sea-thrift, with the purple of the heather… lovely beaches of white sand… all seen against a background of that wonderful and ever-changing sea.”

“With its amount of sunshine, with its equable temperature, and its air charged with ozone, I believe Scilly will be the sanatorium of the future.”

“Endless walks along Pentle Beach, in sun and wind and rain… oyster catchers piping… off to the beach swimming with little silver fish in the turquoise water.”

The space will house a shop and a cafe with beautiful views over Porthcressa beach.

This project is led by the Council of the Isles of Scilly, working in partnership with the Isles of Scilly Museum Association.