Stromness Museum
Stromness Museum is an independent museum based in Stromness, Orkney. We host special exhibitions and have a range of permanent galleries, welcoming visitors throughout the year.
- Intertidal Ecologist Dr Jane Pottas will give a talk on the history of herbaria, with specific emphasis on seaweed herbaria (algaria), at Stromness Museum, Thur 12 Feb, 7:30pm (doors open 7pm). The talk is free but booking is essential. For details and tickets see: stromnessmuseum.org.uk/whatson 🌊🪸
- It’s time for Free February 2026! You’re all invited to visit Stromness Museum free of charge this month. Those becoming Stromness Museum ‘Friends’ in Feb will also enter a prize draw for a £25 gift voucher! We’ll be open today & every day Mon-Sat at 11am-3.30pm (closed Sun). Come and see us soon! 🎟️
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- We’re holding Free February for the 2nd year running in 2026! Everyone’s invited to visit free of charge and all Feb visitors becoming Stromness Museum ‘Friends’ will enter a prize draw for a £25 gift voucher! We'll be open from Mon 2 Feb 2026, Mon-Sat 11am-3.30pm (closed Sun). 🎟️
- It's the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend! Help the @rspb.bsky.social by taking part in the UK's biggest citizen science wildlife survey this Fri 23-Sun 25 Jan 2026. Find out more and how to join in here: www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... #BigGardenBirdwatch 🌿🌳🐦🐦⬛🪶🦆 youtu.be/vwLfze0EVYs
- We're seeking a Natural History Specialist Volunteer to help us digitize, research and catalogue specimens in our collection! Find out more from vaorkney.org.uk at: bit.ly/49u5I7k
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- It’s #penguinawareness day! 🐧 The penguin is named for its resemblance to the Northern Penguin or Great Auk, extinct by 1844. The last Great Auk in Great Britain (exc. St Kilda) was shot in Papa Westray, Orkney in 1813 as a specimen for a London dealer.
- Although we're closed for Jan, we're busy behind the scenes! Here's our new Natural History Collections Curatorial Assistant Dr. Gareth Squire working on the Natural History Digitisation Project with photographer Rebecca Marr, cataloguing and photographing items from our Herbarium.
- BBC 2 Scotland aired ‘My Kind of Town’ in Stromness again today, with Ian Hamilton and his guide dog Major. Our Curator introduced Ian to our “treasure trove of objects from across the centuries” and our most friend-shaped object, the Skara Brae Buddo. Rewatch it here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
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- A winter scene, Stromness, with St. Peter’s House Eventide Home on the right, c.1957. ❄️ 📷: Hourston Photographic Collection © Stromness Museum
- Happy new year! We hope that 2026 is treating you well so far. Stromness Museum is closed for January. We will reopen for FREE FEBRUARY at 11am on Monday 2 February 2026, when there’ll be free entry for all visitors for the whole month! 📷: vintage postcard from the World War One period.
- We’re open until 3.30pm today with free entry for all visitors to celebrate our 163rd birthday! 🎈 We already have visitors big and small enjoying touring the building…
- We hope you all had a lovely Christmas. We’d love it if you could join us this Mon 29 Dec at 11am-3.30pm to help us celebrate Stromness Museum’s birthday. There’s free entry for all on the 163rd anniversary of opening the doors of our Victorian building to the public for the first time in 1862. 🎟️
- Merry Christmas to all of our followers! Stromness Museum is closed Xmas Eve onwards, reopening for a Free Entry Day Mon 29 Dec 11am-3.30pm. We’ll then remain closed until Mon 2 Feb 2026, when we reopen for another FREE FEBRUARY! 📷: Willie McKewan in Powered by People: tinyurl.com/yyxjedvp
- Got some last minute Christmas shopping to do? We're open 11am-3.30pm today, Mon 22 and Tue 23 Dec, and sell a range of rare gems you won't find elsewhere in our gift shop! 🎁
- As Stromness prepares for the Yule Log Pull, we'd like to remind all Northenders and Soothenders that anyone caught chopping down local garden trees without the owners' consent will be prosecuted. Read about the tradition here: northlinkferries.co.uk/orkney-blog/the-stromness-yule-log-pull
- Feeling under the weather? Try some of Perry Davis’ Pain Killer, which ‘will soon take all the soreness away’. 📷 postcard advert dated approximately 1890.
- Stromness Museum would like to hear your opinions about our proposal to take on the Flaws Pier and Yole Building to safeguard ongoing community access. Please reply or email: chair@stromnessmuseum.org.uk 📷 By artist Crispin Worthington, contributed to our 2017 project stromnesspiers.wordpress.com
- Please note that tomorrow, on TUE 9 DEC 2025 THE MUSEUM WILL BE CLOSED ALL DAY FOR ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE. We will be open again as normal on Wednesday 10 December at 11am-3.30pm. 📷 Spanners from WWI German Fleet. SMS Kaiser stamped on one side.
- Featuring Stromness Museum! 🏴☠️ 'Amongst the many fascinating items on display is Gow’s own telescope, which he used during his 1725 travels, as well as an original copy of the 1726 An Account of the Conduct and Proceedings of the late John Gow... attributed to Daniel Defoe.'
- We have a Selkie visitor this morning! 🦭 🌊
- 🦢 “All through the year, there’s wildlife to look at…” Stromness Museum propose to take on Flaws Pier & Yole Building to ensure future access and enjoyment of both. 🌊 More Stromness Piers images and voices are on the online archive of ‘Listening to the piers’ in 2017: stromnesspiers.wordpress.com
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- Hear our Trustee Ian Johnstone outline Stromness Museum’s proposed plans for the Flaws Pier & Yole Building at 12 mins into this morning’s BBC Radio Orkney programme. 📻 🔗 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... 📷 BBC Radio Orkney
- Selena S. Kuzman’s film ‘As Old as the Hills’, described as ‘a groundbreaking visualisation of the vastness of geological time’ set in Orkney and Caithness, is now available to view in full online on the oisf.org YouTube channel: youtu.be/CG--FFMO1UE 🍿
- We want your views, memories, stories and photos! Stromness Museum are considering taking on the Flaws Pier and Yole Building next door to keep it in community ownership, but would love to hear your thoughts first. Please reply or email chair@stromnessmuseum.org.uk
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- You and Buddo can be Belles of the Christmas Ball with these lovely earrings! Made by Orkney3D.com & @sheilafleet.bsky.social, inspired by the Neolithic Skara Brae #Buddo. Available from Fri 28 Nov 2025 🔗 shop.stromnessmuseum.org.uk/products/buddo-earrings 🎁 Each purchase supports Stromness Museum.
- We are looking for a Freelance Outreach and Engagement specialist to work on our new natural history collections project.
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- May your Christmas be Buddo and Bright! We sell unique gifts you won’t find on the high street, inspired by Orkney and our collections, plus games and stocking fillers. We're open Mon-Sat at 11am-3.30pm and you can shop online: shop.stromnessmuseum.org.uk 🎁 Sales support our independent Museum.
- Join our friends at @johnraesociety.bsky.social for FREE adventuring events this weekend and next weekend - Sat 22 & Sat 29 Nov 2025. Malcolm Handoll of Five Senses Rewilding will lead two events so you can experience John Rae’s spirit of adventure! Booking essential: johnraesociety.com/events
- Very glad the electricity is working well today after last night's power cut. We can enjoy attending the Arts Marketing Association's Digital Marketing Day Online uninterrupted, thanks to a bursary from @museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk 📷: Candle snuffers, made of iron.
- Here's Stromness Athletic Football Club celebrating a big win in 1993, when they were awarded the Dick Vet Cup. ⚽
- During an Orkney diving holiday Neil Kermode (EMEC.org.uk) first saw the the potential for tidal energy from the Churchill barriers. Neil got an OBE in 2023 for services to renewable energy and Orkney. See Neil’s role in Orkney’s renewable energy story in Powered by People: tinyurl.com/yyxjedvp
- 'Orkney's Offshore Dilemmas', a talk by Dr Tim Noble (@heriotwattuni.bsky.social) is now online. The Sept talk was part of our Powered by People exhibition & #hiclimatefest. Video funded by hiclimatefest.co.uk & edited by Mark Jenkins, Kolekto. #HiLocal #LetsDoNetZero #ScotClimateWeek
- A reminder that the story sharing event for the @uhiarchaeology.bsky.social TRANSECTS project, focusing on whales and whaling, is tomorrow on Sat 15 Nov in the Robert Rendall Lecture Theatre, ORIC, Stromness (the old academy buildings): archaeologyorkney.com/2025/10/30/w...
- Remember to take care of your new luxury sock with a good sock stretcher. 📷: Sock stretcher of wood, with pegs to hold sock when stretched.
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- The #shooglyholm project with artist Jenny Pope, our “Oceans – Wellbeing – Youth” work with West Mainland Youth Group, Snorkel Safaris, Shoreline Rambles and digital exhibition Living Wrecks: The Marine Life of Scapa Flow all feature in this Museums Galleries Scotland blog post.
- Orkney Councillors will consider proposals for a 20mph speed limit in built-up areas today, which is a breakneck speed compared to the past limit of 4mph. Anything faster was considered 'Furious Driving'. 📷: Official notice issued by Stromness Town Council: Furious Driving.
- It's #TrusteesWeek, a celebration of charity trustees' work. We'd like to thank the committee of volunteers elected from members of the Orkney Natural History Society Museum, who've managed and maintained Stromness Museum since 1837 to the present day. 📷: Rev Dr Charles Clouston, Mark Summers.
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- It may only be early November but Buddo is already feeling festive! Packs of six A6 greetings cards (with white envelopes) featuring 'The Skara Brae Buddo' in a winter wonderland are now on sale in our Museum shop and online at: tinyurl.com/52uy777j ❄️ #Buddo ℹ️: tinyurl.com/2t3jbrsa
- Remember, Remember the Fifth of November... And to give the bairns pennies for their Pops, because you don't they'll chase you around the Stromness streets with them. Tonight's Pop competition will be judged at the Stromness Bonfire Night, Coplands Dock at 6.30pm.
- Join TRANSECTS for a talk by Dr Jen Harland of @uhiarchaeology.bsky.social and an informal story-sharing session about whales and whaling in Orkney. On Sat 15 Nov at the Robert Rendall Building, ORIC, Stromness at 11am-1pm / 2-3:45pm with drop in lunch 1-2pm. ℹ️: archaeologyorkney.com/transects
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- White rabbit!🐰 It's 1st Nov but it’s the last day of the #HiddenWondersHunt from @kidsinmuseums.bsky.social at Stromness Museum. Complete the trail to earn a sticker. Enter a competition for the chance to win a book set & an @artfund.bsky.social Double Nat. Art Pass + Kids. ℹ️: tinyurl.com/mwrvx4rk
- Happy Halloween! Beware of Frankenstein's Monster and his vicious, bloodthirsty hound, Kodak the Wonder Dog. 📷: Past Stromness Drama Club production poster: 'Frankenstein The Panto, Starring Kodak the Wonder Dog.'
- As the nights are drawing in, we will be switching to winter opening times from tomorrow, Saturday 1 November 2025. We will be open Monday to Saturday from 11.00am until 3.30pm and closed on Sundays. 📷: Parrafin lamp and mantle, used at Pentland Skerries lighthouse before modernisation.
- Elsa Ramírez Santiago is Lead Project Engineer of Leask Marine and a ‘Stemettes’ volunteer, giving industry insight to young professionals and encouraging girls pursuing STEM careers. See Elsa’s role in Orkney’s renewable energy story, told in our Powered by People exhibition: tinyurl.com/yyxjedvp
