The material culture discovered by chance or recovered by archaeological research within our region is held within the musuems across South West Scotland and in supra-regional or national collections where their remit includes our region.
Future Museum is a partnership between East Ayrshire Leisure Trust. East Ayrshire Council, Dumfries and Galloway Council, North Ayrshire Council, South Ayrshire Council and the independent museums of South West Scotland. The focus of this collaboration is to provide online access to the region’s museum collections as well as delving into the fascinating history and heritage of the area. This resource both showcases collections and identifies the museums within our region.
Historic Environment Scotland care for over 41,000 objects, including many of Scotland’s most culturally significant objects. This large and diverse collection provides a key source of evidence for understanding and appreciating Scotland’s history and heritage. With multiple Properties in Care within our region, a proportion of their holdings relate to South West Scotland.
Glasgow Life Museums has one of the largest and finest collections in Europe, which is recognised by the Scottish Government as a Collection of National Significance. The geographical remit of their archaeological collection policy reaches across the region while bequests have entrusted private collections that include artefacts from the region.
National Museums Scotland cares for over 12 million objects and specimens. Over 836,000 items from the collection are currently available to search online, these include artefacts from our region. They have an active digitisation programme, and new records are published regularly.
In addition, the National Museums Scotland Research Repository is an Open Access repository for the research produced by staff and research associates of National Museums Scotland. The repository houses material such as peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters, reports, datasets, video and blog posts. While some of these are available as Open Access elsewhere, others are not. Where the full item cannot be added, metadata about the research output is provided together with a link to the item where possible.
Within the repository is a subcollection for the research undertaken on the Galloway Hoard recovered from near Balmaghie and dating from c.900AD.