Ruskin Museum
The Ruskin Museum is an award-winning Cabinet of Curiosities which tells the Story of Coniston.
Plan Around Ruskin Museum
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Ruskin Museum Details
The Rough Guide to the Lake District praises "Coniston's superb museum" as "the most thought-provoking in the Lakes" for its inspirational and award-winning telling of The Story of Coniston from the first Stone Age fell-walkers, who made and traded stone axes, to the Jet Era when the 1950s speed ace Donald Campbell used Coniston Water as Bluebird K7's race-track. The Museum's Coniston Gallery introduces 500 million year old rocks; examines the mines that helped to copper-bottom Naval and merchant wooden ships, and the slate quarries that have roofed the world; studies the dry-stone and cobble walls that stride the fells, and looks at the truth to local stone, slate and oak exemplified in traditional vernacular buildings. Coniston is Herdwick country, black lambs, grey sheep with smiling white faces, and an intriguing mix of Celtic and Norse heritage - a hardy native breed much-loved by Beatrix Potter, who owned farms in the parish. Coniston is also Swallows and Amazons country. Arthur Ransome fictionalised the lake and The Old Man, Steam Yacht Gondola, and used the copper-mines and slate-quarries as the context for Pigeon Post. His readers will discover in the museum the sailing dinghy Mavis, the inspiration of the fictional Amazon. The Bluebird Wing, has been built as the future home of Donald Campbell's iconic hydroplane Bluebird K7, once the wreckage from the fatal crash in 1967 has been conserved and rebuilt to operative condition. This gallery contains extensive displays of memorabilia, a large-screen photographic presentation and touch-screen inter-actives. The Ruskin Gallery holds the most comprehensive display in the Lake District about the life and work of John Ruskin [1819-1900], who had one of the most profound and influential minds of the Victorian age, becoming the greatest pundit on aesthetics and ethics in the English-speaking world. He was a superb watercolourist and draughtsman seeing clearly the links between the structure of crystals and the mountains they formed; art and buildings in relation to the society that bred them; the environmental, ecological and moral pollution of the Industrial Revolution - and teaching people how to think and plan for a fairer and more sustainable future. It is open daily between 10:30am and 5:30pm (last admissions 4:45pm). Grid Reference: SD 30180 97718 Address (near): Yewdale Avenue, Coniston LA21 8DU, UK
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Nearby Parks Around Ruskin Museum
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Nearby Points of Interest Around Ruskin Museum
Use nearby POIs to quickly expand your options beyond Ruskin Museum while the map context is still fresh.
0.0 mi away
Coniston Copper Mines
Do not attempt to enter without an experienced guide.
0.1 mi away
Campbell's Grave
You can't visit Coniston without walking over to the cemetery to see world speed record holder Donald Campbell's grave.
0.6 mi away
Coniston Water
Coniston Water, in the southern part of the park, is the third largest lake in the Lake District.
0.6 mi away
Coniston Boating Centre
Run by the Lake District National Park Authority, Coniston Boating Centre offers electric boat, canoe and dinghy hire as well as bike hire with a range of trails nearby.
0.6 mi away
Steam Yacht Gondola
The National Trust's Steam Yacht Gondola plies her route around Coniston Water; she offers an unrivaled sailing experience of the Lakes.
