Scotland | Ayrshire and Arran | Museums | Dalgarven Mill Museum of Country Life and Costume

The original creators of the museum set out to tell the story of a vanishing rural workforce and their lifestyle. The excellently displayed items of machinery, hand tools, furniture and other memorabilia, illustrate agriculture, dairy work, laundry and home life. The tools and products of various tradesmen such as joiners, carpenters, wheelwrights, saddlers, cobblers and others show the skills of the other members of the rural community. The costume collection of more than two thousand pieces is more accurately described as dress and textiles. We have women's, men's and children's clothes, but also lace, quilts, Ayrshire blankets, dress fabrics, paper patterns, and more than a eight hundred accessories, fans, hats, jewellery, parasols, and embroidery. As you would expect we have an excellent collection of Ayrshire whitework. The exhibitions change from period to period on a annual basis. The Coffee Room is open to all visitors to the site. It serves light lunches, home made soups, delicious home baking and very good coffee.