What's on in our museums
Our museums are free to visit and open for the summer season through until the end of September. Look out for our exciting new exhibitions, events and drop in activities for families.
Lego Challenge!
Last month Master Builder Alistair Jelks led the building of a model version of the Cornish Beam Engine at an event organised by the Learning and Inclusion Team at Historic Environment Scotland. 53 participants from the Musselburgh, Tranent and Prestonpans communities aged 7-70 helped build the model.
Come and visit Prestongrange - see the model in the Visitor Centre, take a tour of the site and see the original Cornish Beam Engine which has stood proud for over 150 year and try out our mini Beam Engine Lego challenge!
The Cornish Beam Engine was an early type of steam engine, used to pump water from the coal mine to prevent the workings from becoming flooded. It was manufactured in Plymouth and used in three different mines in Cornwall before being purchased by the Prestongrange Coal and Iron Company in 1874 and shipped north. The engine and a new beam were installed in a new engine house, whose front wall is nearly 7 feet (2.1 m) thick in order to support the main pivot bearing of the huge cast iron beam. It continued operating until 1954. The engine is the only example in Scotland.
Prestongrange Museum, Morrison’s Haven, Prestonpans, EH32 9RX.
Wednesday – Sunday 11am – 4.30pm
www.eastlothian.gov.uk/prestongrange
Exhibitions
Landmark exhibition at John Gray Centre
John Bellany HRSA
Acrylic on canvas Cockenzie Harbour by John Bellany
Internationally renowned artist John Bellany HRSA, born in Port Seton, painted large scale, distinctive and often deeply personal works exploring themes including East Lothian’s fishing communities.
Curated by John’s wife Helen Bellany, and his lifelong friend Alexander Moffat RSA, the exhibition combines works on loan from the Royal Scottish Academy with private collections and works held by East Lothian Council. It includes large and rarely seen work.
This exhibition is part of the RSA200: Celebrating Together partnership project. Throughout 2026 the Royal Scottish Academy, the oldest artist-run institution in Scotland, is celebrating its 200th birthday.
Friday 17 April to Saturday 19 September
Open Thursday and Friday from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 1pm and 1.30pm to 4pm.
Free admission.
John Gray Centre - Museum, 15 Lodge Street, Haddington, EH41 3DX.
A date for your diary!
Sandy Moffat illustrated talk
Bellany's activities in the 1960s including the works in the current exhibition. Sandy Wood of the RSA will introduce Sandy Moffat.
Monday 6 July 5.30 to 6.30pm in the Star Room at John Gray Centre, Haddington.
Booking essential. Please email jgc@eastlothian.gov.uk.
All Weather: Harbour Lives and Coastal Traces
by Jay Kirkland
Merging candid harbourside portraits with prints and sculptures, reflecting the constant flux of Dunbar’s harbour life. Three parts of this exhibition rotate around the main theme of CHANGE because, as sure as our planet spins, and the tides rise and fall, and while the moon and the sun chase across the sky above us, and the seasons come and then go, everything CHANGES. Our place, our stuff, ourselves. All we are and all we know changes… all the time!
Saturday 16 May to Sunday 21 June
Open Wednesday to Sunday 1 to 5pm. Free admission.
Dunbar Town House Museum & Gallery, High Street, Dunbar EH42 1ER
A Gude Fechter – John Muir the Campaigner
Farmer, inventor, botanist, geologist, explorer, mountaineer, writer and pioneer of nature conservation.
(John Muir. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, 1913)
“The battle we have fought, and are still fighting for the forests is a part of the eternal conflict between right and wrong...” John Muir
A love of nature, which began at an early age as a young boy growing up in Dunbar sparked a lifelong passion and desire to protect wild places; John’s fight for the environment earned him the title of father of the National Parks and pioneer of the conservation movement, and continuing inspiration for millions.
Here we look at some of the early influences and campaigns in Dunbar, at the later battles that he fought, and we will be considering some of the local environmental issues facing the town of his birth today.
April to June. Wednesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and Sunday 1 to 5pm.
John Muir’s Birthplace, High Street, Dunbar, EH42 1JJ.
Free admission
Summers in Dunbar
In this exhibition we celebrate Dunbar as a tourist destination and as a place where locals and visitors have all enjoyed summers in the past. Many still recall the heyday of Dunbar’s outdoor swimming pool, golf championships, horse events, pony trekking and children’s summer activities.
Dunbar and District History Society holds a large collection of early tourist brochures. The exhibition invites you to look at just some aspects of summers in our town, while also allowing the brochures to tell the story.
We would be delighted to receive new photographs or other material from the past, to add to this collection. All original images can be copied and returned.
April to June courtesy of Dunbar and District History Society.
Open Wednesday to Sunday 1pm to 5pm.
Free admission.
Dunbar Town House Museum and Gallery, High Street, Dunbar EH42 1ER.
Haven
Pop into Prestongrange to see an inspiring display of jewellery by designer/maker, Eleanor Symms, who uses reclaimed materials to create her work. In the summer of 2024 Eleanor worked on a project at Morrisons Haven where she gathered waste and organic materials. Her aim is to learn more about ways to use and combine organic and other waste materials and explore how to make wearable, ornamental pieces, prototypes that could be disassembled, reassembled or returned to nature.
Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 4.30pm through until the end of September
Prestongrange Museum, Morrison’s Haven, Prestonpans, EH32 9RX.
Coastal Communities Museum
Come and visit our fascinating local museum located in the seaside town of North Berwick. We’re run entirely by enthusiastic volunteers and our aim is to enable locals and visitors to explore the culture and heritage of the coastal communities that make up East Lothian’s North Berwick coastal ward.
Agricultural life is an important part of the Coastal Ward in East Lothian and we are showcasing a new display of farm implements from the past including seed broadcasters, sheep shears, a hand plough and even a ‘foster mother.’
Come along and find out more about this curiously named device! These tools offer a fascinating glimpse into the working lives and rural traditions that helped shape our local community.
This year’s Collectors’ Corner will showcase a charming and unusual collection of old button hooks. Among them are several examples of ‘trench art’ —objects transformed with creativity and care, each with its own story to tell.
In the Children’s Area, our much-loved (and very well-worn!) pirate costumes have been topped up, ready for another season of imaginative adventures on Treasure Island. We’ve also restocked the ever-popular colouring postcards. After running low at the end of last season we’re pleased to say that crabs, puffins, and stags are once again back on the shelves.
Wednesday to Saturday 11am to 4pm.
Free admission.
Coastal Communities Museum School Road, North Berwick, EH39 4JU.
Events
The history and archaeology of the Tranent-Cockenzie Waggonway
Monday 1 June, 5.30 to 6.30pm
Star Room, John Gray Centre, Haddington
You may already be familiar with the illustrious 1722 Waggonway Group and the remarkable work that they are doing. Ed Bethune, Chair of the group and early railways historian, will give a presentation on the group’s latest archaeological findings. Ed will also speak about what these discoveries reveal about the beginnings of railways in Scotland.
You do not have to be a railway enthusiast to enjoy this presentation which will illustrate the history of the area and how it connects to historical socio-economic development in the county and beyond.
Booking essential by emailing jgc@eastlothian.gov.uk.
John Gray Centre, 15 Lodge Street, Haddington, EH41 3DX
The Geology of Dunbar
credit: Jennifer Petrie
To celebrate 300 years since the birth of James Hutton, East Lothian Countryside Rangers are leading a guided walk to explore Dunbar’s ancient, and sometimes explosive, past. Join us to discover how earthquakes, volcanoes and ice have shaped our landscape”
Tuesday 2 June 10am to 12 noon
The walk is free, but booking is required: email renglish@eastlothian.gov.uk
Meeting place will be passed on at booking
Adults aged 16+
John Muir’s Educational Vision: Perceiving the “Seamless Beauty” of Nature
A talk by Matthew Farrelly, PhD Candidate, History & Education, University of Wisconsin – Madison supported by Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace.
Thursday 4 June, 7pm at Dunbar Town House Museum & Gallery
Please email trust@jmbt.org.uk or call 01368 865899 to book a place
For this talk, I’ll sketch a picture of John Muir’s life mission: to impart something of his own visionary perception of the world for the personal transformation of others, to awaken them to the wonders and worth of other-than-human nature. Muir sought to educate, inviting children and adults to a way of perceiving and living in relationship to the natural world that was unified and coherent, capable of holding together many ways of perceiving and interpreting the world in the integrity of what he called a “seamless beauty.” I’ll present a picture of how Muir sought to impart this holistic perception of the world, shaped as it was by his experiences-in-place - not least, Dunbar and a synthetic philosophy that combined scientific, religious, and poetic ways of knowing and being in the world. Muir cut against the grain then - and now - arguing, as he did, against reducing our vision to one paradigm or mode of perception to the exclusion of others. I’ll show how Muir offered a “living metaphor” to hold together such a coherent vision - the palimpsest - and how Muir’s vision of a “seamless beauty” is ever-timeless and most especially timely.
Wee Wednesdays
Wednesday mornings at Prestongrange Museum, 10am to 10.30am, Bookbug for 0 to 5s and their parents/carers, no charge. Followed by craft activity, £1 per child.
Prestongrange Museum, Morrison’s Haven, Prestonpans, EH32 9RX.
Our museums:
15 Lodge Street, Haddington, EH41 3DX
Thursday and Friday 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm
Saturday 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm
126 High Street, Dunbar, EH42 1JJ
Wednesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm
Sunday 1pm to 5pm
High Street, Dunbar, EH42 1ER
Wednesday to Sunday 1pm to 5pm
Morrison’s Haven, Prestonpans, EH32 9RX
Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 4.30pm
School Road, North Berwick, EH39 4JU
Wednesday to Saturday 11am to 4pm
65 High St, Musselburgh EH21 7BZ
Thursday to Saturday 10.30am to 4pm