Scottish Maritime Museum – Boats, Pirates and a Ball Pool
A few hours.
The route
On a wet day the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine is a brilliant place for young children, with boats, a pirate ship, a ball pool and a pond for sailing boats under one great glass roof.
The museum's own café on the harbourside does a warming soup and toastie lunch.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Talli House, 12 miles away. Sleeps 4; next free Fri 30 Oct to Sun 1 Nov.
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The day
Irvine
A whole morning under a roof, with boats, games and a pirate ship, then soup and toasties looking over the estuary.
About three hoursAbout 0.5 miles on foot
Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine
An attraction
The museum is on Irvine's harbourside, and parking there is free. The Scottish Maritime Museum fills the Linthouse building, a Victorian shipyard engine shop moved here piece by piece from the Clyde, and it's open every day from 10am to 4pm. Under its great glass roof are boats, ship engines and a shipyard worker's tenement home, and there are games to try, such as loading a cargo ship without sinking it. The children's play area has a pirate ship with a dressing-up box and a ball pool for the smallest, and beside it is a boating pond where they can sail foam boats. Tickets are £10 for adults and £8 for concessions at the time of writing, and up to three children aged three and over go in free with each paying adult. Allow about two hours.
About 9 min on foot
Puffers Café Bistro
Lunch
Lunch is a short walk along the wharf at Puffers Café Bistro, the museum's own café, with big windows over the estuary. Have soup, a toastie or a panini; there's a corner of toys for toddlers and room for high chairs. It's open every day, 10am to 4pm.
If it rains
All of it is under a roof, apart from the few minutes' walk along the wharf to Puffers.
Where to stay