Scottish Fisheries Museum facts for kids
The Scottish Fisheries Museum is a cool place in Anstruther, Fife, Scotland. It's a museum that tells the amazing story of Scotland's fishing industry and the people who worked in it, from a long time ago right up to today.
The museum first opened its doors in 1969. It's located right by the harbour in Anstruther, which is a lovely fishing village. This area, called the East Neuk, is famous for its crab and lobster fishing. Other nearby villages include St Monans, Pittenweem, Cellardyke, and Crail. Over the years, the museum has grown a lot. It now uses several old buildings that have been changed to fit the museum. These buildings are set around a pretty, cobbled courtyard. Some of them are very old, like a 16th-century house and an 18th-century merchant's house, both with cool stories about the village's fishing past.
What You Can Discover at the Museum
The museum has tons of interesting things to see! You can find many tiny model boats, old fishing gear, and a huge collection of historical photographs. There are also beautiful paintings that show what fishing life was like.
The Amazing Reaper Boat
One of the most exciting parts of the museum is its collection of 18 real boats! The most famous one is the Reaper. This boat is over 100 years old and has two masts. It's a type of boat called a Fifie herring drifter, which was used to catch herring fish. The Reaper was carefully fixed up by the museum's boat club. It still sails regularly during the summer months! Between 2003 and 2005, the Reaper visited 26 different ports around Britain, including a big event called the Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth. It attracted 44,000 visitors, which is a lot of people! When the Reaper isn't sailing, you can see it docked in Anstruther harbour, right across from the museum.
A Special Collection
In total, the museum has more than 66,000 items in its collection! That's a huge number of historical treasures. In 2007, the museum was one of the first in Scotland to have its entire collection given "Recognised Collection" status by Museums Galleries Scotland. This means the collection is considered super important, not just for Scotland but for the whole world! The museum also has a small private chapel inside. This chapel remembers all the brave Scottish people who lost their lives at sea while fishing.
See Also
- Fishing industry in Scotland
