great place to take kids that love rocks and crystals! very good cafe too! highly recommend!read more

Great fun for familys. A mueum all about the finding, extracting and uses of gems. There is even a…read morelittle lab that you can overview persons at work making jewellery with many gems. The best part of this museum is the interactive tunnels where you see many gems, and get the feel of gem mining. Go Go GO...its a great wee find. Cafe for eating.basic but good food.

Visited the Mill on the Fleet today and thought it was awesome. The surrounding area is stunning…read moreand the building with the old mill wheel turning is lovely from the outside. The Mill building houses a little shop and cafe on the ground floor. When you head up to the first floor (with lift access) there is a museum detailing the history of the Mill. There are lots of information boards and interactive displays. Great for engaging kids. Plus there is a dressing up section for the children. But the magic really happens when you reach the top floor. There is a little gallery space with local art which is great to wander round. However, the show is really stolen by the 'book shop'. I have never seen so many books piled up. It is like a labyrinth of nooks and crannies with walls of every type of book you could imagine. I am not articulate enough to find the right words but it is like something out a story book. The staff are very friendly and helpful and never moaned once as we spent ages wandering round looking at everything and touching lots of books! Unfortunately I had not take my purse as there were lots of little treasures I would have loved to have bought. All very reasonably priced too. Plus, there was a children's section with big cushions on the floor. I will definitely be back. Gatehouse of Fleet is one of my favorite places and the Mill just adds to it's draw.

This place is brilliant…read more Gatehouse is where my parents live, and its really beautiful. The Mill on the Fleet is an old mill, as the name suggests, inside theyve got a pretty good little museum, but the real treat I found was the awesome bookshop at the top floor. You will never have seen a bookshop quite like it! It is chaos, piles and piles of old books form corridors of, yes you guessed it, books!! If you've got time to burn and you're a book fan, this is an absolute must!!!!!

I'm a bit conflicted on this. I came here with a group of US students. For them, the Burns museum…read morewas a bust- even after I tried to prepare them. For Scottish children- and maybe young Scottish children- it might be wonderful. For American teens, not so much. I loved it- but I'm an adult and I love Burns' poetry. So it was a great treat for me. There's a little tram you can ride if you have a disability that gets you between the home/museum and the visitor center/cafe/shop. I really, really, liked the visitors center- the food was great, the museum had lovely items, and there are playgrounds out back- perfect for picnics and walks. My teens did like that! And there are maps out there for you, so you don't get lost. The gardens all around are sheer gorgeous. And of course you MUST walk to Brig O'Doon- which is beautiful. My students, of course, had to climb down by the bank and got into something like nettles- so don't let your kids loose near the bank (for many reasons, not the least of which is nettles). Honestly, I didn't expect them to go off the path, but more fool me! Take lots of pictures and maybe read Tam O'Shanter before your visit. We had a guide trying to recite it to our kids while we were there, and that didn't work too well. Read it before hand.

Lovely spot for a stroll around the gardens behind the museum cafe, and then down through the…read moremonument gardens to the famous Brig O'Doon. Loved climbing up into the monument itself for a brilliant view and a lovely spot for a photo opportunity. Well heck the whole place is just one big photo opportunity including the bridge obviously, but also the Auld Kirk where the ghostly tale of Tam O'Shanter is famously set. Best way to experience the place is to park up at the museum (or Burns Cottage) and plan a circular route taking in the poet's path between the museum and Burns Cottage and include the Auld Kirk, monument gardens and brig. There's a big map outside the museum so its easy to figure out. The route is mainly flat and easy to navigate. The Bridge is cobbled and can be a bit slippery. The museum part itself requires an entry fee or National Trust membership. Its small and very engaging but incredibly dark which might not suit everyone especially those with visual challenges. The gardens, cafe and gift shop are accessible to all whether or not you have bought a ticket to the museum. The cafe offers haggis neeps and tatties, including a vegetarian version which is totally yum! Free and charged-for events throughout the year. Check their facebook or website for info. Tip: If you go to the rear of the Brig O'Doon Hotel, open the gate and head down into their gardens you get to walk along the river and get another iconic photo opportunity. Public access is allowed.

A ruin in a graveyard, and yet so much more, this is of great histrical value t the scots. Their is…read morea 'dig' here where people can take part in all things archeological, and then view the small museum at the entrance that explains briefly the history of the area. A shop attached to this has plenty of little nic naks to purchase connected to the area and scotland on the whole. Try it out..there is not much else in the area to do.

Anyone who restored any old machine back to its former glory immediately has my respect. This…read moreorganization is actively restoring and preserving local history and a small section of the railway line up to the old abbey on the outskirts of Downpatrick, on some occasions you can get a ride on the steam engines which is great for kids and adults too. Its living history not from a textbook or stuck in a museum, these are working engines and preserving skills that would otherwise not be needed and be lost. Worth checking when trains are running for a visit.

Definitely more suited to children and teens. The videos felt old and tired and Manannon's voice…read moredreary. We were in an out in 30 mins. Good to do while waiting for Peel Castle to Open. The highlight was the Longboat that had sailed down a few years ago.

The second big Tourist Attraction in Peel is the House of Manannan. This large and detailed museum…read moreis the ideal place for a rainy day on the island - but even if the sun is shining, it is worth to come here and have a look at the very good exhibition. We came here on a sunny day and stayed much longer than intended because it was fun exploring the different rooms and stories behind the objects. The museum shows the history of the Isle of Man more or less in chronical order, but instead of using big boring signposts, the curator chose a more interesting approach. Each room depicts scenes from the life on the island. For example you can explore the interior of a Celtic roundhouse or a Viking longhouse, all with different scenes depicting everyday live. Some figures tell stories about how life was at this time and if you touch some of the exhibits there are short films about the history of the person linked to it. One of the most interesting exhibits is a real Viking ship. It was built in Norway and a crew of adventurous Norse and Manxmen sailed the ship down to the Isle of Man to commemorate the Millennium Year 1979 of the first Tynwald in 979. You can walk round the whole ship and read all about the 1500 mile journey and how the crew had to learn to live and think like real Vikings to brave the seas and overcome storms and even a capsize of the open boat. We really enjoyed our visit here and would recommend this place to anybody coming to the Isle of Man. You can learn so many new things about Celtic, Viking and Manx history and even have a lot of fun - perfect!

The Newton Stewart Cinema is a real small town treasure…read more The projection was crystal clear, the sound very good and at a reasonable level - no ringing in my ears after I left and no straining to hear the sound. The staff is friendly and I have never come across broken seating or sticky floors when visiting. Lots of space which is a big plus so you don't have to cram in next to another couple if you don't want to. Comfortable well maintained seats and the screen itself is in excellent shape. The concessions and the facilities have always been clean when I've gone in.

Gateway to the Galloway Hills Newton Stewart was founded in…read morethe 1650s by William Stewart, son of the 2nd Earl of Galloway. Originally named the 'new town' of Stewart, later compounded to Newton, this bustling and friendly town had royal charter from King Charles 11, giving permission for a market and an annual fair. A later incarnation as Newton Douglas, after a successful local industrialist, was short-lived. The town sits on the banks of the River Cree, famed for its salmon and other wildlife. The River Cree runs into Wigtown Bay, a spectacular nature reserve, known for its wildfowl; the vistas to the north are dominated by the Galloway Hills rolling up towards Ayrshire and the Galloway Forest Park (http://www.qype.com/place/209510-Galloway-Forest-Park-Newton-Stewart) (now designated a Dark Sky Park, one of only four in the world). There, you will find walks and rugged hikes to suit all abilities. Within the confines of the town, there is a wealth of living history, from the historic shop fronts to the 1930s Cinema (http://www.qype.com/place/198137-Newton-Stewart-Cinema-Newton-Stewart) , now a community-owned organisation, showing the latest films and live theatre, and the Newton Stewart Museum housed in the former St John's Church on York Road. The town has always been the market centre for the surrounding area, and its octagonal auction house (http://www.qype.com/place/2069812-Galloway-Dumfrie-Public-Auction-Newton-Stewart) still remains important for ram and cattle sales.

I first went to the Folk Museum when I was at school and now I love taking my own kids there. If…read moreyou're planning to go, wait for a dry day as you'll spend a lot of the time outside and trudging about in the rain is no fun for anyone. First things first and parking is easy as there is a large car park. Then buy your tickets - a family ticket for both Folk and Transport Museums will set you back £20 which is fantastic value as visiting both with lunch in between will take a full day. You can bring your own snacks and lunch to keep costs down too and there are plenty of places to stop for a picnic. The folk museum is totally fascinating and is based around a full size village with a school, a pub, a bank, church, shop, a cinema, town and rural buildings, all of which have been painstakingly taken down brick by brick and moved from their original site, moved to the museum and rebuilt brick by brick. You can look round inside all the buildings which have been furnished with the appropriate furniture etc and even go upstairs in some. Most days there are museum guides on duty who are dressed in period costume and on school holidays and Bank Holidays, there are activities to join in with like basket weaving, butter making and traditional street games. Kids and adults will really enjoy the Folk Museum as its so interactive - history will suddenly get interesting!

We went to the Folk Museum on Halloween. What a great time. There were kids everywhere. What a…read moregreat pleasure. The park was full of visitors and the staff was up for the day. They were having as much fun as the children and their parents. The only downside, do not have a reason to call over the weekend, because they do not answer the phone. This is the problem having government officials. They can make rules that are not helpful and do not see us as customers that deserve service. They think of themselves first.