2023 – a record-breaking year!

The museum has now closed for the 2023 season. We have had an amazing year, with over 18,000 visitors welcomed through our door – a record-breaking 12 months! Thanks to all who visited our exhibitions and events, from local schools and student societies to tourists from all over the world. Key highlights include plant-printing workshops, exhibition talks on empire and costume, St Andrews memories sessions, and guided tours with groups from the US and Australia. A varied year where no two days were the same.

Alongside a busy visitor season, we were fortunate to receive some fantastic donations that help tell the story of the museum building, 12 North Street, and it’s former occupants. These include a wonderful photographic archive of over 200 Edwardian-era glass plates of the Scott family. Many of the photographs show James Hoey Scott, the architect who saved and restored the museum building in the 1930s, as a boy. A small collection of watercolours by Scott showing the interior of 12 North Street after its restoration were also gifted, in addition to paintings of Scott’s retirement home in Plockton by local artist Ada Hill Walker.

To end 2023 with record-breaking visitor numbers and such exceptional donations is extra special as we now plan for the decant of the museum for major refurbishment in 2024. This means that the museum will be closed, but we have plans to be on-tour with a pop–up exhibition and various events and workshops at venues across St Andrews and further afield – watch this space!