Lossiemouth Fisheries and Community Museum

Lossiemouth Fisheries and Community Museum stands in the fishing town of Lossiemouth on Scotland’s Moray coast. The building began as a pair of 19th-century granaries beside Branderburgh Harbour, later converted into a museum. It was upgraded to category A on the Scottish listed buildings register in 1988. The museum grew from a 1979 plan to save empty harbour stores from demolition. A 50-year lease cost the community just £20 a year, and public funds raised about £35,000 to fit out the space. Exhibits came from local organisations and residents before the doors opened in June 1984. Among the displays are ship models, the lantern and lens from Covesea Skerries Lighthouse, and the recreated study of Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour prime minister. The stone warehouse has three storeys and wide segmental doors at ground level. Inside, narrow sash windows light the upper floors, while dormers punctuate the slate roof of the newer southern wing. The older part still carries its asbestos roof sheets. Opposite the quayside, the museum overlooks the harbour where fishing boats once unloaded herring and white fish.