Kilmartin Museum — Attraction in Scotland

Have been visiting Kilmartin for over 25 years. We stay locally on holiday. Always make sure we have time to visit the café, as they always had interesting cakes and good coffee. We have been waiting for the new museum to open after several years of development. Visited today, it all looks very modern, but the café was closed and being charged again to see artefacts we have seen before was not what we wanted. The new shop seems to have limited stock compared to the old...and though it is not yet the season for them, it appears that the toilets that the Swallows always built their nests in are no longer there. Disappointed after the long wait for it to reopen.

Update July 2024: Finally got to revisit the café. We arrived just after 3pm having been walking in the local area. The lower part of it was already closed off, obviously we were not welcome to sit down there. We sat outside as it was fine and our order was brought to us quite quickly...there were only two other customers and they'd already been served. The coffee, tea and ginger loaf were OK (but not up to the standard of a few years ago when you got a decent size piece of cake!)...for some reason the cups came without any saucers. All told rather a let down, it used to be heaving and you thought yourself lucky if you could get a table. It's a shame because it used to be so good. Shall not...

First visit to renovated museum since it opened in September and it didn't disappoint. Started with more recent history of the area and went all the way back to the Neolithic. Just wow. There's activities for children and adults alike, as well as videos of how things were made such as clay pots. This one blew my mind as I thought it would be like more recent pottery but no bronze age food vessels are made completely differently. There are tonnes of local finds on exhibit and explanations to put them in context. Particularly loved looking at the glebe cairn sparkly food vessel whilst looking at the cairn itself out the window. At the end there is an atmospheric immersive film and then it's back to the real world again where you can visit the places where the finds were from. Awesome. Ok I am biased. I have been coming here for over 25years and I visited the old museum and fell in love with both the area and archaeology. It's not hard. It's an awesome place but I think they have done a really good job to grab the average punter to tell their story. There is free parking, a large reception, a small shop but no cafe yet. Next year...

Personally I found myself internally excited before entering the museum and wasn't disappointed when I went inside. What greeted me was an impressive and very informative displays of prehistoric life in the surrounding area dating back to pre-Columba and Moluag times, which included interesting hands on experience which I have no doubt children of all ages would enjoy. I certainly did, especially the singing stones! What was impressive was the sizable population covering an exstensive area together with the number of Monoliths and other prehistoric monuments, some 800, that could be viewed at leisure. On returning to the cafeteria for a welcome drink and digest what we saw, we admired the building it was in as being impressive in its day and surmised about its possible occupiers. My companion described a thick set individual wearing furskin jacket and hose which had leather straps around the legs below the knee to the feet. He said that he was impressed to go to Fort Dunadd. I would be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this or similar individuals in and...