Museum of Costume set to close

Feb 4 2013

The National Museum of Costume is "simply not sustainable" and is being closed, it has been announced.

The museum, at Shambellie House near New Abbey, Dumfries, is the smallest of Scotland's five national museums.

It costs £220,000 a year to run the attraction, which receives just 10,000 visitors annually, with 5,000 people taking in the shop, cafe and grounds.

The museum, which is currently shut for winter, will not now reopen this spring.

National Museums Scotland said it, like many other bodies, had had to work with reduced amounts of public cash. The organisation has been making efficiency savings, has reduced staffing numbers and is working to attract donations and sponsorship, but the financial climate is still said to be difficult.

Bruce Minto, chairman of the Trustees of National Museums Scotland, said closing the National Museum of Costume was a "necessary part of a range of cost savings".

He stated: "It is with great regret that we have taken the decision to close the National Museum of Costume. While this has been an extremely difficult decision for the Board of Trustees, we are clear that in the current challenging financial climate it is a necessary part of a range of cost savings which ensures the long-term future of our national collections."

Dr Gordon Rintoul, director of National Museums Scotland, said the "difficult decision" to shut the museum had been made "after extensive consideration of all other options across National Museums".

National Museums Scotland also includes the National Museum of Scotland, the National War Museum, the National Museum of Rural Life and the National Museum of Flight. The National Museum of Costume attracted just 0.6% of all total visits to the national museums.

Shambellie House was built in 1856 by the Stewart family, who gifted a costume collection to National Museums Scotland, which has maintained the building since 1978 and operated the museum there since 1982. It is now planned to display a selection of items from the costume collection in the new art and design galleries, which are scheduled to open in 2016 at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.