Beacon Museum

The Museum opened in 1996 as a purpose-built ‘home’ to rehouse the museum’s collections. The entire collection numbers in excess of 30,000 artefacts which includes archaeology, geology, social history and decorative art as well as the fine art collection. The museum's early collections were begun in the mid-19th century by local enthusiasts of the Whitehaven Scientific Association and comprised items of fine and decorative art, natural history, prints and books and local archaeological finds amongst much ephemera.

The fine art collection numbers nearly 1,200 items not an inconsiderably amount for a small provincial gallery. Also sometimes referred to as the Whitehaven Museum due to its harbourside location there is unsurprisingly a strong emphasis on maritime artists. Those represented include Joseph Heard, (1799-1859), Robert Salmon, (1775-1851), Oliver Ussison Hodgson,(1810-1878), Willem van Diest, (1610-1673), John Bousfield, (1793-1856) and in more modern times Claude Harrison, George Nelson and Frank Waddington.