Dumfries Museum

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Dumfries Museum and Camera Obscura, located in Dumfries in Dumfries & Galloway, is the largest museum in the region. The museum has extensive collections relating to local and history from the pre-historic era. The museum also has the world's oldest working Camera Obscura. Admission is free, however a small fee applies for the Camera Obscura.CollectionsThe museum's collections cover all material relating to the natural history and human pre-history of the region, from geology to dress, folk material, archaeology and early photographs.Notable artefacts include: A cast of the skull of Robert the Bruce as well as femur and foot bones. A Bronze Age cist burial including the remains of a 35-year-old man from the beaker people. A large collection of Roman and Celtic stone crosses and funerary monuments. A replica of the first bicycle, as designed by Kirkpatrick Macmillan. The photographic archive of Dr Werner Kissling. Personal items belonging to Thomas CarlyleHistoryOriginally built as a four-storey windmill on Corbelly hill, the highest point in Maxwelltown, in 1798, the site was purchased by Dumfries and Maxwellton Astronomical Society in 1834. Over a two-year period the tower was converted into an Observatory, and with advice from polar explorer Sir John Ross, a telescope was purchased from a Mr Morton of Kilmarnock. With its completion in 1836, unfortunately the observatory missed the arrival of Halley's comet; however, it was used in this role until 1872.