National Maritime Museum Cornwall

04/09/2026

Well what a summer holidays that was!

⚓Thank you to everyone that joined us for Maritime Adventures this summer - we hope you had fun setting sail for summer play.

We've loved seeing your mermaid moments and dressing-up discoveries - and we really loved hearing you all join in with storytelling and shanties.

✍️Some of our favourite feedback:
"Very colourful and creative"
"More of this please"
"We have had so much fun here"
"Lots of fun for the family"

If you've got highlights to share let us know in the comments or tag us in your photos 👇

03/09/2026

⚓ This autumn, uncover Cornwall's wartime past...

From castle ramparts to covert coastal missions, join us for an evening lecture series exploring how war shaped Cornwall's landscape and maritime legacy.

Across three talks, historians and researchers bring you centuries of Cornwall's coastal defences, hidden stories of Falmouth in conflict, and the extraordinary tale of WWII special operations launched from the Helford River.

🗓️ 17 Sept - The Castles of Pendennis and St Mawes: Defending the Nation, with historian Emma Hughes The Lady Time Traveller
🗓️ 22 Oct - In Times of War: Peculiar Tales of Conflict & Crisis from Falmouth's Past, with author and researcher Elizabeth Dale The Cornish Bird
🗓️ 26 Nov - World War II and the Story of Cornwall's Covert Special Operation, with Bob White and Jonathan Griffin

🎟️ Book now to join in-person or watch online:

This autumn, discover Cornwall's wartime heritage through a series of evening lectures at the Museum.

03/09/2026

🐠 Minnows Tales is back! Our much-loved storytelling session for under 5s returns this Monday.

Make Mondays your Museum day! Join us for a lively half hour of stories, songs and rhymes, 11-11.30am, every Monday in term time (excluding Bank Holidays), from Monday 7 September.

📚 Weekly storytelling & sing-along, perfect for little ones
🎟️ Adults pay once with standard admission, visit free all year
🐟 Under 5s FREE

Minnows Tales at National Maritime Museum Cornwall is a weekly storytelling and lively sing-a-long session, every Monday during term-time (excluding Bank Holidays).

03/09/2026

Today's photograph shows the three-masted topsail schooner ‘Mary Miller’ leaving Falmouth Harbour under sail on 6 July 1938.

'Mary Miller' was built by Paul Rodgers at Carrickfergus on Belfast Lough and launched in 1881, for the Barrow ship owners James Fisher & Son. In 1920 she was sold by Fishers to Grounds of Runcorn who bought many of the Fisher fleet. She was resold in about 1931 to an Irish owner and then to Couch of Fowey in about 1938. She operated in the china clay trade for a time and was at this time one of the last engine-less sailing schooners operating in the UK. She was fitted with a motor at the start of the Second World War and then used as a balloon anchorage at Greenock. She was later used as a houseboat in the River Mersey and survived until the 1960s.

This photograph is from the Weller Collection, which comprises over 600 photographic negatives taken by David Weller and his son, during a series of summers spent in Falmouth between 1934-1981.

01/09/2026

Ahoy! We're welcoming autumn's arrival here at the Museum.

📅Highlight: Start of Autumn Lecture Series
The Castles of Pendennis and St Mawes: Defending the Nation with Emma Hughes - Thurs 17 Sept
Work continues in our boatbuilding workshop on Merlin III - ongoing

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family Fun:
Minnows Tales - Monday 7 Sept
Minnows Makes - Monday 28 Sept

🏄Exhibitions:
SURF!
Surfing Memories

Sea you soon!

➡️https://nmmc.co.uk/whats-on/

31/08/2026

A summer of sailors, mermaids, pirate hats and spending time having fun as a family.

Sounds pretty special to spend your summer bank holiday meeting a Cornish mermaid... 🧜🏼‍♀️

Today is the last day will be washing ashore at the Museum, 11am and 2pm.

Tomorrow is the last chance to catch our storytelling sailor singing shanties in the Museum, 11am, 1pm & 3pm.

SEA you there. 🌊

27/08/2026

It’s been a dressing-up kind of summer here at the Museum. Only 6 days left to come and raid the big dressing-up box and have your own maritime adventure! 🐟🐙⚓️

27/08/2026

As the sunny summer holidays start drawing to a close, we thought we'd share this image of Gylly Beach taken in August 1957.

Gyllyngvase Beach, known locally as ‘Gylly’, is a popular Blue Flag-awarded sandy beach and resort area in Falmouth Cornwall. This photograph was taken in 1957 before the seawall project was completed. It was started in the 1960s and completed in 1985. There were many white wooden beach huts arranged in semi-circles on the beach and the much-missed raft was very popular. Apparently there had been a raft at Gyllyngvase Beach as far back as 1922.

The small dark building on the right of the image overlooking the beach is a seafront shelter dedicated to the American armed forces known as the American Shelter. The shelter was erected and presented to Falmouth by the Commanding Officer of the US Naval Forces in 1945-1946 as a gesture of gratitude and remembrance following the buildup of US troops in the area for the D-Day landings. On the floor is set a plaque which states ‘Presented by the Officers and Men of the US Naval Advanced Amphibious Base, Falmouth, Cornwall, 1943-44. Cmdr. Lawrence Snell, USNR Commanding Officer’.

This photograph is from the Weller Collection, which comprises over 600 photographic negatives taken by David Weller and his son during a series of summer holidays spent in Falmouth between 1934 and 1981.

26/08/2026

Restoring a Cornish boat that's over 100 years old in our boatbuilding and restoration workshop.

This little punt may not have many original bits left but the team have managed to salvage the keel.