Larne Museum and Arts Centre Official

Larne Museum and Arts Centre Official Opened in 1906 as a Carnegie Free Library, the building has been home to a museum for over 40 years.
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See some of the oil paintings from Larne Museum's collection on the Art UK website. https://www.artuk.org/visit/venues/larne-museum-and-arts-centre-6797

You can also see some of the paintings located at Smiley Buildings, Larne on the Art UK website at the link below. https://www.artuk.org/visit/venues/smiley-buildings-6798

Your Paintings is a joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogu

e Foundation (now known as Art UK) and participating collections across the UK. It aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings, the stories behind the paintings, and where to see them for real. It is made up of paintings from thousands of museums and other public institutions around the country. Visit www.larnehistoricchurchtrail.co.uk for an easy-to-follow trail that will guide you around some of the oldest churches and graveyards in County Antrim. Visit www.memoriesofcarnlough.com to view a record of the early years of Carnlough Civic Week 1963 - 1982.

This is the last week of "Retrospective and Some New Inspirations", an Art Exhibition by Margaret Mathews, at Larne Muse...
30/08/2026

This is the last week of "Retrospective and Some New Inspirations", an Art Exhibition by Margaret Mathews, at Larne Museum & Arts Centre.

Ole-Bendik:
"A Norwegian friend in Esperanza - an erstwhile director of the Norwegian National Opera and renowned raconteur with incredible cheek bones which make it mandatory that you take up a pencil…" Margaret Mathews

Image: "Ole-Bendik", Acrylic Artwork by Margaret Mathews

The exhibition closes to the public at 4.00pm on Friday 4th September 2026.

This is the last week of "Weaving in Larne", a small hallway display looking at the history of the linen industry in Lar...
30/08/2026

This is the last week of "Weaving in Larne", a small hallway display looking at the history of the linen industry in Larne, at Larne Museum & Arts Centre.

The exhibition closes to the public at 4.00pm on Friday 4th September.

Photo from Weaving Demonstration

Object of the Month - 'LMS' Railway LampLMS - London, Midland, and Scottish RailwayThis is a railwayman’s handlamp that ...
29/08/2026

Object of the Month - 'LMS' Railway Lamp

LMS - London, Midland, and Scottish Railway

This is a railwayman’s handlamp that says LMS on the side (standing for London, Midland, and Scottish Railway). The top half of the lamp, which is attached to the lenses, are missing.

LMS was formed on 1st January 1923 under the Railways Act 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railways into four. The companies merged into the LMS included the London and North Western Railway, the Midland Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, several Scottish railway companies and numerous smaller ventures.

While we don’t know when and where the lamp was found, we know that on 1 July 1903, Midland Railway took over the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway and operated it under the name of Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee). On grouping in 1923, the network became part of the LMS, again operating under the name of the Northern Counties Committee. All LMS operations across Britain and the island of Ireland stopped by 1 January 1948.

LMS services included Larne-Derry/Londonderry (stopping at Antrim and Ballymena, a very similar route to the current Belfast-Derry/Londonderry train), Newry-Greenore, and Greenore-Dundalk. The possibility of the lamp being from Larne is very high.

This railwayman’s handlamp is from the first half of the 20th century, although lamps like these had been used during the Victorian era. Stations and trains didn’t get electric lighting until the early 20th century so railways were very dark and dangerous places.

Lamps would also be used by train guards in the hours of darkness to signal to the driver to proceed or continue to be stationary. During daylight hours, they would use red and green flags for this instead.

This type of lamp is called a 3-aspect hand lamp because it has 3 ‘aspects’ or ways to communicate. The top part of the lamp, which is missing, is attached to a cylinder with 3 lenses: the red lens means ‘stop’, the blue lens means ‘all clear’ (however, the light would be green due to the yellow colour of the flame inside the lamp), and the option without colour allows it to be used like a torch. The railwayman would pull the top of the lamp and turn it until the correct colour of lens sits behind the glass panel in order to give the correct signal to the train driver.

Sources:
https://outoftheboxlearning.org/project/three-aspect-handlamp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London,_Midland_and_Scottish_Railway

This Object of the Month has been curated by Baran Bayat, a work placement student from Larne Grammar School.

The sewing room at Larne Museum & Arts Centre will be open on Fridays for 9 weeks beginning Friday 4th September 2026.Fr...
28/08/2026

The sewing room at Larne Museum & Arts Centre will be open on Fridays for 9 weeks beginning Friday 4th September 2026.

Fridays - 12.30pm - 3.00pm
Friday Dates: 4th/11th/18th/25th Sept, 2nd/9th/16th/23rd/30th Oct

Bring your own sewing task and use our facilities including sewing machines (or bring your own) with space to cut out and iron etc. Finish off those sewing jobs that have piled up. Fix those alterations with help from others. Stay for a wee while, or all day (don’t forget to bring a lunch).

No need to book. For more information, please contact Larne Museum & Arts Centre on 028 28 262443 or e-mail [email protected].

Image: www.freeimage.co.uk

27/08/2026

A new publication from PRONI, ‘Ulster American Treasures – The Migration Story’, includes documents on P12 and P13 related to the Friends’ Goodwill. The publication can be viewed at the link below.

The sewing room at Larne Museum & Arts Centre will be open on Thursdays for 9 weeks beginning Thursday 3rd September 202...
27/08/2026

The sewing room at Larne Museum & Arts Centre will be open on Thursdays for 9 weeks beginning Thursday 3rd September 2026.

Thursdays - 10.30am - 2.00pm
Thursday Dates: 3rd/10th/17th/24th Sept,1st/8th/15th/22nd/29th Oct

Bring your own sewing task and use our facilities including sewing machines (or bring your own) with space to cut out and iron etc. Finish off those sewing jobs that have piled up. Fix those alterations with help from others. Stay for a wee while, or all day (don’t forget to bring a lunch).

No need to book. For more information, please contact Larne Museum & Arts Centre on 028 28 262443 or e-mail [email protected].

Image: www.freeimage.co.uk

It was so lovely meeting everyone today to chat about the new Ulster American Heritage Trail Storymap.
26/08/2026

It was so lovely meeting everyone today to chat about the new Ulster American Heritage Trail Storymap.

"Retrospective and Some New Inspirations", an Art Exhibition by Margaret Mathews, continues this week at Larne Museum & ...
23/08/2026

"Retrospective and Some New Inspirations", an Art Exhibition by Margaret Mathews, continues this week at Larne Museum & Arts Centre.

Spanish Dancer:

"When out for a walk near Las Paloma in Gran Canaria, we came across a building with an open door where there was some obvious musical preparations going on. They invited us to join them later that night which we did and enjoyed an amazing night of guitar playing and Flamenco dancing on the tiny floor. It turned out to be a private club so it was a great privilege to watch the intense performances from such close quarters." Margaret Mathews

Image: "Isabella", Acrylic Artwork by Margaret Mathews

"Weaving in Larne", a small hallway display looking at the history of the linen industry in Larne, continues this week a...
23/08/2026

"Weaving in Larne", a small hallway display looking at the history of the linen industry in Larne, continues this week at Larne Museum & Arts Centre.

The photo shows the weavers of Millbrook Factory in 1939.

Back row, left to right, surname only: Morrison, Vauls, Tully, ?, Boyd, Kane, Ross, Mann, Mitchell, Davidson, Wharry
Middle row: Close, ?, ?, Mordie, Davidson, Shields, McCoy, ?, Hanna, Mitchell, Mills, Weir
Front row: Gilbert, Jenkins, Stewart, ?, Butler, Bell, Black, McKay, ?, Hunter, ?, Gorman, Fanning, Agnew

The exhibition is on display until Friday 4th September.

European Heritage Open Day at Larne MuseumJoin Scott Ingram, Archaeologist, on Saturday 12th September for European Heri...
22/08/2026

European Heritage Open Day at Larne Museum

Join Scott Ingram, Archaeologist, on Saturday 12th September for European Heritage Open Day to explore Larne Museum’s latest exhibition “Early Medieval Ireland and the Kingdom of Latharna”.

Visit our Prehistoric Pop-up Museum to learn more about the prehistory of the Larne area.

This is a free drop-in event. For more information, please contact Larne Museum & Arts Centre on 028 28 262443 or e-mail [email protected].

Address

2 Victoria Road
Larne
BT401RN

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

028 28 262443

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