Qualla: Dumfries Museum https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:16 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/3/dumfries-museum-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Dumfries Museum https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum Dumfries Museum: Introduction https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum/ Photo credit Rosser1954, CC BY-SA 4.0. Climb the spiral stairs of the old windmill on Corbelly Hill, and at the top you'll find a small dark room with a pulley and a wooden viewing table. Pull the rope and a hidden mirror above the roof turns, projecting a live image of the surrounding landscape - Dumfries spread below, the Nith winding south, the green ridge of Criffel rising in the distance - onto the white surface in front of you. The instrument has been doing this since 1836. It is the oldest working camera obscura in the world.

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Image: Rosser1954 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/3/dumfries-museum-wp/gcv3-dumfries-museum-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Dumfries Museum: A Windmill That Missed Halley's Comet https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum/ Photo credit MSD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The building started life in 1798 as a four-storey windmill, raised on Corbelly Hill - the highest point in Maxwelltown, on the west bank of the Nith opposite Dumfries proper. In 1834 the Dumfries and Maxwellton Astronomical Society bought the site to convert it into an observato...

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Image: MSD | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/3/dumfries-museum-wp/gcv3-dumfries-museum-a-windmill-that-missed-halleys-comet.mp3 0:06 2 full Dumfries Museum: The Main Hall https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum/ Photo credit Rosser1954, CC BY-SA 4.0. The main museum hall went up in 1862 to house the collections of the newly founded Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. A major new wing - galleries, shop, search room, offices for the curatorial staff - was added in 1981. The exterior of the old windmil...

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Image: Rosser1954 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/3/dumfries-museum-wp/gcv3-dumfries-museum-the-main-hall.mp3 0:06 3 full Dumfries Museum: The Cast of a King https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum/ Photo credit Rosser1954, CC BY-SA 4.0. The notable artefacts are notable in different registers. There is a cast of the skull of Robert the Bruce, along with femur and foot bones - the cast was made in 1818 when his tomb at Dunfermline Abbey was opened during reconstruction work. There is a Bronze Age cist burial with...

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Image: Rosser1954 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/3/dumfries-museum-wp/gcv3-dumfries-museum-the-cast-of-a-king.mp3 0:06 4 full Dumfries Museum: Fossil Footprints and a Refugee's Lens https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum/ Photo credit Mary and Angus Hogg, CC BY-SA 2.0. From the local Permian sandstone, particularly the Corncockle Quarry near Lochmaben, come fossil reptile tracks 250 million years old. The trackways are some of the earliest reptile prints found anywhere in Britain. A different, much more recent set of images came from Dr Werner ...

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Image: Mary and Angus Hogg | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/3/dumfries-museum-wp/gcv3-dumfries-museum-fossil-footprints-and-a-refugees-lens.mp3 0:06 5 full Dumfries Museum: How the Light Gets In https://qualla.com/dumfries-museum/ Photo credit Jim Barton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The camera obscura is what most visitors come for. The instrument runs only during the summer months and only on days when the weather is clear enough to project a sharp image - the system uses a lens and an angled mirror, and direct sunlight is what makes the projection work. Tw...

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Image: Jim Barton | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/v/3/dumfries-museum-wp/gcv3-dumfries-museum-how-the-light-gets-in.mp3 0:06 6 full