Location: East Ayrshire
Top Things to do in East Ayrshire
Countries
Things to do in East Ayrshire, Scotland: The Best Museums
East Ayrshire (Scots: Aest Ayrshire, Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquarters of the council are located on London Road, Kilmarnock. With South Ayrshire and the mainland areas of North Ayrshire, it formed the former county of Ayrshire.
Restaurants in East Ayrshire
1. Darvel Telephone Museum
2. Many Thanks
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 61 reviews
Many Thanks is a 'made in Scotland' gift shop, coffee shop & art gallery. We have an Open Night on the first of each month to preview new artists exhibitions. We hold classes in the evening for crochet, drawing & watercolour, needle felting, Christmas cake decorating, holly table centre decoration, beaded jewellery and lots more. Our gift shop offers a wonderful selection of ideas for gifts and treats for yourself. Our coffee shop offers homemade soup, scones and cakes. You can always rely on a warm and friendly welcome and a few laughs too.
Reviewed By LizKennedy71
Lovely place to visit for a cuppa and a browse in the gift shop, delicious home baking and always met with a cheery face and welcoming chat, well worth a visit.
3. Stewarton & District Historical Society Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1 reviews
4. Burns House Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 25 reviews
Reviewed By macedonboy - Glasgow, United Kingdom
This house is where Burns and his wife Jean rented while making his new farm ready for both of them to move into, The one room they rented has be refurbished to resemble something comparable to the room back in their time. There's not much to see in the room, but the thing that really makes the museum above average is the original manuscripts and objects that belonged to and associated with the couple. Another reason I'm giving this an extra star is that it's very unusual for a museum to focus so much on both Robert Burns and Jean Armour except for perhaps the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. So kudos for that.
5. Dick Institute
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 86 reviews
This place is temporarily closed.
Reviewed By lorneb333 - Ayrshire, United Kingdom
Fabulous building which houses an array of historical artefacts, natural history, art, books and a cafe. A great way to spend a rainy day. Free entry - there’s a donation box for you to contribute if you can. Closed Sundays and Mondays. Went to see main gallery exhibition - check the East Ayrshire Leisure site to see what’s on and when - on loan from the V&A. Was inspired by the work on display in the Young Peoples Gallery which was show casing work from east Ayrshire school pupils. If you head upstairs there’s loads more to see - Burns, Johnny Walker, the Loom Room and (at the moment) interesting pieces of armour from the Dean Castle collection.
6. Scottish Dark Sky Observatory
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 220 reviews
The Scottish Dark Sky Observatory occupies a fantastic hilltop site on the edge of the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park. This publically accessible educational observatory has some of the darkest skies in the UK and two large telescopes through which to observe the night sky. The Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park was the first Dark Sky Park in the UK and Europe, and was award a Gold-tier status by the International Dark-Sky Association. This new observatory includes a 20” Corrected Dall Kirkham telescope in a 5 metre dome and a 14″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope for a more hands-on, open air observing experience.
Reviewed By michellehT2637LM - Kilmarnock, United Kingdom
The correspondence on booking a slot was easy and friendly. After reading the other reviews I got really worried about the track leading to the observatory, as long as people realise they are in a forest, and take it slow, follow the very good directions given by the observatory, it's fine. My little mazda had no problems. It was a bit cloudy but we still got to see the moon, a planet ( venus ) and a star. We've all seen the moon, and pictures, but once you see the detail it's like your the first person to see it! David, the astronomer was full of knowledge. The woman that has been mentioned as being rude and miserable was far from it, friendly and engaging. Lots of things to look at, a real piece of moon rock, a small gift shop. Planetarium had lay back chairs, were you watch videos , then David points out what to look out for, Thoroughly enjoyable, definitely wrap up warm.
