About Us

East Lothian is a beautiful area steeped in history. We have four fascinating museums in East Lothian and we support two community museums. To find out more about each museum including all sorts of useful information about opening hours, location, transport links, facilities, parking and access just select from the list of museums below.

  • Dunbar Town House Museum and Gallery
  • John Gray Centre Museum
  • John Muir's Birthplace
  • Prestongrange
  • Musselburgh Museum (operated by Musselburgh Museum and Heritage Group)
  • The Coastal Communities Museum (operated by the Coastal Communities Museum Trust)

All of our Museums are free to visit, although donations are always welcome! We have a variety of interesting exhibitions, we run events and activities for adults, children and families, offer a range of learning and volunteering opportunities and welcome groups of all ages and interests. We also have a number of very attractive venues with rooms that can be hired out by groups. In addition we support and host activities, events and exhibitions by community groups across East Lothian.

Behind the scenes

We also manage and care for the East Lothian Council Museum Collection. Anything in the collection but not on display is held in our secure, environmentally-controlled store at our headquarters in Haddington. View more information about the museum collection and how to access the reserve collection on our Museum Collection page.

Volunteer with us

We warmly welcome volunteers in many aspects of our work such as documentation, conservation, education and access, exhibitions, events or research. We can offer you the chance to learn new skills, to gain work experience within the museum sector, and to meet new people. We advertise our volunteering opportunities on the Volunteer East Lothian website and can host work school experience placements. If you are interested, please get in touch.