Ruskin - The Museum

The Institute, Yewdale Road, Coniston, Cumbria LA21 8DU

Tel: 015394 41164 Fax: 015394 41132

e-mail: vmj@ruskinmuseum.com

website: www.ruskinmuseum.com

The Ruskin Museum has been acclaimed as one of 'Britain's best Museums and Galleries', and as 'the most thought-provoking in the Lakes' for its quietly authoritative telling of the Story of Coniston from the Stone Age to the Jet Era, and its masterly introduction to Coniston's two blue-eyed boys, JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900, Britain's greatest critic of art and architecture, who later became a subversive critic of the Capitalist society and a radical political economist), and the Speed Ace and 'Boys' Own' hero, Donald Campbell, who broke four World Water Speed Records on Coniston Water in his famous Hydroplane Bluebird K7.

Coniston is literally as old as the surrounding hills, so the Ruskin Museum examines and explores the text-book geology of the Furness Fells, and their associated extractive industries of copper-mining and slate quarrying. Displays relating to dry-stone walls, Herdwick sheep husbandry, and the Ruskin-inspired Arts & Crafts Langdale Linen Industry and intricate Ruskin lace technique complete the picture.