About Rotunda Museum – Museum of Coastal Heritage and Geology
Opened in 1829, the Rotunda Museum is one of the world’s first purpose-built museums and was built to a design suggested by William Smith. The interior, with its fascinating Georgian gallery, features a frieze showing the geology of the local coastline designed by Smith’s nephew, John Phillips.
The original cases tell the history of the museum and they explore the stories of the nineteenth century Scarborough Philosophical Society which brought the collections together.
See remarkable 11,000-year-old artefacts from our Star Carr Collection and come face to face with the wonderful creatures which once called Yorkshire home in the Ancient Seas of the Yorkshire Coast gallery.
We are a small site. Visitors typically spend up to 1 hour in the museum but some stay for longer.