Ruskin Museum

Coniston is a prime example of a place where nature and history, environment and man meet in a topographical dimension and together generate culture. The Ruskin Museum is Coniston’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which features: a Lake and a Mountain, a Prophet for the Millennium, a real Boy’s Own Hero and Swallows and Amazons.

The Ruskin Museum exists to enable you to explore and experience at first hand its literary and cultural heritage collections of national importance and international significance, for inspiration, learning, enjoyment and delight.

There has been a Ruskin Museum in Coniston since 1901, when W.G. Collingwood, a local artist and antiquarian who had been Ruskin's secretary, set it up both as a memorial to Ruskin and a celebration of the area's heritage. Therefore, although the museum has a Ruskin collection, there are also exhibits relating to the coppermines, slate, geology, lace, farming and Donald Campbell.