Review: Broughty Castle Museum
Something you all probably know about me by now is that I love a castle, and I love cannons. Broughty Castle Museum is a triple threat: a castle, a museum, and cannons. The best thing? It's only a bus ride away.
The castle itself and the castle grounds were lovely, and the view wasn't bad either, though I imagine my fully sighted partner enjoyed that more than I did. There are always accessibility issues when visiting an historic site like this, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Steep steps with no marked edges, uneven ground, and a steep, narrow spiral staircase inside. I'd not deduct any points for this, as again, they're very common features in historic buildings, and there isn't anything that can be done about them without causing damage to the building.
It took me some time to get up that spiral staircase, but I've been to castles before, and I'm used to going up sideways, so I just took my time and made sure I was being extra careful. I was determined to get up to the fourth floor because that's where the armoury is housed. This is when things started to take a turn.
Now seems like a good time to pause. In 2024, Broughty Castle Museum faced a budget crisis and was close to permanent closure. They secured funding to remain open in 2026. I have mentioned this because it is important to keep in mind that it can be expensive to both run and make changes to a museum, especially one housed in a 15th-century castle.
I was hoping to learn a lot about Broughty Castle's role as a defensive structure, the area's history, and so on. This castle is over 500 years old, so I don't think that was an unreasonable expectation.
The museum opened in 1969, and it looks like there have been no changes to the exhibition since then. Seeing phrases like "The Struggle for Africa" and "Unrest in South Africa" was not what I was expecting in the slightest. Referring to the British and other colonising forces as "settlers" is not a good look. I understand that changing exhibitions can be expensive and time-consuming, but updating the signage on the displays would be a great start. The displays themselves are not great either. In some cases, objects were numbered; in others, the objects had their interpretation labels next to them. It was fairly inconsistent and inaccessible for people with low vision. I liked the cannonballs, though, so that's a plus.
The floor that housed information about local wildlife felt like it hadn't aged well. Again, the interpretation labels weren't great, and it was just generally not something I could enjoy as a visually impaired person. This wasn't just a me thing; my sighted partner had issues matching the information to the displays.
The art gallery was fine, I have no comments here. The gift shop was tiny, but space is limited in historic buildings. There was a handful of Stone Age objects, which was nice to see, though they could have done with better labelling. They were numbered at least. There was also a little bit of local history, but honestly, I couldn't enjoy it after what we had seen earlier.
Do I think you should visit Broughty Castle Museum? Yes, use it or lose it, but maybe avoid the armoury, or better yet, question staff about the problematic language used in the displays. Hold them accountable and ask for change.
Now, for a palate cleanser, cannons.
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