Hubby and I stayed in the Lake District for a couple of days, and as the weather forecast was for torrential rain on one day, we decided to venture out in the car. We thought we would go to the west coast, and ended up in Whitehaven. After following the signs for parking we found the harbour, and The Beacon Museum. Having never visited the area previously, and knowing nothing at all about Whitehaven, the Beacon Museum certainly rectified that. To start with they have an excellent cafe; extremely welcoming with a good choice of food and drink. Having made that our first stop, we then took the lift to the top floor and worked our way downwards from there. There were extremely informative exhibitions on all floors giving details of the history of Whitehaven, and the surrounding area. Also included was an exhibition all about Sellafield which would appeal to all ages. We spent a good couple of hours taking everything in and came away with a far better understanding of the area. For anyone looking for something to do in the Lake District on a wet day then I can’t recommend this place highly enough. The Beacon would appeal just as much to children as there were numerous interactive displays catering for all ages. All in all an extremely high quality attraction made even more enjoyable by the friendly helpful staff who couldn’t do enough for us.

Worth a good half day exploring Sellafield, local history, natural history and sporting heroes. This is a well-put together museum divided into a few levels with topics aimed at multiple age groups. There was a whole floor devoted to Sellafield (site of the world's first major nuclear accident and 20 minutes drive south). Many displays rightfully sing praise to nuclear technologies developed at Sellafield as world firsts. The fire and accident at Sellafield in 1957, which preceded Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, gets a single sentence explaining how it could have been worse except the installation of some filters. I was looking for much more about this major part of the region's history. It was not clear if anything had been learned from the incident that again could have been a world first.

We visited here at the end of August with three teenagers and they thoroughly enjoyed the day. So much history and things to do, definitely worth a visit. Lovely bit about Sellafield in there. Also outside the Beacon, lovely scenery. You could spend a full here and the surrounding area.

One of the best museums I have been to. The Sellafield story had so many interactive experiences for my grandsons to get into. The view from the gallery was amazing. Only downside was the café was expensive and not much choice for children.

This museum blew us away with its quality and the amount of interesting things for kids (and parents) to do. We went with our 9 year old and 6 year old. They spent well over 2 hours there and could've spent even longer. The permanent displays have a great mixture of information and hands-on activities. There was also a fabulous exhibition on Cumberland sports (9yo boy loved it) as well as a great craft session, which our daughter (6yo) thoroughly enjoyed. We will definitely be back. Anyone (families in particular) within half an hour of the Cumbrian coast (either resident or visiting) should have this on their itinerary. It's the best museum in Cumbria that we have found in over 10 years of visiting.

My family and I visited the beacon museum on Sunday to visit santa. From start to finish the staff were so smiley and attentive. Nothing was to much trouble. My seven year old granddaughter assured me that the big guy definitely was the real one ! As well as the mian event we did Christmas crafts and had unlimited time to explore the wonderful museum. Excellent value for money. Thank you to the staff for a great afternoon.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Beacon Museum in Whitehaven Harbour. From the outside it doesn’t look that big so I had only scheduled an hour to tour the museum ... how wrong was I! The museum is over several floors and could easily take 1.5-2 hours to see everything. There’s something for everyone with a great mix of local history, the development of the harbour including really good interactive screens, an exhibition on the local nuclear industry and there are great temporary exhibitions too. The views from the top floor across the harbour are fantastic. Don’t forget to visit the fantastic independent cafe on the ground floor. Certainly something to do whatever the weather ... I’ll certainly be back to visit next time I’m up in Cumbria!

Came here with my daughter as we're annual pass holders. There's loads to see and do so make sure you allocate a good few hours for your visit. Even though we've been before we spent loads of time in here. Plenty of interactive exhibits to keep the kids and yourselves entertained.

We spent a wonderful morning at The Beacon. A friendly and informative welcome awaited us. We started off with coffee and cake in the cafe downstairs. Then went up to the 4th floor and worked our way down. So much wonderful information about the history of Whitehaven and about Sellafield too. There are some interactive displays to have fun with. I visited the Lowry Exhibition which was excellent. My husband loves to read all the boards and notices so he spent such a long reading those and thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the exhibits, even the children's toy exhibits were great fun. There are 4 galleries and there is something here to suit most peoples tastes of all ages. I had only intended to spent a maximum of 2 hours here, but we ended up spending over 3 hours and even then we just had information overload so needed a break. Luckily the excellent Howling Wolf Cafe is on the ground floor for delicious refreshments. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It's up to you how long you spend, anything from one hour to 3 of 4 depending on your level of interest.

A fascinating and very informative series of displays. Many very well put together digital presentations and a number of interactive displays. An excellent series of presentations on the history of Whitehaven as a port and why it declined. We were here for about two and a half hours and could easily have spent longer. Our grandchildren would have loved it!