Hamilton Toy Museum

Museum

Explorer Tom

Hamilton Toy Museum fills rooms above Callander's Main Street with the sort of childhood objects that make grown-ups say, 'I had one of those,' before discovering the price of replacement. Tom has volunteered to test every toy, a service the Hamilton family have wisely declined. Step inside for dolls, cars, soldiers and old imagined futures, all gathered with a collector's persistence. The family describes its collection as the result of 175 years of combined toy collecting. It is privately owned and displayed across two floors, with rooms devoted to different subjects rather than one vast muddle. A recreated Edwardian nursery holds dolls and toys a century old or more. Other spaces show model cars, soldiers and science-fiction playthings. The changes in materials and fashion say plenty about what children were encouraged to imagine in different decades. This is a museum where close looking beats rushing. A tiny vehicle or a carefully dressed doll can hold more craft than a large object, while a familiar box may stir a memory the collector never expected. The family also keeps a collectors' shop, though you need buy nothing to enjoy the displays. Tom will insist his missing childhood spaceship is in the science-fiction room; nobody has yet produced his ownership papers. Find the museum at 111 Main Street in Callander. It normally opens Tuesday to Saturday from Easter until the end of October, with last admission before closing. The displays occupy two floors and the operator says they cannot accommodate visitors with limited mobility. As a family-run place it can close unexpectedly, so call before a long journey. Leave yourself a little time to choose your favourite, even if it embarrasses you.

What is recorded here

Map note: Find the recorded point for Hamilton Toy Museum, a museum near Callander, Stirling, Scotland. See what else is around it before planning your day.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n1313005698

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