From Blue Whales to Spaceships: Meet Our Young Explorers Range

If you’ve visited the Linlithgow Museum shop recently, you might have spotted a few new arrivals - including blue whales, deep-sea explorers, spaceships and even a rather splendid goose!

There is, however, a method to our apparent unconnected shopping technique!

We’ve been developing our Young Explorers range, choosing toys, activities and gifts that encourage children to explore history, science and the world around them - while also connecting, wherever we can, with the stories we tell in the museum.

From the deep ocean to deep space

So why would you find a Blue Whale or Deep Ocean Explorer kit in a museum about Linlithgow?

One reason is that Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, the Linlithgow-born scientist who led the scientific team aboard HMS Challenger on its pioneering voyage of ocean exploration in the 1870s. The expedition transformed our understanding of the deep ocean and helped lay the foundations of modern oceanography.

And the spaceships?

Linlithgow has another famous explorer - although this one is fictional! Scotty of Star Trek has claimed Linlithgow as his birthplace and that gives us a rather wornderful excuse to take our Young Explorers from the deepest parts of our ocean to the furthest reaches of space.

A museum you can take home

Alongside our Young Explorer kits, we have been building a range inspired more directly by history and heritage.

Our PlayPress sets let children build, play and create their own stories, whether they are constructing a Mini Museum or defending their very own Knight’s Castle.

They can also put their historical knowledge to the test with Who Am I?, a guessing game exploring some of history’s most fascinating people. It’s another way of showing that discovering history doesn’t have to stop when you leave the museum. We want our younger visitors to see museums not simply as places where things sit behind glass, but as places for curiosity, imagination and discovery.

And then there’s Gordon…

Of course, not everything has to involve serious scientific investigation.

Our growing range of wonderfully soft Jomanda plushies has proved very popular - including Nessie, swans, octopuses and the magnificent Gordon the Goose (a well-known Linlithgow Loch local!).

Some have obvious links to Scotland, wildlife and the natural world. Others have earned their place through the highly rigorous museum selection process of being extremely cuddly and cute!

Big stories for little explorers

Whether your young explorer is interested in castles and history, oceans and wildlife, or boldly going into space, we hope there is something in our shop to spark their curiosity.

And there’s another important reason for shopping with us: every purchase helps support Linlithgow Museum and the work we do to preserve and share the town’s heritage.

So next time you visit, have a look around the shop. You never know where your next adventure might take you.

Linlithgow Museum - a small museum with big stories