The Scottish Maritime Museum on Irvine Harbourside has welcomed visitors back for the first time in almost five months.

And there is a 100 ton, 66 feet long major new exhibit and visitor experience.

For the first time, visitors can now step inside the hold of MV Spartan and see the last surviving Scottish-built puffer up close.

Inside, visitors can immerse themselves in the life of this 1940s Clyde puffer and the story of the hundreds of other puffers which performed a lifeline service delivering everything from cows, cars and cabbages to Scotland’s islands and remote coastal communities for over a hundred years

The permanent exhibition, created through the Museum’s ‘Spartan: Inside Out’ project, which was made possible by a grant from Museum Galleries Scotland, charts the evolution of the puffer, which came to dominate cargo trade around Scotland from the mid 1800s

The exhibition also features unseen photographs from the Museum’s collection.

These include images of early 1800’s steam-powered boats through to the seagoing steam, and later diesel, puffers working from the 1870s up until 1994 when the last ‘puffer’ company, which also owned Spartan, Glenlight Shipping Ltd., ceased trading.

As well as the launch of the new Spartan experience, the Museum has extended ‘Woven Waves: The Jutland Tapestries’, a poignant exhibition reinterpreting one of the world’s largest naval conflicts by award-winning tapestry artist Katie Russell.

To book please visit scottishmaritimemuseum.org

David Mann, Director of the Scottish Maritime Museum, said: “We’re delighted to welcome visitors back safely to the Scottish Maritime Museum and open our doors with such a fantastic new experience based around Spartan, which was the first historic vessel in the Museum’s collection when it opened back in 1983.

“As well as making the necessary changes to ensure public safety, including asking visitors to book their visit in advance on our website, we wanted to open with a compelling and exciting offer for visitors of all ages to pack in over coming months.”

He added: “With Spartan, our current exhibitions and some diverse and intriguing exhibitions coming up, we hope to attract an increasing number of visitors, ensure we sustain Scotland’s maritime heritage and also support tourism locally, regionally and across the country as a whole.”

Matthew Bellhouse Moran, Curator at the Scottish Maritime Museum, added: “With the new Spartan experience, we continue to give our visitors engaging and exciting access to our collection of historic vessels and tell the fascinating stories of the

inventors, sailors and engineers who made

Scottish shipbuilding, engineering and design famous across the world.

“It’s wonderful to see visitors jump onboard and explore Scotland’s iconic and much-loved little puffer boat in a completely new way.”