Millennium Gallery

An exciting underground gallery celebrating the uniqueness of Carlisle and its museum collections: many unusual and surprising features.

Minerals area: stunning display of 70 local mineral specimens from the collections with specially commissioned work by the glass artist Kathryn Hodgkinson; a display of mineral fluorescence; specimens viewable under a video-microscope and a multi-media touch-screen presentation on minerals and mining in Cumbria and the North Pennines.

Archaeology area: main feature is a 'Peppers Ghost' interactive which explores the topic of why/how buried objects survive (transforms a full-size figure from modern dress into archaeological); rare wood and leather artefacts from medieval Carlisle; and video-microscope specimens of plant remains from Roman Carlisle.

Arts area: annually changing displays of Fine and Decorative Art from the Carlisle collections, featuring important local and national artists and local collectors and historic costume and ceramics. Hands-on, fun exhibits enable visitors, young and old, to explore themes of the gallery in a different and equally enjoyable way

The walls and beyond: along one side of the Gallery, the 'Carlisle Wall' shows vernacular building styles characteristic of Carlisle, and is complete with some hidden objects of the periods, as well as sounds and even smells! The 'Whispering Wall' on the opposite side of the gallery is an artwork by Stephen Skryna - a wall of glass bricks in which various objects are set, along with a number of small audio speakers.

Outside the gallery is the public walkway linking Castle St and the Castle. Specially commissioned art features here are: a Steel Wall set with industrial artefacts (by Russell Coleman); a granite pavement inscribed with Border reiver family names and the 'Bishop's Stone', a 2.5 metre boulder inscribed with part of the Archbishop of Glasgow's stupendous curse upon the reivers (by Gordon Young).