About
Eyemouth Museum tells the story of a Berwickshire fishing burgh through the single event that defined it. On Friday 14 October 1881 a storm remembered locally as Euroclydon struck the south-east Scottish coast with extraordinary violence while the fleet was at sea, and 189 local fishermen were lost, many of them within sight of the shore as boats were driven onto the rocks at the harbour mouth. In a town of Eyemouth's size the loss was catastrophic and generational, and the day is still known in the Borders simply as Black Friday.
The museum's most celebrated holding is the Eyemouth Tapestry, made to commemorate the disaster's centenary. Designed by Alastair I. Scott and organised by Mrs J. Dunnet, it was sewn by a team of twenty-four and took two years to complete. It runs to fifteen feet of canvas worked at roughly a hundred stitches to the square inch, close to a million stitches in total, and its name panels — recording each boat lost and every man aboard her — account for some 1,100 hours of needlework on their own. It is a commemorative object of real seriousness, made by the community that inherited the loss rather than commissioned from outside.
Around the tapestry the museum sets out the wider social and working history of the town: the fishing industry that sustained it, the boats and gear, the shore trades, and the everyday life of a small harbour community on an exposed coast. Eyemouth's earlier notoriety as a smuggling port, its dependence on the sea in good years and bad, and the slow rebuilding of the fleet after 1881 all form part of the picture.
The museum occupies the Auld Kirk on Manse Road, close to the harbour and the town centre, and also serves as Eyemouth's gift shop and information centre. It is an independent charitable trust run by a small group of local volunteers, funded by entry fees, shop sales and donations rather than by public subsidy. For 2026 it opens daily from Friday 3 April until Saturday 31 October, 11am to 4pm — every day of the week through the whole season, which is a considerable commitment for a small volunteer body and makes the museum easy to fit into any visit to the Berwickshire coast.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- The 2026 season runs 3 April to 31 October, open every day 11am to 4pm — the museum is closed for the winter.
- Allow time in front of the name panels rather than only the tapestry's pictorial sections; they are the heart of the work.
- Walk down to the harbour afterwards to see the Hurkar Rocks, where several boats were lost in 1881.
- Admission prices are not published online, so bring cash or contact the museum in advance if you need to know the cost first.
- The museum doubles as the town's information centre, making it a sensible first stop on arriving in Eyemouth.
- Ask the volunteers about the boats — many have direct family connections to the crews recorded on the tapestry.
- There is no museum car park; use the town centre or harbour parking a short walk away.
- Combine the visit with Gunsgreen House nearby for the smuggling side of Eyemouth's story.
Highlights
The Eyemouth Tapestry
The museum's outstanding object is the Eyemouth Tapestry, made to mark the centenary of the 1881 fishing disaster.
Designed by Alastair I. Scott, organised by Mrs J.
Dunnet and sewn by a team of twenty-four, it took two years to complete and runs to fifteen feet of canvas worked at approximately a hundred stitches to the square inch — close to a million stitches in all. Its scale is impressive, but what gives it weight is that it was made by the community which inherited the loss rather than commissioned from professionals outside the town, and the labour invested in it is itself part of the act of remembrance.
The Name Panels
Within the tapestry, the panels recording the name of every boat lost and every man who went down with her required around 1,100 hours of needlework on their own. Lettering is the slowest and least forgiving work in any large embroidery, and the decision to spend a quarter of the whole project's effort on names rather than on scenes tells you exactly what the makers thought the tapestry was for.
Standing in front of the panels and reading the crews boat by boat is the moment at which the abstract figure of 189 dead becomes a list of individual households in a small town.
Black Friday, 14 October 1881
The disaster the museum exists to record struck on Friday 14 October 1881, when the storm known locally as Euroclydon caught the south-east Scottish fleet at sea. One hundred and eighty-nine local fishermen were lost, a proportion of the working male population that a town the size of Eyemouth could not absorb.
Many of the boats were driven onto the rocks at the harbour mouth in full view of families gathered on the shore, and that detail — that so much of the loss happened within sight of home and beyond any possibility of help — is why the day is remembered in the Borders as Black Friday.
The Hurkar Rocks and the Harbour Mouth
Eyemouth's harbour entrance is guarded by the Hurkar Rocks, and in 1881 several returning boats were wrecked on them within sight of the town. The museum's displays make sense of the geography, and the short walk from the Auld Kirk down to the harbour to look at the rocks turns the account into something physical.
Small east-coast harbours of this period were often difficult entrances in heavy weather — the very features that gave shelter in normal conditions became hazards in a gale — and the deaths of 1881 were caused as much by the shape of the coast as by the strength of the storm.
Collections
Eyemouth Museum's central holding is the Eyemouth Tapestry, a fifteen-foot embroidered commemoration of the 1881 East Coast fishing disaster, designed by Alastair I. Scott, organised by Mrs J. Dunnet and sewn by a team of twenty-four over two years, worked at roughly a hundred stitches to the square inch and incorporating name panels for every boat and crew lost.
Around it the museum sets out the social and industrial history of Eyemouth as a Berwickshire fishing burgh — the fleet, the gear, the shore trades and the domestic life of the harbour community — together with the town's earlier history as a smuggling port and the account of the storm of 14 October 1881 in which 189 local fishermen died.
The museum occupies the Auld Kirk on Manse Road and also serves as the town's gift shop and information centre.
It is an independent charitable trust run by local volunteers.
The Eyemouth Tapestry
The centenary tapestry commemorating the 1881 disaster, with its name panels recording every boat and crew lost.
Eyemouth and the Sea
The fishing industry, shore trades, smuggling history and community life of a Berwickshire harbour town.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.