About
Hawick Museum occupies Wilton Lodge, a substantial mansion house set within Wilton Lodge Park on the edge of Hawick, the largest town in the Scottish Borders and long the region's principal centre of knitwear and hosiery manufacture — an industry that made Hawick internationally known for high-quality cashmere and woollen garments and shaped virtually every aspect of the town's economy, population growth, and civic identity from the eighteenth century onwards. The museum combines local social and industrial history with the adjoining Scott Art Gallery, giving visitors a combined heritage-and-art destination within a single historic building.
The museum's collections trace Hawick's development as a textile manufacturing centre in exceptional depth, covering the mechanisation of knitting and hosiery production, the working conditions and community life of the mill workforce, and the town's particular reputation for cashmere and fine woollens that continues, in reduced form, to the present day — a story of industrial specialisation and international trade reach that few towns of Hawick's modest size can match. Beyond textiles, displays cover the town's wider social history, including its distinctive Common Riding tradition, one of the most significant and longest-running of the Scottish Borders' annual horseback festivals commemorating historic border conflicts and civic identity.
The adjoining Scott Art Gallery displays fine art from the museum's permanent collection alongside changing exhibitions, complementing the local-history displays with a dedicated visual arts dimension — a combination that reflects Hawick's civic investment in cultural provision extending beyond a purely industrial-heritage narrative. The setting within Wilton Lodge Park itself, a substantial public park with landscaped grounds along the Slitrig Water, adds a further attraction for visitors wanting to combine the museum with outdoor recreation.
Managed by Live Borders, Hawick Museum offers free admission and a genuinely comprehensive introduction to one of the Scottish Borders' most historically significant towns, its distinctive textile industry, and its equally distinctive civic traditions — a rewarding stop for anyone exploring the wider Borders textile heritage trail alongside Galashiels and Selkirk's comparable local museums.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- The museum is closed Monday to Wednesday — plan your visit for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
- Combine your visit with a walk through Wilton Lodge Park along the Slitrig Water.
- Visit during the annual Common Riding festival for the fullest sense of Hawick's civic traditions, though the town is much busier at this time.
- Combine your visit with Halliwell's House Museum in Selkirk or Old Gala House in Galashiels for a fuller Borders museums tour.
- Free entry, but donations are welcome to support Live Borders' museum service.
Highlights
Hawick's Knitwear and Hosiery Industry
The museum's collections trace Hawick's development as a textile manufacturing centre in exceptional depth, covering the mechanisation of knitting and hosiery production and the town's particular reputation for cashmere and fine woollens — an industry that made Hawick internationally known and shaped virtually every aspect of the town's economy, population, and civic identity from the eighteenth century onwards.
The Hawick Common Riding
Displays cover Hawick's distinctive Common Riding tradition, one of the most significant and longest-running of the Scottish Borders' annual horseback festivals commemorating historic border conflicts and civic identity — a genuinely important living tradition that continues to define Hawick's community calendar and civic pride to the present day.
The Scott Art Gallery
The adjoining Scott Art Gallery displays fine art from the museum's permanent collection alongside changing exhibitions, complementing the local-history displays with a dedicated visual arts dimension and reflecting Hawick's civic investment in cultural provision extending beyond a purely industrial-heritage narrative.
Wilton Lodge Mansion House
The museum occupies Wilton Lodge, a substantial mansion house set within its own landscaped park — the building's grand domestic architecture gives the museum's displays an appropriately impressive setting, quite different from a purpose-built museum structure.
Collections
Hawick Museum's core displays trace the town's development as the Scottish Borders' principal knitwear and hosiery manufacturing centre, internationally known for cashmere and fine woollens, alongside social history including the distinctive Hawick Common Riding tradition. The adjoining Scott Art Gallery adds a fine-art dimension through permanent and changing exhibitions.
The museum occupies Wilton Lodge mansion house within its own landscaped park, and is managed by Live Borders.
Hawick's Textile Industry
The history of knitwear and hosiery manufacture in Hawick, including cashmere and fine woollen production.
The Hawick Common Riding
The history and continuing tradition of Hawick's annual Common Riding festival.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.