Hotels near the Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery

Carlisle's award-winning museum has been known as Tullie House since the end of the 17th century and once housed the city's main library. In 1990 the museum was modernised and expanded to become interactive, with a further Millennium development in 2001, including the Carlisle Millennium Gallery which created a special walkway from the castle.

With its own tale to tell (and various original features inside), Tullie House stands proud for its own 400 years of history, while the collections inside - natural sciences, human history and both fine and decorative arts - tell the story of the city and region from 10,000 years ago to the present. Bronze age axes, a marvellous reconstruction of part of Hadrian's Wall, making sense of the many Roman exhibits, and crosses and burial goods from Viking times make the building a mine of information for youngsters and parents alike.

The museum traces the turbulence of the Border Reiver period, the coming of the canals and railways, the growth of the textile and more modern industries.

Among the fine and decorative arts is a musical instrument collection that includes a rare Amati Violin piccolo, as well as a wealth of porcelain, clocks & watches and paintings. There is an extraordinary collection of 1500 mounted British birds and mammals - a throwback to a popular Victorian tradition of taxidermy.

The Millennium Galleries draw vistiors in from outside. Names engraved in the granite underfoot are associated with the city's Border Reiver history, while the now-infamous "Cursing Stone" by artist Gordon Young, on which an age-old curse by the then-Bishop of Glasgow is inscribed, shows what it was like to live under the ravages of the reivers.