Paisely Art Gallery and Museum

Paisley has an art gallery and museum, who’d a thunk it?



I went for a little look around this afternoon while I was on my lunch. It’s quite good, small, but quite good.

There’s a room which is split, most of it features old clothing from the war and before. The other part of the room features ancient Egyptian artefacts including a mummified adult foot, baby foot and hand, which is a bit creepy.

This room also features Buddy but I’ll come back to him in a bit.

There’s a room with paintings of landscapes from around Scotland, some are excellent and others are ok.

There’s another room featuring artwork by local students from nursery kids to high school kids. Some of these young artists are very talented.

Another room here seems to have different exhibitions at different times. Today it was the history of magic in Paisley and Scotland.

The exhibition organiser cornered me as I entered the room and told me all about the stuff in there. Did you know that the magic circle has a Paisley branch? Neither did I.

Apparently magic has a long history in Scotland. It was also so much nicer back then, there were magazines and books from the ‘20s with titles like “Parlour Magic” and “Magical Pleasantries” I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one called “Magic’s Lovely”.

There’s a large room dedicated to looms and weaving and shawls. Obviously the most famous thing about Paisley is the Paisley pattern. Paisley also has a rich history in loom work, especially shawls.

In another room off this one there was a load of high school girls making what I assume were shawls though they looked more like ponchos.

So, back to Buddy.



Buddy is a lion, a large, stuffed, mounted, slightly threadbare lion. He is the only stuffed animal in the museum that has a name card next to him and he features heavily in the gift shop.

I’m not entirely sure of the importance of Buddy because there is no story attached to him that I could see.

Apparently Buddy is going to be 80 this year and he was named Buddy in a competition for kids to mark his 70th birthday in 1999.

If you’re in Paisley and you’ve got a spare half hour the Paisley art gallery and museum is well worth a visit. Obviously it’s free to enter like all museums in Scotland but it does have the best donation box I’ve ever seen.

You’ll have to go and see it for yourself if you want to know what it’s like.