Sites of Interest in the UK

Messerschmitt bf-109 in a diorama at IWM Duxford

Map of museums, battlefield sites and other places of interest in the UK & Ireland

This is a map of military museums, technical museums, transport museums, battlefield sites, industrial heritage sites and other places, that I’m aware of in the UK and Ireland, and would visit if I was in the neighbourhood. The green ones I have been to, or somebody has covered on this site. The occasional blue pin marks new sites, not yet open. The map is being updated continuously.

Some of the sites on this map include…

Military & Civil Aviation Museums

There are the ‘premiere division’ aviation museums like the RAF’s museums at Hendon and Cosford, and the Imperial War Museum’s site at Duxford, but we are also lucky to be knee-deep in smaller aviation museums like the fabulous Yorkshire Air museum, the Gatwick Aviation Museum on the outskirts of Gatwick airport with a dozen or so classic British military jets or the Newark Air Museum with a collection of 70+ aircraft, mostly British military, but with some rareties like a Mig 27, Mig 23 & a Saab Drakken.

The Army Flying Museum in Middle Wallop is worth visiting to get a completely different perspective on military aviation history, from the Glider Regiment and the Air Observation Post Squadrons (AOP) to the attack helicopters of the modern Army Air Corps.

Museum Ships, Maritime, & Navy Museums

Rather like the Imperial War Museum (IWM) the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) has more than one site and they are scattered around the UK. The core museum sites are centered in Portsmouth and Gosport, but the NMRN also has HMS Caroline in Belfast, HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool, and the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton.