18 January 2012
Last updated at 10:57 GMT

The grant will pay for a new roof on the museum’s Linthouse building

The Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine is to get a new roof after receiving £1m in government funding.

The category A-listed Linthouse building houses collections that include shipbuilding machinery, machine tools and historic ship models.

The award will help make the 19th century structure wind and watertight.

The Linthouse building is due to reopen to the public in June. The boatshop, pontoons and shipyard workers’ flat will open in April.

As well as Irvine, the Scottish Maritime Museum is also located at Dumbarton.

Engineering ‘cathedral’

Other attractions at the Irvine site includes a shipyard workers’ tenement flat, and a tour of the oldest floating Clydebuilt vessel in the world, M.V. Kyles, which is moored at the harbour side.

Announcing the £1m funding, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “Scotland’s remarkable shipbuilding skills and maritime achievements are part of this country’s rich heritage.

“We need to preserve this for future generations to appreciate and learn about.

“”I am therefore delighted to allocate £1m in this financial year to enable the museum to replace the roof of Scotland’s ‘Cathedral of Engineering’ to ensure it is watertight and weatherproof.”

Sam Galbraith, chair of the museum, said the cash would enable “bigger and better exhibitions” to be staged.