Burgh Museum And Observatory, Church Street, Dumfries is a Grade A listed building in the Dumfries and Galloway local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 11 July 1961. Observatory.

Burgh Museum And Observatory, Church Street, Dumfries

WRENN ID
winding-brick-bistre
Grade
A
Local Planning Authority
Dumfries and Galloway
Constituency
Dumfries and Galloway MP: John Cooper (Con)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
11 July 1961
Type
Observatory
OS grid reference
NX 969 757
Coordinates
55.06517, -3.61454
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Burgh Museum and Observatory, located on Church Street in Dumfries, was designed by Walter Newall between 1835 and 1836, with some remodelling of a late 18th-century windmill to create the observatory and the installation of a camera obscura in 1836. The building features a modern museum extension to the south, designed in a Greek Revival style, characterized by aedicules with ramped architraves. The structure has three storeys and is topped with a deep parapet supported by brackets. The exterior is whitewashed, while the original tower is built from rubble with some roughly dressed stone. Newall's alterations are made of ashlar. The building includes small-paned sash windows, some of which are fitted with iron bars. The north entrance is approached by steps flanked by coped monolithic parapets and corniced, battered piers. The third-floor openings feature boldly bracketted balconies, and there is a concealed roof with a camera obscura viewer positioned above.

Local climate

Burgh Museum And Observatory, Church Street, Dumfries sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,230 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 92% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 85% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 49 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 91% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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