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Marinmuseum (Naval Museum) is Sweden's national naval museum, dedicated to the Swedish naval defense and preservation of the country's naval history. Marinmuseum is one of Sweden's oldest museums, established in 1752 when King Adolf Frederick began the collection and documentation of naval objects in what was called the Model Room (Modellkammaren). He also ordered the preservation of ship models and ship building machinery.
The rectangular building design includes a pier which extends into the water. Around the pier are several museum ships. A specially designed underwater tunnel with windows provides a way to view the wreckage of several seventeenth century ships.
Figureheads from Swedish ships are on display, including many that were made by sculptor Törnström, royal sculptor to the navy, who worked at the Karlskrona shipyard during the 1700s. These include the figurehead of the ship the Dristigheten. The Marinmuseums Archives include 4,000 drawings and maps, mostly relating to the Sweden's Naval history; there are also pictures, paintings, and models. Subjects include submarines, shipbuilding strategies, battle tactics, and life on board ships of the Baltic Sea.
References:Dating from the 15th century, Kisimul is the only significant surviving medieval castle in the Outer Hebrides. It was the residence of the chief of the Macneils of Barra, who claimed descent from the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. Tradition tells of the Macneils settling in Barra in the 11th century, but it was only in 1427 that Gilleonan Macneil comes on record as the first lord. He probably built the castle that dominates the rocky islet, and in its shadow a crew house for his personal galley and crew. The sea coursed through Macneil veins, and a descendant, Ruari ‘the Turbulent’, was arrested for piracy of an English ship during King James VI’s reign in the later 16th century.
Heavy debts eventually forced the Macneil chiefs to sell Barra in 1838. However, a descendant, Robert Lister Macneil, the 45th Chief, repurchased the estate in 1937, and set about restoring his ancestral seat. It passed into Historic Scotland’s care in 2000.
The castle dates essentially from the 15th century. It takes the form of a three-storey tower house. This formed the residence of the clan chief. An associated curtain wall fringed the small rock on which the castle stood, and enclosed a small courtyard in which there are ancillary buildings. These comprised a feasting hall, a chapel, a tanist’s house and a watchman’s house. Most were restored in the 20th century, the tanist’s house serving as the family home of the Macneils. A well near the postern gate is fed with fresh water from an underground seam. Outside the curtain wall, beside the original landing-place, are the foundations of the crew house, where the sailors manning their chief’s galley had their quarters.