UK Summer Road Trips with Museums
Few things are more appealing than a good car, the open road and a great motor museum. Whether at the start of a road trip, at the end or somewhere in the middle, a car museum is the perfect excuse for a day at the wheel. We’ve identified 10 great museums and drives including, in Wales, the Museum of Land Speed in Pembrokeshire not far from the Pembrokeshire Coast 200, in England the Lakeland Motor Museum located at the gateway to some of the UK’s best scenery and in Scotland, The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum, to be found at the start of one of the UK’s greatest drives.
Road trip: Pembrokeshire Coast 200
Museum: Museum of Land Speed
To be clear, we’re not making an association between breaking land speed records and breaking speed limits on public roads. Instead, this is a road trip combining a study of the UK’s land speed heritage with an exploration of Wales’s most beautiful coastline. Adventurers have been breaking speed records on the famous seven-mile long Pendine Sands since 1924 when Sir Malcolm Campbell broke the land speed record for the first time in a V12 Sunbeam. The museum, which houses a fascinating collection of cars and artefacts, is situated at Pendine close to the start of the new, 200-mile Pembrokeshire Coast drive that starts at Amroth and ends in Dale. Along the way visit Tenby, St Davids and the Blue Lagoon, a former slate quarry now a wildlife haven beside the sea.
Road trip: Scottish Borders tour
Museum: Jim Clark Motorsport Museum
Located in Duns, not far from Berwick-upon-Tweed, this museum is dedicated to the life and career of Jim Clark, Scotland’s first Formula One champion. Over a period of 11 years, Clark secured double Formula One World Championships, conquered the Indy 500 and won many other races around the world during the 1950s and 60s. The museum is a great scene-setter for amazing driving experiences on roads that Clark himself knew. Your choice of routes is limited only by your imagination but we recommend the A6105/A708 Duns to Moffat via Galashiels and Selkirk.
Road trip: West Country tour
Museum: Haynes Motor Museum and County Classics Motor Museum
Founded by John Haynes, the father of DIY car maintenance manuals, his eponymous motor museum in Sparkford is just off the A303, that magnificent road that runs from the M3 near Basingstoke to, effectively, Exeter and which, at one point, offer views of Stonehenge. The museum is a celebration of Haynes’s passion for collecting cars and on 7 September it’ll be hosting the first-ever John Haynes Classic Car Show. Visit over, as the A303 nears Ilminster, leave it for Taunton, home of the recently opened County Classics Motor Museum. Founded by a local businessman, it, too, is filled with cars collected over the years but this time the sort your parents and grandparents might once have owned.
Road trip: Heritage triangle
Museums: Silverstone Museum, British Motor Museum and Coventry Transport Museum
Being the home of racing and the motorcar, it’s fitting that the Midlands is home not to one, not to two but to three great automotive museums. Just off the M40 and along the A43 is the Silverstone Museum dedicated to the circuit’s long motorsport history. Back to the M40 and north a bit to Gaydon is the British Motor Museum – a celebration of this country’s once thriving motor industry and a must-see for fans of four wheels. Then, talking the A46 to Coventry see out the day with a trip to the former home of British car making in Coventry, remembered at the Coventry Transport Museum.
Road trip: Causeway Coastal Route
Museum: Ulster Transport Museum
Located in Cultra, near Belfast, the Ulster Transport Museum offers a fascinating window on the history of motorised transport in all its forms. Naturally, road racing and the North West 200 in particular are given prominence with a motorbike exhibition that includes machines raced by local heroes Joey and Robert Dunlop. Meanwhile, another exhibition is dedicated to local pioneers including Harry Ferguson of tractor and four-wheel drive fame and to cars including the infamous DeLorean DMS-12, built near Belfast. Visit complete, get back behind the wheel for the Causeway Coastal Route stretching for 130 miles from nearby Carrickfergus to Derry-Londonderry – a trip packed with castles and causeways.
Road trip: Lake District tour
Museum: Lakeland Motor Museum
Lakeland Motor Museum is just the excuse you need to journey to the region. Housed in a converted mill and with over 30,000 exhibits tracing the development of road transport in all its forms throughout the twentieth century, one visit is never enough. Then, suitably energised, take to the hills in your car to follow any number of routes including the Keswick Loop via Buttermere, Windermere to Ullswater and, longest of all, the Conniston Loop via the Duddon Valley.
Road trip: Cotswolds tour
Museum: Cotswold Motoring Museum
One for the children, this, with the star exhibit being Brum, TV’s lovable classic car. Also featured are displays of old Austins, BMWs, Morgans, Rileys… Then, when the kids have seen enough, take them to the model village, also in Bourton-on-the-Water. Visit complete, it’s time to hit the road and we’ve just the one: the Fosse Way, the former Roman road that ran from Exeter to Lincoln but which, in its current form as the A429, spans Chippenham to Coventry. Within the Cotswolds, it encompasses gems including Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh and as a backbone to the region is a great launch pad for exploratory trips east and west.
Road trip: New Forest tour
Museums: National Motor Museum, Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum
With its many roads winding through acres of woodland and heathland, the New Forest is a fascinating place that’s perfect for gentle touring, not least because you never know whether there’ll be deer or New Forest ponies lurking around the next bend. These plus picturesque villages all compete for your attention but as petrolheads, your primary focus is those two remarkable museums, the National Motor Museum and Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum. Both are home to huge and important collections and each will easily absorb a day of your time, so book a hotel and return for a follow-up the next day.
Road trip: Classic odyssey
Museum: Brooklands Museum
Brooklands was once the home of British motorsport, today celebrated by a fabulous museum in the former buildings that is dedicated to important old cars and racers and also to the circuit’s subsequent life as a major centre of aircraft manufacture and engineering endeavour. It’s a real tonic and there’s more starting with a drive down the nearby A3 to Milford, near Godalming. From here, take the A283 through idyllic Sussex countryside to Petworth and, briefly from there, the A285 before following signs to Goodwood, home of the famous race circuit, and the annual Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival.
Road trip: Jurassic coast
Museum: Bovington Tank Museum
You’d have a job parking one at home and they’re not made for a road trip but a tank is still a motorised vehicle and the world’s best collection of them is just a stone’s throw from a remarkable coastal drive back in time. Bovington Tank Museum is situated in beautiful, relaxing Dorset but its tanks mean business. There are nine exhibitions devoted to more than 300 of them and covering their role in conflicts ranging from the First World War to today’s war in Ukraine. Visit complete, head over to Weymouth for the B3157 that tracks the World Heritage Jurassic Coast to Bridport. From there it’s only a few miles to Lyme Regis and an ice cream on the town’s famous Cobb.
