Biggar Museum Trust

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Biggar Museum Trust (BMT) consists of several museums based in and around the town of Biggar in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was largely started on the initiative of several individuals, notably Brian Lambie, some years ago, and is both non-profit and independent of local government; indeed, sometimes BMT has struggled to get state funding. Its funding in the past has largely depended on its unpaid staff, entrance fees and public good will.

Amongst their museums are:

• Two properties celebrating the work of well known authors:
  • Brownsbank Cottage, former home of Hugh MacDiarmid, with a live-in writer in residence, who must produce works in Lowland Scots. This is only open by appointment.
  • A museum of John Buchan, the writer of The Thirty Nine Steps and Governor General of Canada, who lived near Broughton
• A general interest museum set in a former church just off the main road. The building is situated on a mound that is the remains of an old Motte-and-bailey castle. The offices are also here.
• A Covenanter House restored to the condition of the period
• A 'street museum' featuring a street of several decades ago, complete with shops, inside a former warehouse.
• The Biggar Gasworks Museum is housed in the last existing gasworks in Scotland where coal was used to make town gas before the introduction of natural gas

Biggar also contains a museum, not run by BMT, namely the Little Theatre. Biggar also has strong connections with William Wallace, with a small bridge in the town being associated with him, although his connection to Lanark is better known.