Help us move the museum to Maryfield!

Aim

Help us move Dundee Museum of Transport to the historic Maryfield Tram Depot!

Maryfield Tram Depot

After more than a decade of planning and preparation, Dundee Museum of Transport is getting ready to move to Maryfield. We’re working to create the region’s newest museum within the next twelve months, and we need your help with the work that will bring it to life.

Our current museum at Market Mews will close on 31 October 2026. For up to a year, we will be without the income that an open museum generates. Yet there are essential costs to meet in closing down Market Mews, packing and caring for the collection, moving it safely and getting Maryfield ready to welcome visitors.

This is where your donation can make a difference. We’re raising £20,000 to help fund this transition, supporting our small team and providing the materials and resources they need to complete the move and prepare for opening. This is part of a wider effort to raise £125,000 by spring 2027.

Funding for the depot’s restoration has brought us a long way, but this appeal is not for the building works. It is about giving the museum the people, time and preparation it needs to make the strongest possible start.

Maryfield is a fitting home for that next chapter. It began operating as a tram depot in 1901 and served Dundee for much of the twentieth century before falling into disuse. The museum purchased it in 2015 to preserve the building and give it a new purpose. As a working tram depot, it was never open to the public. The new museum will give the community access to this historic building for the first time.

The move

After 12 wonderful years, we will finally close the doors of our ‘temporary’ museum premises at Market Mews on 31st October 2026.   

Our valued visitors have often called the museum a ‘tardis’ and a ‘hidden gem’, packed with magnificent vehicles and inspiring artefacts.  For over a decade it has offered ‘trips down memory lane’, bringing generations together to share stories and memories.

Now, our hardest work begins – packing up an entire museum, moving precious historic vehicles, caring for our 7000 objects, and preparing them for a new home.  Moving a museum is a challenging task for our small team and volunteer community, at a time when we are also designing a whole new museum.

Over the coming months we need to pack and store our precious collection, whilst planning events and programmes that will inspire and engage our visitors on a whole new scale, at the new museum at Maryfield.   

We need your help to move an entire museum.

'I visit very regularly. I love the museum - can’t wait for the new one, but will miss the current one. There’s nothing I enjoy more than taking my trips down memory lane!' - visitor feedback

When we get there

The museum will officially open in the second half of 2027. At Maryfield, you will walk in the footsteps of tram workers from more than a century ago, into a hands-on museum bringing Dundee’s transport stories to life.

Our ambition reaches beyond being a museum of transport. We want Maryfield to be a valuable community asset, where people can meet, learn, contribute their skills and feel a sense of belonging. Events, community activities and more volunteering opportunities will give people of different backgrounds ways to take part.

Families will find new ways to spend time and discover things together. Working with local schools, we will develop learning programmes that connect our collections with the curriculum and introduce young people to future career possibilities.

The benefits will extend beyond the museum’s doors. As a new visitor attraction, Maryfield will add to Dundee’s appeal, create jobs and support local regeneration, with the museum projected to contribute £1.8 million a year to the local economy. A historic building once at risk will become a place the community can use and enjoy.

Your help

Please make a donation today and help us get ready to open at Maryfield. Your support will help our small team and volunteers close down Market Mews, carry out the move and prepare the new museum during the months when we have no income from an open museum.

From acid-free paper to protect a treasured object to the staff time needed to plan and carry out the move, these are practical costs that can be easy to overlook. They are also essential to giving the new museum the strongest possible start.

Whether you can give £5, £10 or more, your donation will be valued. You do not have to make a large gift to be part of this next chapter.

Please donate what you can towards our £20,000 target. Sharing this appeal with friends, family and colleagues will help too, whether or not you are able to give.

Market Mews has given us 12 years of memories. With your help, we can bring that spirit to Maryfield and create many more together.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 11th November 2026 at 4:19pm