📍 Cirencester

Corinium Museum

Cirencester's Roman museum with in-situ mosaics, a reconstructed Roman dining room and hands-on activities for children.

Where Cirencester, Gloucestershire Price Budget When wet Indoors

✦ We visited

The in-situ mosaics are the standout, genuine Roman floors you can look straight down on at close range. The dressing-up goes down well with primary-age children, and the family trails give them something to hunt for.

Cirencester was one of the largest and most important towns in Roman Britain, and the Corinium Museum tells that story with one of the finest collections of Roman material outside London. At its heart are a series of beautifully preserved floor mosaics displayed in their original positions, alongside carved tombstones, sculptures and everyday objects that bring the Roman city of Corinium to life across two floors.

For families there is plenty of hands-on content. Children can dress up in Roman costume, handle replica artefacts, follow family trails and join seasonal workshops. There is a life-size reconstruction of a Roman dining room and a dramatic Anglo-Saxon section with forensically reconstructed faces from local burial finds. It is one of those museums where the story is strong enough that children engage without being pushed.

Being entirely indoors and centrally located in Cirencester, it is a reliable rainy-day visit that combines well with a walk through the town, the Roman amphitheatre earthworks nearby and the Abbey Grounds. Allow a couple of hours and check what seasonal activities are running on the day.

Good for: history, rainy-day, sensory. Ages: 3–4, 5–7, 8–11, 12+.