Bo'ness Motor Museum

While on holiday, I visited this tiny but delightful classic car museum. Bo'ness is a short drive from the old fishing town of South Queensferry, which nestles between the huge expanses of the Forth road and rail bridges. The museum combines the twin passions of this blog, as the bulk of its exhibits are cars and memorabilia associated with film, specifically those featuring James Bond. Perhaps the most interesting of the cars in this respect is the road going white Lotus Esprit S1 that was used on set in The Spy who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert 1977). Crammed full of film props and costumes, the museum houses, cheek by jowl, approximately twenty-five cars: various Aston Martin's - a DB6, a DBS and a V8 Vantage - as well as the series 3 Jaguar XJ6 used in the film The 51st State (Ronny Yu 2001) and a De Lorean, a Mini Cooper, a Sunbeam Alpine and 1940s Studebaker. Chatting with Colin Anderson, the museum's founder and owner, I discovered that he is also involved in the recent resurrection of the Bo'ness Hill Climb, last run in 1966 and revived in 2008. This hill climb has a wonderful history having hosted a number of celebrated racing drivers and cars, including Jim Clark in 1959 driving the famous Border Reivers D Type Jaguar and his Le Mans Lotus Elite. Details on the climb's history and dates for this year's event are available here.