Opened 2000 Function Museum | Closed 2003 | |
The Big Idea was a millennium-funded, interactive museum in Irvine in North Ayrshire, Scotland.
The museum, built on the site of Alfred Nobel's dynamite factory, was devoted to invention and inventors. Scottish inventors featured include John Napier, William Murdock, Alexander Fleming and John Logie Baird.
When the museum opened in 2000, there were 120,000 visitors, but in 2001, there were only 50,000. In 2003, the exhibition centre closed because of very low visitor numbers. The museum building is still there, with a turf-covered roof and built to resemble a giant sand dune, but its future is still undecided.
There is a time capsule buried under the museum. The footbridge, called the 'Bridge of Scottish Inventions', can open to allow ships to pass through and, as of 2016, remains in the open position.