Opening hours

Tue - Sat: 10am - 4:45pm
Closed: Sundays, Mondays and Bank Holidays

Free Entry

There may be a charge for special exhibitions. Please call to confirm.

Extraordinary closures

Please note that the museum will be closed as detailed below:

Mummy on the move!
The Egyptian gallery will be closed from the 28 April. The Mummy will reappear when the new Ancient Civilisations gallery opens on the 8 June

Saturday 24 November
The Museum and Library will be closed for the RIC Members Only day.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

The Winston Graham Historical Prize

In 2008 the Royal Institution of Cornwall announced The Winston Graham Historical Prize, funded by a generous legacy from the author and supported by his family.

In its inaugural year, the Prize sought an unpublished work of historical fiction, preferably with a clear connection to Cornwall. It will be supported by publishers Pan Macmillan.

The Prize was for £5000 cash, with the potential for publication by Pan Macmillan, subject to their acceptance. In subsequent years the value and subject of the Prize may change. The prize is not run every year, but must wait for the fund to have accrued a sufficent prize award.. The next prize is unlikely to run before 2012. Details wil be published on the website as soon as they have been agreed by the family and the RIC.

The deadline for submissions was 31st March 2009.
Download 2008-9 Competition Rules (PDF)

2009 Judges :

Peggoty Graham (Chair)
Philip Marsden
Marjory Chapman
Helen Dunmore
Jessica Mann

2009 Shortlist :

On Trencrom Hill
The Horse of Power
The Custom of the County
Sunlight on the Pathway
Charlotte Penhale
Solid

2009 Prize Award:
The prize was not awarded in 2009. Whilst the judges did not feel that the prize of £5000 could be awarded to one of the shortlisted submissions they did feel that three entries merited £1000 development bursaries.

  "We were looking for a strong setting, a persuasive plot, three dimensional characters and a good writing style" said Ms Graham "All the manuscripts we read were very good in parts with some beautifully crafted descriptive passages and some good accounts of action."

"No single entry in its current state stood out as having everything we were looking for, but the three we've chosen for development bursaries certainly have the makings of good novels with a little more work."

Bursaries were given to:

Dr Clare Hobba for On Trencrom Hill
Peter Rothwell for Sunlight on the Pathway
Simon Parker for Solid

Future Awards
The Winston Graham Prize will be run when the prize fund has reached a sufficient level. This will not be in 2010. Notification of the new prize will appear on this website.

For more information on Winston Graham please see www.winstongraham.org