Located in the town of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, the Arbuthnot Museum highlights the maritime past of Scotland's principal whaling and fishing port. Exhibitions and photographs highlight not only the history of Peterhead but also include Inuit Indian artefacts, displays on Arctic animals and whaling and one of the largest coin collections in the North of Scotland.
The museum is named for Adam Arbuthnot, a local merchant who left his private museum to the town when he died in 1850. It is now located on the upper floor of a building on the corner of St. Peter Street and Queen Street, featuring a prominent clock-tower. The museum occupied this building in 1893, shared with the Public Library. It was funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919), whose wife Louise had laid the foundation stone two years previously and was presented with an engraved silver trowel with a granite handle.