Abbot Hall Art Gallery occupies a handsome 1759 Georgian villa on the banks of the River Kent, just south of the Parish Church. The collection is strong on 18th and 19th-century British watercolours and portraits, with particular emphasis on work connected to the Lake District — George Romney, J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, and others who painted this part of England all feature. There is also a good collection of work by Daniel Maclise and other Victorian narrative painters.
Attached to the same building is the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, which covers the domestic and working life of the region from the 18th century onward. The museum has particularly good displays on the farming and craft industries that shaped the dales landscape — hand-knitting, wool processing, charcoal burning — as well as a gallery devoted to Arthur Ransome, who wrote the Swallows and Amazons books in the Lake District. Both venues are worth two to three hours combined.