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Historic reverence and sheer immersion bring new Royal Marines Experience to life
23 October 2026
The new Royal Marines Experience perfectly blends reverence for history with sheer immersive brilliance.
The £15m venue at Boathouse 6 in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is open to the public from tomorrow and thrusts visitors into the world of the commandos using gripping film footage and hands-on activities.
There are virtual reality commando missions, a real-life RHIB to climb aboard, a traversing wall to take on vertical assaults and a training area that puts visitors through exercises recruits use to stay at peak fitness during 32 gruelling weeks at the Commando Training Centre in Lympstone.
But alongside all the interactive elements there is a deep value for history and the Royal Marines Family, especially the special Remembrance Room which pays tribute to members of the Corps who have died not just in conflict but through tragedy and illness.
That is coupled with artefacts and stories telling of daring missions from more than 360 years of marines’ history, including a display of all ten Victoria Crosses awarded to the Royal Marines from the Crimean War to World War 2.
Lead Curator James Daly said: “This has been an amazing journey putting this museum together. It's a fantastic story. It's an amazingly broad and deep collection, and it's been such a journey with us working with the Royal Marines, putting together a museum that captures what they do now as a Corps, but also their extraordinarily rich history.
“What is it we want people to think and feel? Fundamentally, it’s an appreciation of the Corps, its history, who the Royal Marines are and what they do.
“It just so happens that with the technology that's available to us nowadays, we can do that in such a dynamic way. And, of course, the Corps are no strangers to technology. They are early adopters, so it feels fitting their museum should reflect that, too.”
The virtual reality zone takes players through four different commando missions, including an anti-piracy operation, urban/humanitarian work, trench warfare and a training environment. Users slide on headsets and wield a mock rifle.
There are also operations hubs where visitors can plan and execute a missions, with important decisions to make along the way.
There is also an area dedicated to the world class musicians of the Royal Marines Band Service, including an interactive military drum.
At the core of Boathouse 6 lays the historical displays, with artefacts and stories from D-Day, The Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan, Zeebrugge Raid and beyond.
In a quiet area off from the main reception area is the Remembrance Room, a place created with the Royal Marines Family to recognise ‘the silent weight of the Green Beret’.
Victoria Ingles, the Principal Curator at the Royal Navy Museums, said: “I love the people stories, and the space is full of so many individual stories.
“They're fascinating that you go and see the huge wall of medals, but each one of those, and there's over 200 there, has a story behind it, and they might look lovely and shiny and sparkly, but there's often a really tough story behind that.
“It's also nice to have the wider impact on the families as well. We were quite keen when we developed the museum, that we had spaces that can meet the expectations and needs of different people from our audiences.
“A visitor coming in could have very different experiences. Somebody may just want to run around, have a bit of fun, and get an understanding of what marines are like. Somebody else, who may have been through war, might want that time to just have some quiet and reflect and remember their comrades.”
The previous Royal Marines Museum in Eastney closed in 2017 with plans to move to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and create a new centre for Royal Marines heritage. In the past nine years, the Royal Navy Museums team have carefully safeguarded the historic Royal Marines collection.
Find out more: Royal Marines Experience - Portsmouth Historic Dockyard