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Visitor Information:  The Museum of Scotland Building from the South West: Now Part of the National Museum of Scotland |
Edinburgh's Chambers Street used to be home to two magnificent museums, but now there is only one. This is actually very good news. In 2006 what used to be the Museum of Scotland and the neighbouring Royal Museum came together to form the National Museum of Scotland, thus putting to an end a degree of confusion on the part of visitors that had persisted about the identities of these museums ever since the magnificent new Museum of Scotland building was completed in 1998.
Intending visitors should note that in April 2008 the "Royal Museum" end of the joint museum closed as part of a £46m transformation of the building. It will reopen in 2011 with sapce for nearly twice the number of exhibits previously on show, but in the meantime, access will be restricted to the modern "Museum of Scotland" building. Be aware that the remainder of this page reflects the joint museums before the closure.
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With its spectacular profile and frontage (see header image), the Museum of Scotland building has added considerably to the attraction and interest of this part of Edinburgh. Not that the Royal Museum building, which has stood in Chambers Street since 1861, is exactly short of magnificence itself, though here the impact is more dramatic internally than externally.
The galleries of the Museum of Scotland building tell you the story of Scotland from the earliest times, recounting the history of a nation and its people through a complex series of interlinked levels that take you from prehistory in the basement up to modern Scotland at the top of the building. Displays are generally fairly intimate, with even those housing the largest exhibits giving little away about the wider structure of the building.
The older Royal Museum building is home to international collections in the areas of geology, archaeology, natural history, science, technology and art. Though linked to the Museum of Scotland building at a number of levels, the feel of the Royal Museum building could scarcely be more different. Here the imposing Victorian frontage on Chambers Street conceals vast three storey glass-roofed areas surrounded by galleries at the two upper levels.
 Scotland: Workshop of the World |
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 The Connect Gallery from Above |
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 The Millennium Clock |
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 9th Century Carved Stone |
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 The Glass Roof Over the Main Hall |
And it is with the Royal Museum that the story of the National Museum for Scotland begins. In 1854, Parliament authorised funds for a new museum in Edinburgh and the foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert in 1861. Building took place in a series of stages, the last of which was finished in 1888. It was built to provide a suitable home for the various collections then held by the University of Edinburgh. This original connection is reflected in a bridge that physically connects the Royal Museum building to Edinburgh University's Old College. However the bridge has been blocked-off since the 1870s, when refreshments stored for an official reception in the museum were diverted by students via the bridge for their own use.
The Royal Museum building was designed by Captain Francis Fowke of the Royal Engineers, who also designed the Royal Albert Hall. The building stands on the south, usually shadowed side, of Chambers Street and the exterior was given a Venetian Renaissance design. The interior comes as a real surprise, being flooded with light from remarkable glazed roofs 78ft above the floor level. It is no surprise to find that the interior design, and the roof in particular, was heavily influenced by London's Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition ten years earlier in 1851.
In the 1990s the Museum of Scotland building was added immediately to the west of the Royal Museum building, with architects Benson & Forsyth being appointed in 1991 and the building finished in 1998. The design is geometric and modernist, but with a number of shapes and forms - especially the circular tower at its corner - that reflect traditional Scottish castle design. The outer surface is finished in sandstone from Moray, and the building was nominated for the Stirling prize for architecture in 1999.
When completed, the Museum of Scotland became home to collections previously housed in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, together with Scottish items previously on display in the Royal Museum.
No two people will explore the vast range of exhibitions on offer at the National Museum of Scotland in the same way, and interest is maintained both by the range of artifacts on view and the very different environments in which they are displayed. For us some of the most fascinating objects on view are also some of the smallest. Here you can see, for example, some of the Lewis Chessmen, made in Trondheim in the late 1100s, and found some time before 1831 in a sand dune at Uig on the Isle of Lewis.
Elsewhere are the rather spooky Arthur's Seat Coffins, tiny coffins containing wooden figures unearthed on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh in 1837. Their meaning will probably never be known, but they achieved a lasting fame through featuring in the plot of one of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels. Even better known, and certainly easier to find, are two firm favourites found in the Royal Museum building. These are Dolly the Sheep, the world's first cloned sheep; and the Millennium Clock, whose incredibly elaborate chimes attract a crowd each time they are activated.
You could quite literally spend days absorbed in all that the National Museum of Scotland has to offer. And you can feed more than just the intellect while visiting. The west end of the main hall is home to the Café Delos. under the high glass roof, and the nearby ponds of ornamental fish to watch, diners can enjoy the informal atmosphere while the table service delivers a contemporary menu featuring many Scottish suppliers. Even less formal is Soupson, at the back of the Royal Museum building. This self service café provides a large selection of home-made soups, sandwiches and cakes. At the other end of the scale is the Tower Restaurant, on Level 5 of the Museum of Scotland building. Open every day for lunch and dinner, and offering spectacular views of Edinburgh Castle, the excellent food, wine and service have ensured that the Tower has become one of the places to dine in Edinburgh.
But you don't have to dine to be able to enjoy remarkable views of Edinburgh Castle - or the rest of the city. Level 7 of the Museum of Scotland Building is a roof terrace. The plants that surround it tell the story of the Scottish landscape, but your attention is almost certain to be drawn to the unique views of Edinburgh that the terrace offers.
 Interior of the Main Hall of the Royal Museum Building |
