National Museums Scotland

List of national museums

• The National Museum of Scotland, comprising two linked museums on Chambers Street, in the Old Town of Edinburgh:
  • The Museum of Scotland - concerned with the history and people of Scotland
  • The Royal Museum - a general museum encompassing global geology, archaeology, natural history, science, technology and art
• The National Museum of Flight, at East Fortune, East Lothian
• The National Museum of Rural Life, at Wester Kittochside farm, in South Lanarkshire (previously the Museum of Scottish Country Life, previously the Scottish Agricultural Museum)
• The National War Museum, at Edinburgh Castle

Other collections

The main storage building at the National Museums Collection Centre, at Granton in Edinburgh, opened in 1996. It is open to the public for guided tours. A new storage building has been constructed, which houses the textile and costume collections, including the Jean Muir Collection of 20th century costume and accessories.

The National Museum of Costume was located at Shambellie House, in New Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. In January 2013, National Museums Scotland announced that the National Museum of Costume was to close and the site would not reopen for 2013.

Trustees

National Museums Scotland is Scotland's national museum service, governed by a board of trustees. It is a non-departmental public body, funded by the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate of the Scottish Government.

Notable items in the national collections

The official website lists the following exhibits as being the highlights of its collections:

• Assyrian relief of King Ashurnasirpal II and a court official, from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal at Nimrud, excavated by Austen Henry Layard in the 1840s; the medical pioneer James Young Simpson gave the panel to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, who passed it into the national collection
• Boulton & Watt engine
• Bute mazer (also referred to as the Bannatyne mazer)
• Calcite crystal, found in 1927 at the New Glencrieff mine at Wanlockhead on the Leadhills ore field, "an excellent example of a complex doubly terminated scalenohedral crystal" (see Dogtooth spar)
• Concorde G-BOAA (Alpha Alpha)
• Dolly the sheep
• Galloway Hoard
• Hunterston Brooch
• Lewis chessmen
• One of the three skins left of the Mauritius blue pigeon
• Monymusk reliquary
• Prince Charlie's Targe and backsword
• Queen Mary harp
• Qurneh burial collection, discovered by Flinders Petrie on 30 December 1908, the only complete ancient royal Egyptian burial collection held outside Egypt
• Seringapatam sword, presented to David Baird by his field officers after the Battle of Seringapatam, in May 1799
• Silver travelling canteen of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
• Talnotrie Hoard
• Tea Service of the Emperor Napoleon

References

References

1. (4 February 2013). "National Museum of Costume to close". National Museums Scotland.
2. "Our collections - Highlights". National Museums Scotland.
3. (2024-07-17). "Gifts for a Prince: Bonnie Prince Charlie's targe and backsword".