Museum sights in Edinburgh
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National Museum of Scotland
Broad, elegant Chambers St is dominated by the long facade of the National Museum of Scotland. Its extensive collections are spread between two buildings, one modern, one Victorian.
The golden stone and striking modern architecture of the museum building, opened in 1998, is one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks. The five floors of the museum trace the history of Scotland from geological beginnings to the 1990s, with many imaginative and stimulating exhibits – audio guides are available in several languages. Highlights include the Monymusk Reliquary, a tiny silver casket dating from AD 750, which is said to have been carried into battle with Robert the Bruce at Bann…
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Surgeons’ Hall Museums
The History of Surgery Museum is a fascinating look at surgery in Scotland from the 15th century – when barbers supplemented their income with blood-letting, amputations and other surgical procedures – to the present day. The highlight is the exhibit on Burke and Hare, which includes Burke’s death mask and a pocket book bound in his skin. Covering dentistry, with its wince-inducing collections of extraction tools, is the adjacent Dental Collection. The Pathology Museum houses a gruesome but compelling 19th-century collection of diseased organs and massive tumours pickled in formaldehyde.
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National War Museum of Scotland
At the western end of the castle, to the left of the castle restaurant, a road leads down to the National War Museum of Scotland, which brings Scotland’s military history vividly to life. The exhibits have been personalised by telling the stories of the original owners of the objects on display, making it easier to empathise with the experiences of war than any dry display of dusty weaponry ever could.
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Museum of Edinburgh
Across the street from the People’s Story is Huntly House. Built in 1570, it now houses a museum covering Edinburgh from its prehistory to the present. Exhibits of national importance include an original copy of the National Covenant of 1638, but the big crowd-pleaser is the dog collar and feeding bowl that once belonged to Greyfriars Bobby, the city’s most famous canine citizen.
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Museum of Childhood
Halfway down the Royal Mile is ‘the noisiest museum in the world’. Often filled with the chatter of excited children, it covers serious issues related to childhood – health, education, upbringing and so on – but also has an enormous collection of toys, dolls, games and books, recordings of school lessons from the 1930s, and film of kids playing street games in 1950s Edinburgh.
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Trinity House
This neoclassical building dating from 1816 was the headquarters of the Incorporation of Masters and Mariners (founded in 1380), the nautical equivalent of a tradesmen’s guild, and is a treasure house of old ship models, navigation instruments and nautical memorabilia relating to Leith’s maritime history. Tours also available Tuesday to Friday by booking ahead.
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Canongate Tolbooth
Built in 1591, the picturesque Tolbooth served successively as a collection point for tolls (taxes), a council house, a courtroom and a jail. It now houses a fascinating museum, the People’s Story, recording the life, work and pastimes of ordinary Edinburgh folk from the 18th century to the present day.
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Outlook Tower & Camera Obscura
An entertaining commentary accompanies this Heath Robinson–ish 19th-century device that uses lenses and mirrors to throw a live image of the city onto a large horizontal screen. Stairs lead up through various displays on optics to the Outlook Tower, which offers great views over the city.
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People’s Story
With picturesque turrets and a projecting clock, Canongate Tolbooth is an interesting example of 16th-century architecture. It now houses a fascinating museum called the People’s Story, which covers the life, work and pastimes of ordinary Edinburgh folk from the 18th century to today.
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Museum on the Mound
Housed in the Bank of Scotland’s splendid Georgian HQ, this museum is a treasure trove of gold coins, bullion chests, safes, banknotes, forgeries, cartoons and lots of fascinating old documents and photographs charting the history of Scotland’s oldest bank.
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Loch Ness Discovery Centre
Loch Ness Discovery Centre explores the legend of the Loch Ness Monster by means of various photographic displays and a 3-D movie. It has a gift shop crammed with cheekily priced cuddly toys in the form of Nessie…
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Queensferry Museum
Queensferry Museum contains interesting information on the building of the Forth bridges, and fascinating photographs of the railway bridge in various stages of construction.
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Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments
Musicians will enjoy this collection, which contains more than 1000 instruments ranging from a 400-year-old lute to a 1959 synthesiser.
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