Museum sights in Scotland
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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 Ban…
reviewed
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British Golf Museum
The British Golf Museum has an extraordinarily comprehensive overview of the history and development of the game and the role of St Andrews in it. Favourite fact: bad players were formerly known as ‘foozlers’. Interactive panels allow you to relive former British Opens (watch Paul Azinger snapping his putter in frustration), and there’s a large collection of memorabilia from Open winners both male and female.
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Marischal College & Museum
Across Broad St from Provost Skene's House is Marischal College, founded in 1593 by the 5th Earl Marischal, and merged with King's College (founded 1495) in 1860 to create the modern University of Aberdeen. The huge and impressive facade in Perpendicular Gothic style – unusual in having such elaborate masonry hewn from notoriously hard-to-work granite – dates from 1906 and is the world's second-largest granite structure (after L'Escorial near Madrid). Recently the building was being converted into Aberdeen City Council's new headquarters.
Founded in 1786, the Marischal Museum houses a fascinating collection of material donated by graduates and friends of the university…
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Glasgow Science Centre
Scotland's flagship millennium project, the superb, ultramodern Glasgow Science Centre will keep the kids entertained for hours (that's middle-aged kids, too!). It brings science and technology alive through hundreds of interactive exhibits on four floors. Look out for the illusions (like rearranging your features through a 3-D head-scan) and the cloud chamber, showing tracks of natural radiation. It consists of an egg-shaped titanium-covered IMAX theatre (phone for current screenings) and an interactive Science Mall with floor-to-ceiling windows – a bounty of discovery for young, inquisitive minds. There's also a rotating observation tower, 127m high. And check out the…
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Scottish Football Museum
Football fans will just love the Scottish Football Museum, which features exhibits on the history of the game in Scotland and the influence of Scots on the world game. Football inspires an incredible passion in Scotland and the museum is crammed full of impressive memorabilia, including a cap and match ticket from the very first international football game (which took place in 1872 between Scotland and England, and ended with a score of 0-0). The museum's engrossing exhibits give insight into the players, the fans, the media and the way the game has changed over the last 140 years. You can also take a tour of the stadium (adult/child £6/3; combined ticket with museum £9/4…
reviewed
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Clydebuilt
If immersing yourself in a city's heritage floats your boat, a visit to Clydebuilt will get you paddlin'. It's a superb collection of model ships, industrial displays and narrative, vividly painting the history of the Clyde, the fate of which has been inextricably linked with Glasgow and its people. It's a cleverly designed museum, with twists and turns that offer something new around every corner. Outside you can board Kyles, a typical 1872 vessel. Moored on the empty shores of the Clyde, with only the crying gulls above breaking the silence, it's a perfect place to contemplate the defunct shipyards that formed the cornerstone of Glasgow's industrial heritage.
Clydebuilt …
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Riverside Museum
The latest development along the Clyde is the building of this visually impressive new museum, designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, at Glasgow Harbour west of the centre. Opened in June, it houses a varied collection, including three recreated Glasgow streets from various points in history, a display of maritime heritage and much of what was formerly in the Museum of Transport: a display of cars made in Scotland, plus assorted railway locos, trams, bikes (including the world's first pedal-powered bicycle from 1847) and model ships. The magnificent Tall Ship Glenlee (likely admission charge £5.95 with one child free per adult), a beautiful three-master launched in 1896,…
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HM Frigate Unicorn
One of Dundee’s floating tourist attractions retains the authentic atmosphere of a salty old sailing ship. Built in 1824, the 46-gun Unicorn is the oldest British-built ship still afloat – she was mothballed soon after launching and never saw action. By the mid-19th century sailing ships were outclassed by steam and the Unicorn served as a gunpowder store, then later as a training vessel. When it was proposed to break up the ship for scrap in the 1960s, a preservation society was formed. Wandering around the four decks gives you an excellent impression of what it must have been like for the crew forced to live in such cramped conditions. The Unicorn is berthed in Vict…
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Museum of Transport
Across Argyle St from the Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery is the surprisingly interesting and very comprehensive, but badly signposted, Museum of Transport. Not convinced? It’s actually a very fine museum with exhibits including a reproduction of a 1938 Glasgow street scene, a display of cars made in Scotland, plus assorted railway locos, trams, bikes (including the world’s first pedal-powered bicycle from 1847) and model ships. There’s a room dedicated to the Clyde shipyards. It’s like peeping through a porthole at the not-too-distant past. Note that the museum is due to be incorporated into a new Riverside Museum down at Glasgow Harbour, sometime in 2008. By train it’s a…
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Hunterian Museum
Housed in the glorious sandstone main building of the university, which is in itself reason enough to pay a visit, this quirky museum contains the collection of renowned one-time student of the university, William Hunter (1718–83). Hunter was primarily an anatomist and physician but, as one of those gloriously well-rounded Enlightenment figures, he interested himself in everything the world had to offer. Pickled organs in glass jars take their place alongside geological phenomena, potsherds gleaned from ancient brochs, dinosaur skeletons and a creepy case of deformed animals. The main halls of the exhibition, with their high vaulted roofs, are magnificent in themselves. …
reviewed
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St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life & Art
A startling achievement, this museum, set in a reconstruction of the bishop's palace that once stood here in the cathedral forecourt, is an audacious attempt to capture the world's major religions in an artistic nutshell, while presenting the similarities and differences in how they approach common themes such as birth, marriage and death. The result is commendable. The attraction is twofold: firstly, impressive art that blurs the lines between religion and culture; and secondly, the opportunity to delve into different faiths, an experience that can be as deep or shallow as you wish. There are three galleries, representing religion as art, religious life and, on the top f…
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Shetland Museum
This modern museum is an impressive recollection of 5000 years’ worth of culture, people and their interaction with this ancient landscape. Comprehensive but never dull, the display covers everything from the archipelago’s geology to its fishing industry, via a great section on local mythology – find out about the scary nyuggles (ghostly horses), or use the patented machine for detecting trows (fairies).
The Pictish carvings and replica jewellery are among the finest pieces here; the museum also includes a working lighthouse mechanism, small art gallery, and – what great smells! – a boatbuilding workshop, where you can watch carpenters at work restoring and re-crea…
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Discovery Point
The three masts of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's famous polar expedition vessel the RRS Discovery dominate the riverside to the south of the city centre. The ship was built in Dundee in 1900, with a wooden hull at least half a metre thick to survive the pack ice, and sailed for the Antarctic in 1901 where it spent two winters trapped in the ice. From 1931 on it was laid up in London where its condition steadily deteriorated, until it was rescued by the efforts of Peter Scott (son of Robert) and the Maritime Trust, and restored to its 1925 condition. In 1986 the ship was given a berth in its home port of Dundee, where it became a symbol of the city's regeneration.
Exhibitio…
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Aberdeen Maritime Museum
Overlooking the nautical bustle of the harbour is the Maritime Museum. Centred on a three-storey replica of a North Sea oil production platform, its exhibits explain all you ever wanted to know about the petroleum industry. Other galleries, some situated in Provost Ross's House, the oldest building in the city and part of museum, cover the shipbuilding, whaling and fishing industries. Sleek and speedy Aberdeen clippers were a 19th-century shipyard speciality, used by British merchants for the importation of tea, wool and exotic goods (opium, for instance) to Britain, and, on the return journey, the transportation of emigrants to Australia.
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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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Black Watch Museum
Housed in a mansion on the edge of North Inch, this museum honours what was once Scotland’s foremost regiment. Formed in 1725 to combat rural banditry, the Black Watch fought in numerous campaigns, re-created here with paintings, memorabilia and anecdotes. Little attempt at perspective is evident: there’s justifiable pride in the regiment’s role in the gruelling trench warfare of WWI, where it suffered nearly 30,000 casualties, but no sheepishness about less glorious colonial engagements, such as against the ‘Fuzzy Wuzzies’ of Sudan. In 2006 the Black Watch was subsumed into the new Royal Regiment of Scotland
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St Mungo’s Museum
A startling achievement, St Mungo’s Museum is an audacious attempt to capture the world’s major religions in an artistic nutshell. The result is commendable. The attraction is twofold: firstly, impressive art that blurs the lines between religion and culture; and secondly, the opportunity to delve into different faiths, an experience that can be as deep or shallow as you wish. There are three galleries, representing religion as art, religious life and, on the top floor, religion in Scotland. Britain’s only Zen garden is outside.
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McManus Galleries
Housed in a solid Victorian Gothic building designed by Gilbert Scott in 1867, the recently restored McManus Galleries is a city museum on a human scale – you can see everything there is to see, without feeling rushed or overwhelmed. The exhibits cover the history of the city from the Iron Age to the present day, including relics of the Tay Bridge Disaster and the Dundee whaling industry. Computer geeks will enjoy the Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum (pioneering personal computers with a whole 16K of memory!) which were made in Dundee in the early 1980s.
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Museum of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
In the King’s Old Building is the Museum of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, which traces the history of this famous regiment from 1794 to the present day. It has a great collection of ornately decorated dirks (daggers). In another part of the castle, the Great Kitchens are especially interesting, bringing to life the bustle and scale of the enterprise of cooking for the King. Near the entrance, the Castle Exhibition gives good background information on the Stuart kings and updates on current archaeological investigations
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Inveraray Maritime Museum
The Arctic Penguin, a three-masted schooner built in 1911 and one of the world’s last surviving iron sailing ships, is permanently moored in Inveraray harbour and houses the Inveraray Maritime Museum. It has interesting photos and models of the old Clyde steamers and puffers, and a display about Para Handy, the fictional sea captain created by local novelist Neil Munro (and celebrated in two successful TV series in the 1960s and 1990s). Kids will love exploring below the decks – there’s a special play area in the bowels of the ship.
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Aros Experience
On the southern edge of Portree, the Aros Experience is a combined visitor centre, book and gift shop, restaurant, theatre and cinema. The visitor centre (adult/child £3/2) offers a look at some fascinating, live CCTV images from local sea eagle and heron nests, and a viewing of a strangely commentary-free wide-screen video of Skye’s impressive scenery (it’s worth waiting for the aerial shots of the Cuillin). The centre is a useful rainy-day retreat, with an indoor, soft play area for children.
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People's Palace
Set in the city's oldest park, Glasgow Green, is the solid orange stone People's Palace. It is an impressive museum of social history, telling the story of the city from 1750 to the present. It has creative, inventive displays, which are great for families – the kids will love the re-creation of a WWII air raid. The palace was built in the late 19th century as a cultural centre for Glasgow's East End. The attached greenhouse, the Winter Gardens, has tropical plants and makes a nice spot for a coffee.
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Verdant Works
One of the finest industrial museums in Europe, the Verdant Works explores the history of Dundee’s jute industry. Housed in a restored jute mill, complete with original machinery still in working condition, the museum’s interactive exhibits and computer displays follow the raw material from its origins in India through to the manufacture of a wide range of finished products, from sacking to rope to wagon covers for the pioneers of the American West. The mill is 250m west of the city centre.
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Verdant Works
One of the finest industrial museums in Europe, the Verdant Works explores the history of Dundee's jute industry. Housed in a restored jute mill, complete with original machinery still in working condition, the museum's interactive exhibits and computer displays follow the raw material from its origins in India through to the manufacture of a wide range of finished products, from sacking to rope to wagon covers for the pioneers of the American West. The mill is 250m west of the city centre.
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Caithness Horizons
This museum brings much of the history and lore of Caithness to life through its excellent displays. A couple of fine Pictish cross-slabs greet the visitor downstairs; the main exhibition is a wide-ranging look at local history using plenty of audiovisuals – check out the wistful account of the now-abandoned island of Stroma for an emotional slice of social history.
There’s also a gallery space, an exhibition on the Dounreay nuclear reactor and a cafe.
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