Objects on loan in the UK

Musselburgh Museum, Musselburgh Town Hall

October 2011 – January 2012

As part of their ongoing programme of historical displays related to the surrounding area, Musselburgh Museum, situated in the Musselburgh Town Hall, has borrowed over 80 pieces of archaeological objects relating to the presence of Romans in east Lothian. Most of the finds were excavated at the key site of the Roman Fort at Inveresk. The finds include examples of iron daggers, amulets, gaming counters, pottery and beads.

Musselburgh Museum website

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery

13 June – 12 December 2011

Fifteen important Pictish finds have been loaned to Inverness Museum and Art Gallery for display alongside the museum's collection of Pictish stones. The loan includes a silver chain found at Torvean in 1808 during digging works for the Caledonian Canal on the outskirts of Inverness and is one of only ten silver chains to have been found in Scotland. It also includes the Croy horde, found in 1875, comprised of several pieces of jewellery and was believed to have been owned by a Pictish craftsperson or jeweller.

We are delighted to be able to work with Inverness Museum and Art Gallery to share these important national objects with a local audience.

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery website

Scottish Maritime Museum, Harbourside, Irvine

Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank, Dumbarton

Long term loan

A selection of objects relating to the industrial maritime heritage of Scotland is on loan to the Scottish Maritime Museum, which has sites at Irvine and Dumbarton. The items on long-term loan at Irvine relate specifically to shipbuilding, boiler making and dock operations, and include some important examples of machine tools which were once common in shipbuilding and engineering workshops, including a joggling press built by Hugh Smith & Co. in 1916, and a c.1900 Thomas Shanks plate edge planer.

The largest of the loan objects is the original Scotch boiler from PS Waverley, a rare survivor built in 1947 and removed from the vessel in 1981.

There are also a number of items held at the Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank in Dumbarton. These are slightly different from a normal loan in that they are part of the fittings of the building, so have never been removed but were taken under NMS ownership. The items were used in the creation of wax models which were tested in the Tank to predict how full-size hulls would react. The Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank was built in 1883, and was the world’s first commercial test tank.

Scottish Maritime Museum website

Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre and Exhibition

Long term loan

The battlefield visitor centre re-interprets the story and site of Culloden for a modern audience, using art, artefacts and technology to tell the stories and messages of the Battle of Culloden. Our loaned objects have a direct connection with, or are of the period and type used at Culloden and help to build a greater understanding of the events of April 16 1746 alongside first hand accounts, archaeological evidence and historical interpretations of the battle.

Culloden Visitor Centre website

Applecross Heritage Centre, Applecross

Long term loan

The Applecross Historical Society displays records and artefacts in a traditional refurbished building to provide a permanent record of the history of Applecross from the Early Settlers to the recent crofting and fishing community. The loan of a small flat ring brooch of bronze, from Applecross, Ross-shire documents the types of jewellery worn by some of the earliest inhabitants of the area.

Applecross Heritage website

Caithness Horizons, Thurso

Long term loan

Caithness Horizons tells the story of Thurso and the county of Caithness, exploring humanity's impact on the natural world.  Showing how people have used natural resources to provide food, shelter and energy over the generations, the centre examines the long term effects some of these activities have on our environment and what can be done to ensure long term sustainability. Our objects are used to demonstrate early habitation in the Viking period and the impact that these settlers and traders had on the area.

Caithness Horizons website

The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum, Dundee

Long term loan

We currently have 18 objects on loan to the newly refurbished McManus Galleries which have recently undergone an extensive refurbishment. The project has brought the 143 year-old facility into the 21st century and provides a greatly improved visitor experience in the heart of the City. We have loaned objects ranging from archaeology charting the history and development of Dundee from its earliest settlement to Japanese ceramics representing Dundee’s links with the world at large.

The McManus website

Caithness Broch Centre, Auckengill

Long term loan

National Museums Scotland has loaned 125 objects to the Caithness Broch Centre in Auckengill, Northern Scotland. The centre examines the 19th- and early 20th-century communities who first excavated the brochs, those who lived in the brochs over 2,000 years ago and the for the present day communities. Our objects represent finds from the early excavations of the broch site.

Caithness Broch Centre website

The Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Long term loan

Our loan to the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh comprises a range of twenty-eight pieces of Scottish silverware representing the craft of the silversmith in Scotland from the seventeenth century. As the oldest continuously existing business of any kind in the country, the Incorporation celebrated the 550th anniversary of the first ever hallmarking act in Scotland in 2008 and our strong silver collections represent the rich history of this craft.

Incorporation of Goldsmiths website

Grampian Transport Museum, Alford

September 2009 – September 2012

The Argyll motor car is currently on loan to Grampian Transport Museum. This touring car has a black canvas hood, wood wheels and leather seats. It was made by Argyll of Alexandria in 1910.

The Grampian Transport Museum is a living museum that probes the past, present and even the future. This historically important local vehicle will return for display in the National Museum of Scotland in late 2012.

Grampian Transport Museum website

Museum nan Eilean, Lewis

Long term loan

A selection of archaeological material from the Western Isles (Lewis, Harris) is on loan from the National Collections. This includes the Viking Age Lewis Castle Hoard, compromising a selection of brooches and silver ornaments, as well as prehistoric material, showing the long history of the Western Isles. A number of local and foreign coins are also included in this loan.

Museum nan Eilean website

Stromness Museum, Orkney

Exhibition: The Adventures of John Renton
May 2009 – October 2012

We have lent three objects from the Soloman Islands to this exhibition, which looks at some of the issues posed by the colourful career of the nineteenth century Stromness man, an explorer, who was cast ashore on a group of the Solomon Islands and lived among the indigenous people for several years.

Stromness Museum website

National Piping Centre, Glasgow

Long term loan

Over 250 objects relating to piping are currently on loan to the National Piping Centre in Glasgow. A huge range of items are on display, including  bagpipes and chanters, reamers and chisels (tools for making bagpipes), burnishers and scribers (used in music engraving by printers/publishers), printing plates, music books and souvenirs. Also included are bagpipes and related items from outside Scotland, including Bulgaria and France.

The National Piping Centre exists to promote and encourage the study of the music and history of the highland bagpipe and aspires to be the world centre of excellence. As such, the National Piping Centre aims to be regarded as the focal point for all who wish to access information on piping artefacts, archives and other resource material.

National Piping Centre website

Tarbat Discovery Centre, Portmahomack

Long term loan

A selection of archaeological objects from the National Collection is on display at the Tarbat Discovery Centre. Included in the displays are facsimiles of the Ardagh Hoard and the Tara Brooch. The Ardagh Chalice is believed to date from the 8th Century and is one of the finest examples of Celtic metalwork ever to be discovered.  The Tara Brooch is from the same period. Finds from the Tarbat Monastic site suggest that similar objects may have been in production here during the same period.

The Tarbat Discovery Centre is a Museum situated in an old church on the Tarbat peninsula, and is dedicated to displaying and preserving the heritage of the Tarbat peninsula. The site contains the only Pictish monastic settlement found in Scotland to date.

Tarbat Discovery Centre website

Kilmartin House Museum, Kilmartin

Long term loan

82 archaeological items are on loan, ranging from axes to combs and carved stones to ceramic vessels. These items are from excavations at various sites in the Argyll region, such as Kilmartin Glen, Dunadd and Dun an Fheurain. They range in date from the early Bronze Age, through the Viking times and the Iron Age. This area of Argyll has more than 350 ancient monuments, a number of which are prehistoric.

Kilmartin House Museum is an award winning world-class centre for archaeology and landscape interpretation established to protect, investigate and interpret this internationally important archaeological landscape and the artefacts that have been found here.

Kilmartin House Museum website

Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway Museum, Bo'ness

Long term loan

National Museums Scotland has collaborated with the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, who run this site, over many years. In addition to a colliery locomotive and a rail crane, our stunning express passenger train locomotive ‘Morayshire’ regularly hauls trains on their preserved line from Bo’ness to Manuel Junction. Built for the LNER in 1928, No 246 ‘Morayshire’ was designed by Edinburgh-born Sir Nigel Gresley.

Scottish Railway Preservation Society website

Trimontium Heritage Centre, Melrose

Short term & long term

The Trimontium Heritage Centre in Melrose tells the story of the Roman frontier post of Newstead, and its people. Part of the National Museums Scotland's internationally important Roman collection is on loan to this Museum.

2005-2011 is the centenary of James Curle's first excavation at Newstead and the Trimontium Trust are marking this in a number of ways. An annual loan of iconic items from the National Collection forms the centre piece for their exhibition. These items are some of the artistic treasures of the Newstead assemblage. There are also a number of items on long term loan from the National Collection, showing the range and diversity of finds recovered from this site.

National Museums Scotland has a long standing relationship with the Trimontium Museum, the only one in Scotland devoted to the study and display of a single Roman site. The National Museums Scotland Archaeology Department continues to work with the Trust on the development of this site.

Trimontium Heritage Centre website