Meet a very special Neolithic dog.

Throughout 2022, we want to work with local museums across Scotland to integrate more maths into their museum programming and provide support to take part in Maths Week Scotland.

Our strategic plan sets out National Museums Scotland’s key areas of focus for the next five years.

Download our family trail to help you plan a structured visit to the National Museum of Scotland.

Today in Scotland, university medical and anatomy teaching relies on people choosing to donate their bodies. There are five universities in Scotland which accept body donations – Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews.

Meet the 12 metre-long, spectacular life-sized skeleton cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the star attractions at the National Museum of Scotland.

The Director and Executive Team make up the top management tier of National Museums Scotland. The management team is fully responsible for day-to-day operations and for the implementation of strategy.

The Board of Trustees is National Museums Scotland’s governing body. It is responsible for setting the organisation’s strategic direction and for monitoring progress to achieve this.

In 1975, a Bronze Age burial was found in Inverness-shire. Interpreted as an archer, this man and his objects reveal fascinating stories about connections across Britain and Ireland.

2020 marked the 700th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, one of Scotland's most important historical artefacts. Explore the document in detail and listen to our podcast.

Preparing for the Art of Glass exhibition at National Museum of Scotland.

This exhibition explored the life and career of Bernat Klein, one of the 20th century’s leading forces in modernist design, in this free exhibition marking the centenary of his birth.

Explore the National Museum of Scotland with your class using our themed trails.

Kirke Kook explores the meaning behind some of the photographs in the National Museums Scotland collection.

National Museums Scotland’s ancient Egyptian coffin collection remains largely unknown and has many exceptional items.

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland showcasing artworks created in response to the climate crisis in Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The Scottish Life Archive is open to everyone. It aims to collect, record and preserve documentary and illustrative evidence of Scotland's material culture and social history.

The Scottish Sports Hall of Fame celebrates Scotland's sporting heroes and their achievements.

We work across Scotland to share the national collections, engage with local communities, and provide support for our sector.

In 2018, the internationally renowned metalsmith Simone ten Hompel was commissioned by National Museums Scotland and The Glenmorangie Company to create a new artwork inspired by our curatorial research and the Museum’s collection of metal artefacts from early medieval Scotland.

This dashing tartan frock coat may have been worn by Bonnie Prince Charlie during his ill-fated time in Scotland.

These four unique instruments were specially created for Performance and Lives gallery at the National Museum of Scotland by internationally renowned composer and artist Victor Gama.

Charms were once widely used in Scotland. Often, unusual materials and shapes, or in the case of written charms, quasi-religious wording, gave them their special nature.

The Thin Red Line is one of the best known of all Scottish historical paintings and is the classic representation of Highland military heroism as an icon of Scotland.

The Lewis chess pieces live in the National Museum of Scotland. Colour them in or cut out and make your own chess piece here.

Join us for a more relaxed morning, for those who might appreciate a calmer visit to the museum.

The destruction of Hamilton Palace, the grandest stately home in Britain, was one of the greatest losses to national heritage ever to happen in this country. This is the story of how Scotland’s biggest treasure trove was won and lost.

The National Museum of Scotland in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town offers the most stunning setting for memorable events.

Amelia Robertson Hill was one of the few female sculptors in 19th-century Edinburgh. Her work can be found in many prominent locations in Scotland.

Read our guiding policies and explore annual reviews and reports.

Discover the story of the people who designed, built and operated Scotland's lighthouses through the objects which brought their role to life.

In August 1839, Lord Eglinton held a mock-medieval tournament at his estate in North Ayrshire, Scotland. The event was hugely popular, and around 100,000 people attended. Step onto the battlefield and discover some of the objects associated with this flamboyant festival here.

This hunting rifle was gifted by Queen Victoria to her loyal servant, John Brown.

Can you complete our Selfie Safari challenge? Find all the animals and take a family portrait with each one!

This Scottish manufactured motor car was once the cheapest new car on the British market.

These medieval chess pieces from the Scottish island of Lewis are among our most popular collections. They give us fascinating insights into the international connections of western Scotland and the growing popularity of chess in medieval Europe.

With the introduction of rationing, the threat of air raids, and the loss of so many workers through conscription, daily life looked and felt very different for people at home in Scotland during the Second World War.

In 1971, over 300 beautiful scent bottles were donated to National Museums Scotland. The scent bottles were collected by Ida Pappenheim. Discover the story behind this charming collection.

The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, jet-powered advanced trainer aircraft. A stunning pair of Hawk wings with the iconic RAF Red Arrows livery are on display in the new Explore gallery at the National Museum of Scotland.

There are over 20,000 wood engraving blocks in the W. & R. Chambers Collection at National Museums Scotland. Over 7,000 of these blocks were created to print the illustrations in Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, which was first published in 1859.

Our specimens represent Scotland’s geological history and global mineralogical diversity.

Learn more ahead of your visit to the National Museum of Scotland.

A Stirling engine is powered by hot air rather than steam. Now 200 years old, its revolutionary technology has become even more relevant today.

Explore the largest interactive exhibition of the history and the culture of video games. 29 Jun - 3 Nov 2024. Tickets on sale now.

Sue Jane Taylor has spent over thirty years recording the lives of workers in the North Sea oil and gas industry. These pages are a selection of Sue Jane Taylor's work that were on display in the Age of Oil exhibition (21 Jul - 5 Nov 2017), at the National Museum of Scotland.

These rare Jacobite and British military colours were carried into battle at Culloden by opposing sides.