National Museums Collection Centre
The National Museums Collection Centre in Granton, Edinburgh is a specialist facility where we care for and research our collections. From whale skeletons and insects to motorbikes and high fashion, the Collection Centre holds millions of objects and specimens.
The Collection Centre is a hub for cutting-edge research and innovation, training and teaching, as well as the preparation of collections for exhibition, loan, and tour. The work we carry out and facilitate here includes research, scientific analysis, conservation, and digitisation.
While not open to the public on a daily basis, we do offer regular, guided tours of the Collection Centre. If you want to visit the Collection Centre for research, you are encouraged to contact the relevant curatorial department.
What happens at the Collections Centre?
Collections care and conservation
From stabilising ancient papyrus and cleaning fragile textiles to conserving large engines with moving parts, our collections care and conservation teams care for a vast range of collections. In addition, the Natural Sciences team prepares specimens for display and research, with their work ranging from taxidermy to fossil preparation.
Digitisation
Digitising our collections helps us to find out more about them, create detailed visual records and share them online. The Collection Centre is the focal point for our programme of digitisation producing hundreds of thousands of records and images of our collections which can be viewed on our collections search.
Loans and research
We lend collections to museums and institutions in the UK and internationally and receive loans for display in our own museums. Find out more about how to borrow from our collection.
We also facilitate research loans from our Natural Sciences collection to enable specimens to be studied closely. Please contact our Natural Sciences team to learn more.
In addition to carrying out our own research, each year we welcome hundreds of visiting researchers from across the world. Our specialist labs and study areas facilitate the in-depth exploration of our collections. If you have a research enquiry, please contact the relevant curatorial department.
Collection Centre facilities
The Collection Centre has facilities to access, research, digitise and conserve collections. This includes specialist conservation laboratories, photography studios, collection research spaces, as well as heritage science laboratories with equipment ranging from PDA-UPLC, XRF, SEM-EDX to XRD and FTIR.
Future plans
The City of Edinburgh Council has outlined ambitious plans to regenerate the Granton Waterfront area. National Museums Scotland is one of the partners on this project, which is committed to making Granton Waterfront one of Edinburgh’s best places to live, work, learn and visit.
We share some facilities at the Collection Centre with National Galleries of Scotland, and we are working with them to align our future plans to develop collection facilities making them more accessible to visitors.
What's on at National Museums Collection Centre
- Event
Curator Collection Centre Tour: Scottish Archaeology
Tue 23 Sep, 11:00 – 13:00 and 14:00 – 16:00Go behind the scenes of our collection of over 1 million archaeological artefacts. - Event
Curator Collection Centre Tour: Minerals, Meteorites and Rocks
Thu 18 Sep, 11:00 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 16:00Get behind the scenes of our collection spanning 70,000 geological specimens. - Event
Collection Centre Tours
Wed 2 Jul 2025 – Wed 25 Feb 2026, 10:30 - 11:45 or 13:00 - 14:15Go behind the scenes on a tour of our state-of-the-art collections and research centre in Granton, Edinburgh.
Address
242 West Granton Road
Granton
Edinburgh EH5 1JA
Tel: 0131 247 4470
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Search our collection
Our online database contains over 820,000 objects and specimens from our collections.
Collections policies
We aim to develop, manage, conserve and interpret the national collections, to ensure their preservation and benefit to the public.
Loans
National Museums Scotland welcomes loan requests, and is committed to providing the best possible physical and intellectual access to all our collections and expertise throughout Scotland and the UK, and around the world.