Objects from the National Museums Scotland collection can be found at museums throughout the UK and internationally.

Recent international loans include loans to Venice, Madrid and Paris, and there are over 2000 objects on long term loan across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh

January 2026 - January 2029

For updated displays in the Prisoner of War exhibition at Edinburgh Castle, National Museums Scotland lent three items made by Prisoners of War during the Napoleonic Wars. 

Brown knitted bonnet and small wooden personal belongings against a black background.

Kinloch Historical Society

The Arnish Moor Man

April 2025 – March 2026

National Museums Scotland lent a knitted bonnet and personal belongings recovered from a mysterious 250-year old burial on Arnish Moor on the Isle of Lewis. These items provide a rare insight into life in the Outer Hebrides in the early 1700s.

A long, rectangular panel made of hundreds of intricately decorated, painted tiles. This image gives the overall impression of the illustration, which from a distance is of a garden scene with trees all around, and a fountain as the centrepiece. The colours painted are yellow, blue, green and brown.

V&A Dundee, Dundee

Garden Futures: Designing with Nature

17 May 2025 – 25 January 2025

National Museums Scotland lent a panel of ceramic wall tiles from Iran, depicting a physical garden space with trees, pomegranates and gourds for this exhibition on garden design.

A helmet with the words 'vol cabulary' on a band above the rim

Abbotsford House, Scottish Borders

25 April 2024 – 21 April 2027

For new displays at the Abbotsford House Visitor Centre, National Museums Scotland have lent 5 items relating to Sir Walter Scott including a calf’s heart pierced with pins as a charm to ward off witches and a helmet worn by Sir Walter Scott for the Midlothian Volunteer Yeomanry.

A segment of embroidered material featuring Icelandic writing

National Museum of Iceland, Reyjavik

The Lögrétta Valances

17 June 2024 to 22 June 2025

For the 80th anniversary of the Republic of Iceland, National Museums Scotland have lent an embroidered linen canvas hanging which allegedly hung in the Icelandic Court of Legislature at Pingvellir in the late 18th century.