25 November 2017

A Long Weekend in Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland

One of the awesome things in Edinburgh is the National Museum of Scotland: it's a massive museum, and it is free! In fact, we just walked in and out of it several times. It is actually the result of a merger between the Royal Museum and the Museum of Scotland. The Royal Museum is the older one, and contains collections about science and technology, natural history, and world cultures. The Museum of Scotland on the other hand contains collections focusing on Scottish antiquity and history. Needless to say, we wanted to focus on Scottish exhibits, so we concentrated on just one half of the museum.

The pictures above show you the facade of the modern wing of the museum, as well as the interior of the older building. There's plenty to see in this museum, and we definitely didn't finish the whole building at all.

I knew almost nothing about Scottish antiquity, and so it was interesting for me to learn about the various ethnic groups that inhabited this part of the world. I saw stone carvings and stelae and other historical items that were made during those times. Some of these artifacts are shown in my pictures above.

I also found it quite curious to see how Scotland parallels the history of other countries: we saw Scottish versions of medieval art, of colonial architecture, and of various other styles that I commonly see in continental Europe.

Perhaps the most interesting for me was the industrial section, where there were several large machines on display. It showed how Scotland progressed through with industrial development, and the massive engines and machines that were exhibited was a testament to that.

If one were a kid, then probably he would enjoy more the science and technology section: there are plenty of hands-on exhibits allowing you to manipulate it and learn in the process. We didn't spend much time here, but nevertheless we saw that people were enjoying it.

So yeah, check this museum out. It's a very educational building that is worth some of your time.


  1. I have a lot of respect for cities and countries that offer no entrance fee museum. It shows how much they care about culture and education!

    1. Zhu,

      Yep! It shows that the society is not only well-off enough to care about these things but also they have cultural and educational issues as priorities!