Edinburgh has a premier collection of free museums in Europe: the National Museum of Scotland (Scottish history, Dolly the Sheep, Art Nouveau galleries), the Scottish National Gallery (Titian, Vermeer, Rubens, Velázquez, and the finest collection of Scottish painting), and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
Why It’s Worth Your Time
Edinburgh's free national museums are notably world-class and consistently undercrowded relative to London equivalents. The National Museum of Scotland (on Chambers Street, 5 minutes from the Royal Mile) covers Scottish history from Neanderthals to the Anthropocene, world cultures, and innovation — the Grand Gallery is an extraordinary Victorian cathedral of light; highlights include Dolly the Sheep (first cloned mammal, 1996), the Lewis Chessmen, and Jacobite treasures. The Scottish National Gallery (on The Mound, between Old and New Town) has a collection that punches far above Scotland's size — Titian, Vermeer, Velázquez, Rubens, Raphael, and the finest comprehensive survey of Scottish painting from Ramsay to Bellany. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in the West End is a premier modern art collections in Britain, with a particularly strong Dada, Surrealism, and Scottish contemporary collection.
What Stands Out
- All three are free
- National Museum of Scotland — Dolly the Sheep, Lewis Chessmen, Grand Gallery
- Scottish National Gallery — Titian, Vermeer, Velázquez, finest Scottish painting
- Scottish Gallery of Modern Art — Dada, Surrealism, Scottish contemporary
- All excellent, all undercrowded relative to London
- Allow 2 hours per museum minimum