Value proposition

National Museums Scotland connects Scotland to the world and the world to Scotland.

At National Museums Scotland, we care for collections of national and international importance, preserving them, interpreting them and making them accessible to as many people as possible.

We work with museums and communities across Scotland and beyond, introducing our collections to a much wider audience than can physically visit our museums, through partnerships, research, touring exhibitions, community engagement, digital programmes and loans.

Our wealth of treasures represent more than two centuries of collecting. Collections take in everything from Scottish and classical archaeology to decorative and applied arts; from world cultures and social history to science, technology and the natural world. We also provide advice, expertise and support to the museums'​ community across Scotland.

We have four museum sites which open to the public each showing different parts of the collections:

the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune Airfield, East Lothian
the National Museum of Rural Life, East Kilbride
the National War Museum Scotland, Edinburgh Castle

In addition, our National Museums Collection Centre is based in Granton, Edinburgh, and houses literally millions of items - from our collection of 1.2 million insects and classic cars to whale skeletons!