The Museum of Scotland

The Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a building which, together with the adjacent Royal Museum, comprises the National Museum of Scotland. It is dedicated to the history, people and culture of Scotland. The museum is on the intersection of Chambers Street and George IV Bridge, in central Edinburgh. It is part of National Museums Scotland. Admission is free.

Opened in 1998, incorporating collections from the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland and Scottish items from the Royal Museum, the museum possesses a distinctive look.

The building's architecture was controversial from the start, and Prince Charles resigned as patron of the museum, in protest at the lack of consultation over its design.[1] Initially conceived as an extension to the adjacent Victorian museum, it eventually came to be a museum in its own right, although the two are linked internally.

The museum is made up of geometric, Corbusian forms, but also has numerous references to Scotland, such as brochs and castellated, defensive, architecture. It is clad in golden Moray sandstone, which one of its architects, Gordon Benson, has called "the oldest exhibit in the building", a reference to Scottish geology. The building was a 1999 Stirling Prize nominee.

May 2011, Photo 962