National Museum of Scotland - Collections

Collections

The Scottish galleries in the 1998 building cover Scottish history in an essentially chronological arrangement, beginning with prehistory to the early medieval period at the lowest level, with later periods in the higher levels. The Victorian building, as reopened in 2011, contains 16 exhibition areas, covering natural history, world cultures, which includes a gallery on the South Pacific, East Asian art, Ancient Egypt, "Art and Industry", European decorative arts including costume, and technology. The central space of the Grand Gallery contains a variety of large objects from the collections, with a display called the "Window on the World" rising four stories, or about 20 metres, containing over 800 objects of many types. The sides of the Grand Gallery at ground level contain the "Discoveries" gallery, with objects connected to "remarkable Scots ... in the fields of invention, exploration and adventure".

Notable artefacts include:

• Monymusk Reliquary
• St Ninian's Isle Treasure
• 11 of the Lewis chessmen. (The rest are owned by the British Museum)
• Celtic brooches, including the Hunterston Brooch
• Torrs Pony-cap and Horns
• Pictish stones, such as the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, Woodwrae Stone, and Monifieth Sculptured Stones
• the Cramond Lioness, Newstead Helmet and other items from the Roman frontier
• Whitecleuch Chain
• Migdale Hoard
• Bute mazer
• Sculptures by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, housing prehistoric jewellery
• A Union Flag and Scottish Flag raised by the Hanoverians and Jacobites respectively at the Battle of Culloden
• The Maiden, an early form of guillotine
• the stuffed remains of Dolly the sheep
• Paintings by Margaret MacDonald
• Sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy, inspired by the work of Scottish geologist James Hutton

Scottish antiquities

• Stone with cup and ring marks, c.3000-2,500 BC

• Pictish symbol stone from Dores

• Torrs Pony-cap and Horns, Iron Age

• Roman Newstead Helmet

• Pictish silver plaques from Norrie's Law

• Hilton of Cadboll Stone

• Hunterston Brooch

• Cramond Lioness