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National Museum of Scotland

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Museum of Scotland
Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in 1866 as the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, renamed in 1904, and for the period between 1985 and the merger named the Royal Museum of Scotland or simply the Royal Museum), with international collections covering science and technology, natural history, and world cultures. The two connected buildings stand beside each other on Chambers Street, by the intersection with the George IV Bridge, in central Edinburgh. The museum is part of National Museums Scotland. Admission is free.The two buildings retain distinctive characters: the Museum of Scotland is housed in a modern building opened in 1998, while the former Royal Museum building was begun in 1861 and partially opened in 1866, with a Victorian Venetian Renaissance facade and a grand central hall of cast iron construction that rises the full height of the building, design by Francis Fowke and Robert Matheson. This building underwent a major refurbishment and reopened on 29 July 2011 after a three-year, £47 million project to restore and extend the building led by Gareth Hoskins Architects along with the concurrent redesign of the exhibitions by Ralph Appelbaum Associates.The National Museum incorporates the collections of the former National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. As well as the national collections of Scottish archaeological finds and medieval objects, the museum contains artefacts from around the world, encompassing geology, archaeology, natural history, science, technology, art, and world cultures. The 16 new galleries reopened in 2011 include 8,000 objects, 80 per cent of which were not formerly on display. One of the more notable exhibits is the stuffed body of Dolly the sheep, the first successful cloning of a mammal from an adult cell. Other highlights include Ancient Egyptian exhibitions, one of Elton John's extravagant suits, the Jean Muir Collection of costume and a large kinetic sculpture named the Millennium Clock. A Scottish invention that is a perennial favourite with school parties is the Scottish Maiden, an early beheading machine predating the guillotine. In 2019, the museum received 2,210,024 visitors, making it Scotland's most popular visitor attraction that year.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article National Museum of Scotland (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

National Museum of Scotland
Chambers Street, City of Edinburgh Old Town

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N 55.946944444444 ° E -3.19 °
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National Museum of Scotland

Chambers Street
EH1 1JF City of Edinburgh, Old Town
Scotland, United Kingdom
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nms.ac.uk

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Museum of Scotland
Museum of Scotland
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Greyfriars Bobby Fountain
Greyfriars Bobby Fountain

The Greyfriars Bobby Fountain is a granite fountain in Edinburgh, surmounted by a bronze life-size statue of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for supposedly spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner John Gray until the dog itself died on 14 January 1872. The memorial was commissioned by Lady Burdett-Coutts, president of the Ladies Committee of the RSPCA, shortly before the dog died, and the bronze statue was made from life by William Brodie. At the time, Brodie was making statues of characters from Walter Scott's Waverley novels for the Scott Monument in Princes Street. The statue is mounted on a polished column of granite, 3 feet (91 cm) high and 20 inches (51 cm) in diameter, above a polished granite basin 3 feet (91 cm) in diameter, mounted on a plinth, with an octagonal drinking trough at ground level. Bronze plaques are mounted on the column. The fountain was originally furnished with two bronze drinking cups which were attached to the column by a chain. The supply of water to the fountain was discontinued in 1957, and the monument suffered from neglect until it was restored in 1985. The memorial was sited at the southern end of George IV Bridge, just past its junction Chambers Street and close to the junction with Candlemaker Row, near the Greyfriars Kirkyard and the National Museum of Scotland. It was unveiled on 15 November 1873. The monument became a category A listed building in 1977. It is reputed to be Edinburgh's smallest listed building. The statue's nose has been a popular feature for tourists, believing that it brings "luck" if rubbed.