COLLECTION TOURS

Venue: National Museums Scotland, Chambers Street EH1 1JF
Tour length: 45-60 minutes
Max number: 12
Times: 10:00, 11:00, 14:00 & 16:00

Visit the National Museums research library to see some of the rare natural history books in the collection (specific items available on request, see below).

National Museums Scotland library collection began in 1781 and has benefited greatly from major bequests of notable libraries by the Scottish naturalist J. A. Harvie-Brown and A. E. Salisbury (Mollusca).  The manuscript collections include the correspondence, field notes and journals of natural historians including J. A. Harvie-Brown; the naturalist and ornithologist William Jardine; and the polar explorer, oceanographer and naturalist William Speirs Bruce.  The library collection contains material to support historical research in geology and the natural sciences, taxonomic works in the major research areas of the zoological collections, and  a great many early volumes of significant works of zoological illustration from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

The library catalogue can be found at http://libcat.nms.ac.uk.  If you wish to see any item from the collection please contact library@nms.ac.uk in advance and we will have it ready for you to consult.

Venue: National Museums Collections Centre, 242 West Granton road EH5 1JA
Tour length: 45-60 minutes
Max number: 12
Times: 09:30, 10:30, 14:00 & 15:00

The National Museums Collection Centre has facilities for collection research and access as well as conservation and scientific laboratories. Analytical equipment ranges from PDA-UPLC, XRF, SEM-EDX to XRD and FTIR. This tour focuses on our recently completed extension housing conservation and science laboratories. You will meet a range of specialists working in these laboratories including those from paper conservation, geological specimen preparation, collection science and natural sciences.

Venue: National Museums Collections Centre, 242 West Granton road EH5 1JA
Tour length: 45-60 minutes
Max number: 12
Times: 09:30, 10:30, 14:00 & 15:00

The Invertebrate Collections can be broadly divided into Insects (Entomology) and Marine Invertebrates. In addition there are discrete collections of other terrestrial and freshwater invertebrates

The Marine Invertebrate collections (nearly 4 Million specimens) include several historically significant collections eg Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, and more recent scientifically important collections through collaboration with a variety of institutions with an emphasis on retaining samples from British waters. These are an invaluable resource for the research of British marine fauna, especially from the North Atlantic deep sea. You can find out more about the development of the marine invertebrate collections here.

The Invertebrate Section also includes an extensive Entomological collection containing a further two million specimens from all over the world with particular strengths in Lepidoptera, Odonata, Hymenoptera, small orders and certain Coleoptera and Diptera. Although worldwide in scope, the collection is particularly rich in Scottish material and the collection is frequently consulted for this reason. You can find out more about the development of the entomology collections here.

Venue: National Museums Collections Centre, 242 West Granton road EH5 1JA
Tour length: 45-60 minutes
Max number: 12
Times: 09:30, 10:30, 14:00 & 15:00

We have around 50,000 mammals in our scientific collections. Most of these are skeletons, skins and specimens preserved in alcohol. In addition we have extensive collections of animal bone from archaeological sites and about 2,200 Quaternary fossil specimens.

Our marine mammal collection, with over 3,000 specimens, is one of the most important in the world. There are examples of large baleen and toothed whales, including many specimens collected by Robert Knox and Sir William Turner in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

There are approximately 100,000 bird items, comprising mainly skins and egg sets, and fewer skeletons and spirit specimens. Together they give a broad representation of species from around the world. We have about 36,000 clutches of birds’ eggs, which are mainly from the UK and the rest of the western Palaearctic.  These date from the 1790s to the present day.  Important collections include H.M.S. Blair, D. Brown & D. Humphrey, J.J. Dalgleish, L. Dufresne, H.W. Feilden & J.A. Harvie-Brown, G.H.M. Franklin, F. Grant, K.C. Jacob, O.A.J. Lee, J.H. McNeile, R. Nichols, J. Piers Dutton, D.A. Ratcliffe, Scottish National Antarctic Expedition and W. Serle.  The McNeile collection is exceptional for the quality of its associated archive as well as its wide geographical coverage of the western Palaearctic.

Reptiles, amphibians and fishes are mostly kept as spirit specimens in ethanol or formalin and our collections are dominated by two large historical acquisitions.  The Sir Andrew Smith collection dates from 1859 and comprises 1,700 lots from around the world, but it is particularly strong in specimens from South Africa. The Jeremy Anderson collection comprises about 1,200 lots of specimens collected in Baluchistan in the 1960s-70s.  Other important collections include Australian specimens from Sir Malcolm Donald McEacharn in 1925 and snakes from Thomas Traill in 1869.

Venue: National Museums Collections Centre, 242 West Granton road EH5 1JA
Tour length: 45-60 minutes
Max number: 12
Times: 09:30, 10:30, 14:00 and 15:00

The Palaeobiology collections are housed in a modern purpose-built environmentally-controlled store, and comprise around 250,000 specimens, of which two per cent are important type or figured specimens. The collection covers all the major groups of fossil invertebrates, vertebrates, plants and trace fossils. Many of the specimens were collected from around the world from the early nineteenth century onwards, but particularly from important Scottish Palaeozoic localities. Many of the specimens are historically important and were collected by early pioneers of Scottish Palaeontology such as Hugh Miller and Charles Peach.  The collections continue to be studied by the Palaeobiology team and visiting researchers. Scotland’s Palaeozoic rocks represent important windows through which crucial stages in the early evolution of life on Earth can be viewed.  In particular, our collections are renowned worldwide for specimens of eurypterids and plants, and our fossil fish and early tetrapod collections are among the largest and most diverse in the world.

Venue: National Museums Collections Centre, 242 West Granton road EH5 1JA
Tour length: 45-60 minutes
Max number: 12
Times: 09:30, 10:30, 14:00 and 15:00

The Earth Systems collection of around 70,000 specimens represents Scotland’s geological history and global mineralogical diversity. Our collection of minerals, meteorites and rocks includes everything from 4.65 Byr old meteorites through to anthropogenic minerals. We have nearly 2,000 mineral species as per the International Mineralogical Association classification.

Notable collections include; minerals from important historical mining regions in or near Scotland, an internationally renowned agate collection, the Heddle Collection of Scottish minerals, many unusual igneous rocks from inaccessible regions, and a small but diverse meteorite collection (including three of the four known Scottish meteorites).

Altogether we have approximately 70% of all known mineral species from Scotland including good representation from the Leadhills/Wanlockhead, Strontian, Alva and Talcoty mines, to name a few. Our igneous suites include a good coverage of St Kilda island rocks and Gardar Suite rocks from Greenland. Important historical specimens include eastern Africa ores collected by David Livingstone, the first Beagle expedition, and the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition.

Venue: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row EH3 5LR
Tour length: 60 minutes
Max number: 15
Times: 10:00, 11:00, 14:00 and 15:00

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a highlight of any visit to the Scottish Capital. A national treasure of Scotland, this spectacular Living Collection of plants is over 350 years old.

Visitors can experience an extravaganza of plants from around the world, learn about the Garden’s rich and diverse Living Collection and discover a history dating back to the 17th century.

Set in over 70 acres of beautiful landscape and just one mile north of the city centre, the Garden offers superb panoramic views of the city skyline featuring Edinburgh Castle. The Botanics, as the Garden is affectionately known locally, is breath-taking at any time of year.

While work is progressing on the Edinburgh Biomes Project there will be reduced access to the Garden, for more information please click here.

Please note out Glasshouses are closed for restoration.

For information on accessibility at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, please click here.