Explore the galleries

Grand Gallery

Your journey from Scotland to the world begins in the Grand Gallery, one of Scotland's most beautiful spaces.

With its soaring pillars and high windows, the light-filled atrium of the Grand Gallery is one of Scotland’s most beautiful spaces, and provides a spectacular start to your museum visit.

Galleries to visit

A multi-level open museum space with balconies and an arched ceiling. There are lots of visitors looking at objects on display.

Grand Gallery

Location: Level 1

The dramatic objects on display – from a huge 12-foot long South Pacific feast bowl to a 19th-century lighthouse lens – provide a vivid introduction to the National Museum of Scotland and the rich and diverse collection housed here.

A family walking up a staircase looking at objects mounted on a museum gallery wall.

Window on the World

Location: Levels 1, 3, and 5

Rising up through the four storeys, the Window on the World is the largest single museum installation in the UK. The display celebrates the variety and scope of the museum, showcasing a spectacular array of over 800 objects drawn from a wide range of cultures and disciplines, from tiny glass sculptures to a girder from the original Tay Bridge, whalebone scrimshaw to Art Nouveau design.

Two visitors looking at a sarcophagus in a museum display case.

Collecting Stories

Location: Level 1

This gallery explores the development of the National Collection, looking at how and why we have acquired and collected objects over the past 200 years, and continue to do so today. We still collect objects from the past, but we also represent the present, collecting contemporary objects to help future generations to understand and reflect on the world we live in now.

A museum case with examples of colourful ceramic plates, jugs, and vases.

Art of Ceramics

Location: Level 3

This gallery offers a fascinating insight into the breadth of our outstanding ceramic collections, celebrating the creativity that is reflected in pieces from around the world. As well as celebrating the decorative arts, the gallery explores the use of ceramics in scientific and technological applications, and shows how this material has been a key component in global trade and cultural exchange for millennia.

Object highlights

Stories from the galleries

  1. A large oval shaped wooden object with a hollowed out middle on display in a museum with people looking at it
    Discover

    Feast bowl: from the Pacific Islands to Scotland

    A massive feast bowl in our collection, known as an umete, comes from Atiu, one of the Cook Islands in the Pacific.Form and functionThis boat-shaped bowl is carved from a single piece of tamanu wood, also known as island mahogany. Tamanu…
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  2. A colourful glass sculpture of a bumpy brown rock with a sea creature on top with multiple long thin green tentacles with pink tips
    Discover

    The glass artists who mastered museum models

    During the late 19th and 20th centuries, master glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka came upon a niche market. Glass models of plants and sea life for natural history museums.At National Museums Scotland, we have a collection of these…
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  3. Close up of cream and black typewriter keys
    Discover

    History of the typewriter

    The typewriter helped revolutionise the world of work and change the lives of working women in particular. It helped them launch their own businesses at a time when female employers were rare and became a vital weapon in the fight for…
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  4. A detail of a red, green, and blue tartan kilt with a pin of a stag head.
    Discover

    For hire: making Highland dress more accessible

    The suit of Highland dress acquired from Gordon Nicolson Kiltmakers, Edinburgh, captures the company’s distinct approach to Highland wear for hire. The hire package centres on the ‘John Muir Way’ tartan. This pattern was designed by, and…
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Gallery accessibility

Getting to the galleries

Lifts and escalators

Lifts are available to all floors of the museum. You can check the museum map or ask a member of the Visitor Experience team for the nearest lifts. Information on lift dimensions is available on the AccessAble website.   

In the galleries

Seating

Seating is available in the Grand Gallery and Collecting Stories gallery. Limited seating is available on the upper levels of Window on the World. 

Please ask a member of staff for directions to the nearest seats.

Lighting and noise

The Grand Gallery space is bright and can be noisy when busy. The Ritchie Clock in the Grand Gallery will make a sound every 15 minutes but it’s not too loud.

The Collecting Stories gallery has dim lighting. The Millennium Clock goes off on the hour and includes music, lights and moving parts. 

You can check our sensory map to explore all the different sensory experiences in different parts of the museum.

Large print guides

Large print guides can be found in every gallery of the museum. Please remember to return them after use so that other visitors can use them. 

Facilities

Toilets

Accessible toilets are available on Levels 0 and 3, as well as a Changing Places (U) toilet in the Entrance Hall on Level 0.  You can access the museum map to find those nearest to you or ask a member of the Visitor Experience team for directions. 

Quiet spaces

If at any time you or someone you are visiting with finds the visit overwhelming, a member of staff can direct you to quieter areas in the museum. The sensory map also identifies the quieter spaces.

For full access information for the National Museum of Scotland buildings, find out more on our accessibility page. 

Further content for Grand Gallery