National Museums Scotland

National Museums Scotland was created in 1985 by merging two local museums. It is the largest multi-disciplinary museum in Scotland, with four million items in its collections and the largest body of curatorial and conservation expertise in the country.

The building of the new Museum of Scotland, which opened in 1998, to tell the country’s history from earliest times to the present day, created a landmark museum in Edinburgh for the nation. The redevelopment of the National Museum of Scotland (2006-2011) transformed the adjacent Victorian building into a vibrant museum for the 21st century, opening up public spaces, providing new facilities and displaying our natural world, world cultures, art and design and science and technology collections in innovative new ways.

The National Museums Scotland has vehicles from the early 20th century right up to the present day, including a Scottish-made Argyll Flying Fifteen motor car from 1910, a Morris Mini and a Red Bull RB2 Formula 1 racing car, which was driven by Scottish F1 driver David Coulthard when he won the 2006 F1 Monaco Grand Prix.