Sample Page

Scottish History and Archaeology department, opened in 1998 with collections from the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Taigh-tasgaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture.

It 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 junction with the George IV Bridge, in central Edinburgh. The museum is part of National Museums Scotland and 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 façade and a grand central hall of cast iron construction that rises the full height of the building, designed 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 sixteen new galleries reopened in 2011 include 8,000 objects, 80% of which were not previously 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 Sir 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 children visiting as part of school trips is the Scottish Maiden, an early beheading machine predating the French guillotine. (… Read the full article)

23 May 2026 – 2025–26 Scottish Cup

2026 Scottish Cup final

In association football, Celtic beat second-tier Dunfermline Athletic 3–1 to win a record-extending 43th Scottish Cup title and complete the double this season. (BBC Sport) (ESPN)

8 May 2026 – 2026 United Kingdom local elections

2026 Scottish Parliament election, 2026 Senedd election

The Labour Party concedes defeat in Wales with Plaid Cymru and Reform UK making significant gains, while the nationalist Scottish National Party claims victory in Scotland. (BBC News) (Reuters)

7 May 2026 – 2026 United Kingdom local elections

2026 Scottish Parliament election, 2026 Senedd election

Voters in England elect six mayors and 5,066 council seats across 136 councils. In Scotland, voters elect 129 seats to the Scottish Parliament. In Wales, voters elect 96 seats to the Senedd. (BBC News) (The Guardian)

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt (13 April 1892 – 5 December 1973) was a Scottish radio engineer and pioneer of radio direction finding and radar technology.

Watt began his career in radio physics with a job at the Meteorological Office, where he began looking for accurate ways to track thunderstorms using the radio waves given off by lightning. This led to the 1920s development of a system later known as high-frequency direction finding (HFDF or “huff-duff”). Although well publicized, the system’s enormous military potential was not developed until the late 1930s. Huff-duff allowed operators to determine the location of an enemy radio transmitter in seconds and it became a major part of the network of systems that helped defeat the threat of German U-boats during World War II. It is estimated that huff-duff was used in about a quarter of all attacks on U-boats.

In 1935, Watt was asked to comment on reports of a German death ray based on radio. Watt and his assistant Arnold Frederic Wilkins quickly determined it was not possible, but Wilkins suggested using radio signals to locate aircraft at long distances. This led to a February 1935 demonstration of signals from a BBC short-wave transmitter bounced off a Handley Page Heyford aircraft. Watt led the development of a practical version of this device, which entered service in 1938 under the code name Chain Home. This system provided the vital advance information that helped the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.

After the success of his invention, Watson Watt was sent to the U.S. in 1941 to advise on air defence after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. He returned and continued to lead radar development for the War Office and Ministry of Supply. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, knighted in 1942 and awarded the US Medal for Merit in 1946. (… Read the full article)

• … that the Scottish judge Lord Duthie served as an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve?
• … that Colin Mackay, the political editor at Scottish Television, was “very sad” when Colin MacKay, the political editor at Scottish Television, died?
• … that the Scottish painter Carole Gibbons had her first US exhibition in her eighties?
• … that Jewish tartans have been made for the Jewish community of Scotland?
• … that a lane behind a tenement in Edinburgh is decorated as a Wild West town?
• … that the Scottish invasion of England in 1648 was defeated by an army less than half their size?
• … that former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said that she would swim in Loch Ness naked if the SNP won more than 50 seats at the 2019 United Kingdom general election?
• … that Thorpe's secluded hills provided refuge from Scottish raiders and English Civil War troops?