Lady’s Guide to the 3 Best Museums in Edinburgh

Today I want to bring you my guide to the 3 best museums in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Scottish capital is rife with galleries and collections, and these are my favorites. I hope you enjoy visiting them as much as I have.

Best Museums in Edinburgh

It’s a beautiful day in Edinburgh. The sun is out, the city is full of energy, and the parks and gardens beckon with their bright green grass and pretty autumn leaves. But I’m not going to sit in the sun today.

I’m headed indoors to visit three of the best museums in Edinburgh, and they’re good enough that I’m willing to give up the Scottish sun for them (which is saying a lot, because the Scottish sun is a fickle star).

I start my day of Edinburgh museum hopping the way I start any marathon day of sightseeing: with coffee.

My boyfriend introduces me to Artisan Roast, a hip coffee shop with great java-inspired decor and a hipster staff member that looks like she wants to stab me in the eyeball with a fork when I ask if there’s WiFi (I still have my eyeball, but there’s no WiFi).

1. Scottish National Gallery

Caffeine injected, we start our tour of the best museums in Edinburgh at the Scottish National Gallery. Located right in the heart of the city next to Princes Street, the museum has all things Old Masters and Scottish artists of yore.

The highlight is—somewhat surprisingly—in the basement. There are great works there by homegrown artists like Allan Ramsay, Sir David Wilkie, and Sir Henry Raeburn, and I find some of the most unique pieces in the museum there.

2. Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Back outside, we continue exploring the best museums in Edinburgh with a trip to the nearby Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Unlike its non-portrait counterpart, this museum puts its highlights right up front.

As soon as I walk into the impressive Neo-Gothic building, my eyes shoot up to the arches, murals, frieze, and ceiling of the Great Hall.

Created by William Hole, the art in the hall dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It depicts everything from a line of Scottish heroes to 47 constellations of 2,222 golden stars.

Fiery orange lamps add touches of brightness to the room, and the result is something I can’t take my eyes off.

Even after I’ve explored the gallery’s permanent collection I return to the Great Hall wanting to lie on the floor for a few hours to fully take in the room (I don’t).

After absorbing everything we can from the portrait gallery, we head to Harvey Nichols. No, it’s not for shopping. It’s for lunch with two of my boyfriend’s friends.

The four of us enjoy catching up over a meal there before embarking on the third of the best museums in Edinburgh.

3. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

This one happens to be the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. There’s an exhibition on that we want to see before it closes, but we also spend time exploring the permanent collection and sculpture park.

The former has works by a range of modern artists, from household names like Salvador Dali and Roy Lichtenstein to Scottish ones like Steven Campbell and Eduardo Paolozzi.

Equally enjoyable are the outdoor areas with sculptures dotting the lawns and landscaping.

Edinburgh Museums

By the time we’re finished exploring the last of our museums, we’ve reached both closing time and exhaustion point. But it’s been a great day of exploring three of the best museums in Edinburgh, and definitely worth leaving the sun behind.

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