Museum of Edinburgh

The Museum of Edinburgh occupies a late 16th-century house on the Canongate called Huntly House. Its yellow exterior stands three storeys high in the heart of the city where locals and visitors pass every day. The building was first built in 1570 for George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, though his residency is considered erroneous by heritage bodies. In 1647 the Incorporation of Hammermen bought the house, enlarged it under architect Robert Mylne, and used it as their headquarters. The City of Edinburgh Council saved the building from demolition in 1924 and turned it into the museum we see today. Inside, the museum is a maze of rooms that tell the story of Edinburgh from its earliest days to the present. One room holds an original copy of the National Covenant signed at Greyfriars Kirk in 1638. Another recreates Field Marshal Earl Haig’s Great War headquarters on the Western Front with items he bequeathed. The collections include decorative art such as cut glass, engraved silver, costume, longcase clocks, Scottish pottery and porcelain from the 1760s. The building also preserves James Craig’s original plans for the New Town. Across all its sites the museum cares for about 220,000 items related to the city, four of which are recognised by the Scottish government as nationally significant. The series Outlander featured the museum in its third season.