Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Every face on these walls is Scottish — housed in a red sandstone Gothic revival building paid for by a newspaper owner.
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This Queen Street gallery holds Scotland's entire national portrait collection — works depicting Scots, though not necessarily painted by them — plus the Scottish National Photography Collection. The building, designed by Robert Rowand Anderson and donated by John Ritchie Findlay of The Scotsman, reopened in December 2011 after its first comprehensive refurbishment since 1889.
What to look for
- The red sandstone Gothic revival exterior, built between 1885 and 1890 to designs by Robert Rowand Anderson
- The Scottish National Photography Collection, held alongside the painted portraits
- Portraits of Scots painted by non-Scottish hands — the collection rule is 'of Scots,' not 'by Scots'
On Queen Street, Edinburgh; part of National Galleries Scotland, which also runs the Scottish National Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery is one of 28 sights worth the detour in Edinburgh, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Edinburgh pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Edinburgh
- Edinburgh CastleAttacked 26 times over 1,100 years — research calls it the most besieged place in Great Britain.
- Holyrood PalaceScotland's working royal residence since the 1500s — the actual rooms where Mary, Queen of Scots lived are open to walk through.
- The National (Scottish National Gallery)Since 1912, two near-identical neoclassical buildings have stood side by side on The Mound — visitors have been walking into the wrong one ever since.
- National Museum of ScotlandDolly the sheep, one of Elton John's extravagant suits, and a Victorian cast-iron hall — all under one free roof on Chambers Street.
- Murrayfield StadiumScotland's largest stadium opened in 1925 with a Grand Slam win — 70,000 people watched it happen.
- St Giles' CathedralA prayer book read here in 1637 caused a riot that sparked a rebellion pulling three kingdoms into war.