Re-opening the doors: Three of Edinburgh's greatest treasures are nearing the end of massive reconstruction

With months of damp, wet weather and grey skies looming ahead, is it any wonder that people suffer the January blues? But believe it or not there are some things to look forward to. Of course, the events calendar for the city is littered with the usual festivals, concerts and sporting tournaments but, for the last few years, three of Edinburgh's most popular venues have been closed to the public due to major refurbishment programmes.

However, over the course of this year, two will fling open their doors again to reveal themselves in their original, but scrubbed-up glory. So, three reasons to be cheerful in 2011? Let's find out . . .

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery

"We've had the contractors in for 14 months now and there's only six months to go. We get the building back on May 15," says James Holloway, director of SNPG. "It will then take us about six months to get everything back in, and we plan to open to the public once more on November 30 - St Andrew's Day."

The Queen Street gallery closed in the spring of 2009 to make way for "Portrait of the Nation" as the 17.6 million redevelopment project has been titled. The aim is to restore and reveal more of the building, to show more art and to introduce a new, regularly changing display programme.

Temporary walls and ceilings in the old gallery have been stripped away and fresh new spaces opened up, restoring the architect's original design. A new glass lift from Italy has been installed in the east of the building and walls have been painted - in colours that match those from when the building first opened in 1889.

In total, 15.4m has been raised through donations, the lottery and fundraising campaigns, but Holloway says: "We need to raise a little more, but while we do need the money, the main aim is to make people feel connected to the gallery, to make it part of their lives and of value to them.

"The revamped gallery will be able to show twice as many works. Every five years, the whole gallery will have changed completely. The staple portraits will be there but displayed in different contexts. We're doing the opposite of dumbing down."The National Museum of Scotland

You may know it as the Royal Museum, the Chambers Street Museum, or even just "the Museum", but from this summer, when the 46.4m project to re-develop the Victorian building is complete, it will be merged with its younger sister the Museum of Scotland and rebranded to create one grand National Museum of Scotland.

More importantly, though, thousands of new objects will go on display, 80 per cent of which will be exhibited for the first time. The radically revamped museum will also have street-level entry. Inside, there will be 16 new exhibition galleries and a Window on the World - a wall of 829 wonders from across the whole collection, from tiny glassworks to large objects, such as a girder from the Tay Bridge.

Dr Gordon Rintoul, director of National Museums Scotland, says: "It will be the most significant addition to tourism provision in Edinburgh for many years."

Indeed, the construction work is now nearing completion, on time and on budget. The structural work to lower the floor and create a new, accessible street entrance is already finished and the new entrance hall has been paved with Caithness stone.

In the Grand Gallery, structural works include the installation of escalators and glass lifts to help visitors access the upper floors more easily, while the main floor will be used for its original purpose of displaying objects - including a marble statue of James Watt and a giant deer skeleton - rather than as a place for large fish tanks.

There is also a massive amount of work going on behind the scenes - involving more than 8000 new objects. These will include an array of new stuffed specimens created by the NMS's taxidermy team, to form a spectacular array of exhibits including a great white shark, a giraffe and life-sized cast of a tyrannosaurus rex.

The Royal Commonwealth Pool

This one is keeping its Royal tag, but throwing out all the asbestos which was apparently used to line its walls and ceilings. Unfortunately that discovery has meant that its original June 2011 opening has already been put back, although there's hope that all works will be completed by the time the bells are ringing in yet another New Year.

The good news is it's within its 37.1m budget. The demolition and temporary works phase is over and the slow process of building the place back up again is under way. The refurbishment of the A-listed building includes fitting solar panels to the roof to heat the showers and the pool, a new 25m teaching pool with moveable floor, extending the 50m swimming pool by 1.5ms and installing a special boom so that it can be split into two pools.

So good will be the facilities that GB's swimmers will undertake their final preparations for the 2012 Olympics there. So there will be no more dodging the cracks in the Commie tiles in case you get a verruca? Now that's something to which we can all look forward.Plenty in prospect

THERE are many reasons to be cheerful as we plunge headfirst into 2011.

Of course, Edinburgh will once again be the focus of the world's attention later this week as our Hogmanay celebrations are beamed across the globe.

Later in the year, the nation's eyes will be on the capital, as the city hosts the UK Armed Forces Day celebrations.

It seems a long way off, but already the Edinburgh International Festival organisers are in full swing putting the final touches to a programme which is promised to have a strong Asian flavour. Artists from China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam have been invited to take part in the three-week event that is to be held in August 2011.

Music fans, get ready to rock, for the arrival of Kings of Leon and Bon Jovi at Murrayfield Stadium in June.

There'll be plenty for audiences at The Playhouse to enjoy too, the venue will host glittering productions of Grease, Footloose, Evita and Sister Act.

In sport, the first rugby Touch World Cup to be held in Europe will arrive in Edinburgh in June, while the city will host the World Swamp Soccer Championships the same month.

Shopping addicts can look forward to years of wrangling coming to a conclusion with the opening of the city's first branch of Primark, while technophiles will no doubt be delighted when Apple opens its store in Edinburgh, predicted for later in the year.

Of course, the year will see two major national events - we'll go to the polls, for the Scottish Parliament elections in May and no doubt watch with the rest of the world as Prince William weds fiancee Kate Middleton at the end of April.