Revamped National Museum of Scotland racks up 2.3 million visits

MORE than 2.3 million people have flooded through the doors of the new-look National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh since a £47 million revamp was unveiled exactly a year ago.

Bosses said the new figure had ensured that it had become the most visited attraction in the UK outside London over the last 12 months.

They said they believed the landmark was now firmly established as “one of the great national museums of the world”.

The figure for the past 12 months dwarfs the 1.3 million visitors who visited Edinburgh Castle, Scotland’s second most popular attraction, last year. It has also beaten the 1.5 million visitors who flocked to Glasgow’s Riverside Museum in its first year in operation.

However, the museum has failed to match the 3.2 million visitors that Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum managed to achieve in the 12 months following its major refurbishment several years ago.

National Museums Scotland officials revealed the first anniversary figure just days after it emerged that funding had been secured for the next phase of the overhaul, worth £12m.

Eight new galleries are due for completion in 2016 after the Heritage Lottery Fund pledged £4.85m towards the project.

The old Royal Museum building on Chambers Street was closed for more than three years to allow the revamp to take place. It was rebranded, along with the modern Museum of Scotland building, which was opened just before the Millennium. The revamp led to the creation of 16 brand new galleries housing 8,000 objects, around 80 per cent of which were on show for the first time.

The main hall of the museum was transformed into a major new public space, while new street-level entrances led into brand new foyer spaces, a restaurant and a shop.

The first year saw the attraction collect a string of honours including the prestigious Dooland Prize for Scotland’s best building, and a shortlisting for architecture’s Stirling Prize, while its director, Dr Gordon Rintoul, won the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland award for “Top Scot”, and was made a CBE earlier this year.

Two major exhibitions, Fascinating Mummies and Catherine the Great, have been among the big draws in recent months, while the “RBS Lates” nighttime series have been a sell-out success. More than 50,000 school pupils have been on special visits over the last 12 months.

A spokesman for the museum said: “It has been a memorable year, starting with the opening day itself, which saw over 6,000 people gather in Chambers Street to witness the launch and a record 22,000 visitors on opening day.

“Landmarks were 100,000 in six days and a million in the first four months. The remarkable performance has surpassed even our own most optimistic expectations, well over doubling the initial visitor target.”

Dr Rintoul said: “This has been an astonishingly successful year for the National Museum of Scotland. It is now one of the great national museums of the world.”