Museum of Edinburgh, Edinburgh

The Museum of Edinburgh occupies the late 16th-century Huntly House on Canongate, a three-storey building with a distinctive yellow exterior. Its galleries trace Edinburgh’s origins, history and legends through a collection of about 220,000 objects held across the museum’s venues. Among the most striking items is an original National Covenant from 1638, signed at Greyfriars Kirk.

Another room recreates Field Marshal Earl Haig’s headquarters on the Western Front during the Great War, using objects left to the museum. You can also find Scottish craftsmanship in cut and engraved glass, Edinburgh silver, costume, longcase clocks, pottery and porcelain dating from the 1760s. The building itself carries a long civic story: metalsmiths known as the Incorporation of Hammermen bought Huntly House in 1647, and architect Robert Mylne later enlarged it.