National Gallery, Edinburgh

National Gallery is Scotland’s national art gallery, housed in William Henry Playfair’s neoclassical building on The Mound. It opened to the public in 1859, and its collection brings together Scottish and international art from the Renaissance to the opening years of the twentieth century. Look at the temple-like façade: Playfair gave this building Ionic columns and a restrained architectural character.

Its original design served a shared purpose, with exhibition space for the Royal Scottish Academy alongside the national collection. That history explains why visitors can mistake this building for the neighbouring Royal Scottish Academy Building, although they are separate institutions. The collection includes major works by artists such as Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Turner, and Sir Henry Raeburn, as well as celebrated Scottish paintings including The Skating Minister and The Monarch of the Glen.

The present name is shorter than the gallery’s earlier title, Scottish National Gallery, adopted after a rebranding in 2023. Beneath the building, the Weston Link connects it with the Royal Scottish Academy Building, an underground addition opened in 2004.