National Museum of Scotland reopens just in time for summer

The National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland reopens just in time for the summer holidays on Friday - and tourists are expected to flock to the refurbished Victorian section, which underwent a £47.4 million makeover.

More than 8,000 objects will be on display in the new area (80% for the first time in generations) in 16 new galleries.

The three-year programme has seen the original interior restored and storage areas turned into public space, making it one of the UK's largest museums. Glass elevators carry visitors from the entrance hall to the Grand Gallery, housing the UK's single largest museum installation, the Window on the World: a four-storey, 18-metre (59ft) high display of more than 800 objects.

The renovation means the whole museum, situated in Chambers Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh, will now have 20,000 objects across 36 galleries.

Kids will love the life-sized skeleton cast of a Tyrannosaurus Rex (built by staff during the refurbishment), and other exhibits include specimens collected by Charles Darwin, and 3,000-year-old mummies.

National Museums Scotland

The project has been jointly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Scottish government and private donations.

Sir Angus Grossart, chairman of the National Museums Scotland's board of trustees, told the BBC: 'The reopening of the National Museum of Scotland, on time and within budget is a tremendous achievement as importantly it allows us to liberate the strengths of our great collections and mobilise their great potential for dynamic development.

'Our collections tell great stories about the world, how Scots saw that world, and the disproportionate impact they had upon it.'

Scottish architect Gareth Hoskins and exhibition designer Ralph Appelbaum joined the National Museums Scotland to restore Victorian architecture, create new galleries, a major gallery to host international exhibitions, a three-storey learning centre and a new street-level stone-vaulted entrance hall.

Dr Gordon Rintoul, National Museums Scotland director, said: 'This is a proud moment in the history of a great museum, the climax of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation through which we have rediscovered our exceptional collections, and breathed new life into a beautiful building.

'The result is a new National Museum of Scotland, a place where the cultures of Scotland and the world meet, and the arts and sciences connect.'

For more information visit nms.ac.uk