Ashworth Laboratories Natural History Collections (Aubrey Manning Gallery)
About
The Natural History Collections at the University of Edinburgh's Ashworth Laboratories preserve more than 300 years of specimens and objects gathered by the university's researchers and educators as a scientific record, teaching resource, and public museum in one. Housed at King's Buildings, the university's science campus on the southern edge of the city, the collections occupy the Ashworth Laboratories themselves — built in the late 1920s to house the Zoology Department and named for the zoologist James Hartley Ashworth, a significant figure in the department's early 20th-century development.
The collections' centrepiece is the Aubrey Manning Gallery, named in honour of Aubrey Manning, Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh from 1973 to 1997 and a familiar broadcasting voice on natural history programmes for BBC audiences during that period. The gallery displays a broad cross-section of the wider zoological and natural history holdings, drawing on specimens amassed by generations of Edinburgh naturalists, zoologists, and field researchers across three centuries of the university's scientific work — a span that connects the collection to the earliest days of organised natural history study in Scotland through to modern biological research.
Because the collections are housed within a working university science building rather than a purpose-built public museum, access for visitors outside the university community is by arrangement only, coordinated through the collections' curators rather than offered as standard walk-in opening hours. This appointment-based model reflects the collections' primary role supporting teaching and research within the School of Biological Sciences, though visitors who arrange a visit in advance gain access to a substantial and historically rich natural history resource rarely seen outside academic circles, offering a different and more intimate experience than Edinburgh's larger National Museum of Scotland. The collections' scale and continuous 300-year accumulation also make them a valuable reference resource for taxonomic and biodiversity research well beyond Edinburgh itself, with specimens periodically consulted by researchers from other institutions studying long-term patterns in species distribution and morphology.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- This is not a walk-in museum — contact the Natural History Collections curators well in advance to arrange your visit.
- Combine an arranged visit with the University of Edinburgh's Anatomical Museum in the central Old Town campus, though note both require separate advance bookings.
- King's Buildings is a working science campus some distance from central Edinburgh — allow extra travel time compared to the city-centre museums.
- Given the appointment-only access model, this is best suited to visitors with a genuine specific interest in natural history collections or academic research, rather than a casual stop on a general sightseeing day.
- Ask about the Aubrey Manning naming when you visit — his career as both an Edinburgh professor and a BBC natural history broadcaster is a good conversation starter with curatorial staff.
- Campus parking is available on a pay-and-display basis if travelling by car.
Highlights
The Aubrey Manning Gallery
Named for Aubrey Manning, Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh from 1973 to 1997 and a well-known BBC natural history broadcaster of the period, this gallery forms the centrepiece of the collections and displays a broad cross-section of the university's zoological holdings. Manning's own reputation as a communicator of natural history to the wider public makes the gallery's naming particularly fitting, bridging the collection's academic origins with a tradition of public natural history engagement.
Three Centuries of Edinburgh Natural History Collecting
The collections trace their origins back more than 300 years, reflecting Edinburgh's long-standing role as a centre of Scottish natural history study, with specimens gathered by generations of the university's zoologists, naturalists, and field researchers. This depth of continuous institutional collecting is unusual even among university natural history collections, giving the holdings genuine historical as well as scientific significance.
The Ashworth Laboratories Building
Built in the late 1920s to house the University of Edinburgh's Zoology Department, the Ashworth Laboratories are named for James Hartley Ashworth, a zoologist significant in the department's early 20th-century development. The building's continued use as both an active research facility and home to the natural history collections illustrates the close relationship between ongoing scientific research and museum-style specimen collecting at Edinburgh.
Comparative Zoological Specimens
The collections include an extensive range of comparative zoological specimens across many animal groups, assembled originally as teaching and research material for the university's biological sciences programmes and retaining that dual scientific and educational function today.
Collections
The Natural History Collections at the Ashworth Laboratories hold more than 300 years of zoological and natural history specimens gathered by University of Edinburgh researchers and educators, displayed principally within the Aubrey Manning Gallery, named for the university's Professor of Natural History from 1973 to 1997.
The collections span comparative zoological material across many animal groups, much of it linked to documented field research expeditions by Edinburgh-affiliated naturalists, and continue to support current teaching and research within the School of Biological Sciences. Housed within the working Ashworth Laboratories building at the university's King's Buildings science campus, the collections combine deep historical significance with an active ongoing academic role.
The Aubrey Manning Gallery
The collections' principal public display space, showing a broad cross-section of the university's zoological and natural history holdings.
Edinburgh's Natural History Research Legacy
Displays exploring the collections' 300-year history and their connection to specific Edinburgh-affiliated field research and scientific study over the centuries.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.