About
Perth Museum and Art Gallery is one of Scotland's oldest and most distinguished museums, founded in 1824 and holding collections of exceptional breadth and quality that span Scottish history, fine and applied art, natural history, and local archaeology. After many decades at George Street, the museum has undergone a transformative £27 million redevelopment, reopening in 2024 in its magnificent new home within the historic Perth City Hall — a prestigious Victorian civic building at the very heart of the city — restoring one of Perth's greatest civic treasures to public use and giving the museum's outstanding collections a setting worthy of their significance.
The museum's founding in 1824 by the Perthshire Natural History Society makes it one of the oldest civic museums in Scotland, and the depth and breadth of its collections reflect nearly two centuries of systematic acquisition and donation. The collections cover the full spectrum of museum disciplines — archaeology, fine art, applied art, natural history, social history, and local history — with particular strengths in Scottish material that reflects the city's position as a historic royal capital and commercial centre of the central Highlands.
Among the highlights of the collections is the museum's association with King Robert the Bruce, whose connection to Perth is deep and whose skull cast — made when his tomb at Dunfermline Abbey was opened in 1818 — allows modern visitors to encounter something of the physical reality of Scotland's most celebrated medieval king. The 'Stone of Destiny', on which Scottish kings were traditionally crowned, is associated with Perth through legend if not fact, and the museum explores this important strand of Scottish royal history.
The fine art collections include a distinguished group of Scottish paintings — old masters, nineteenth-century genre and landscape painting, and works by Scottish Colourists and twentieth-century Scottish artists that represent the full spectrum of the national tradition. The applied art collections, including ceramics, glass, metalwork, and textiles, are equally impressive, with particular strength in Scottish silver and locally produced craft traditions.
The natural history collections, built up over nearly two centuries, reflect the extraordinary biodiversity of the Perthshire landscape — one of the richest natural environments in Scotland — and include important collections of local geology, mineralogy, and zoology. The social history collections document life in Perth and Perthshire across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with particular completeness, drawing on generations of community donations.
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Highlights
Perth City Hall — A Magnificent New Home
The transformation of Perth City Hall into Perth Museum is one of the most significant heritage and cultural projects in twenty-first-century Scotland. The City Hall — a magnificent Edwardian civic building designed by Paul Waterhouse and completed in 1911 — had fallen out of use and faced an uncertain future before the decision was made to repurpose it as the new home of Perth's collections.
The £27 million redevelopment, completed in 2024, has preserved the outstanding Victorian architecture while creating a state-of-the-art museum facility.
The great hall with its spectacular domed ceiling provides a breathtaking centrepiece for the new museum, and the quality of the architectural restoration has already drawn praise from across Scotland and beyond.
Robert the Bruce — Scotland's Iconic King
Perth's connection with Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), King of Scots and victor of the Battle of Bannockburn, is deep and historically complex. The museum holds a cast of Bruce's skull, made when his tomb at Dunfermline Abbey was opened and examined in 1818 — a direct physical record of Scotland's most celebrated medieval monarch.
The cast, and the museum's wider collections relating to the medieval kingdom of Scotland and Bruce's dramatic career, offer one of the most intimate encounters with medieval Scottish kingship available to the modern visitor.
The story of Bruce's struggle to maintain Scottish independence against English domination, and of Bannockburn's pivotal role in that struggle, is presented with careful historical scholarship.
The Stone of Destiny and Scottish Royal History
Perth's claim to host the 'real' Stone of Destiny — the ancient coronation stone on which Scottish kings were crowned before its capture by Edward I of England in 1296 — is contested but fascinating, and the museum explores the story of the Stone and its significance in Scottish national identity with both historical rigour and cultural sensitivity.
The Stone now officially associated with coronations at Westminster and in Edinburgh may or may not be the original; the possibility that the monks of Scone (just outside Perth) hid the real stone and gave Edward a substitute is a persistent legend that the museum engages with honestly. The broader story of Scottish royal history, centred on the Palace of Scone just north of the city, provides a rich historical context.
Scottish Fine Art Collection
The museum's fine art collection is one of the most significant held by a Scottish local authority, spanning five centuries of Scottish and European painting.
The collection includes important old masters, a distinguished group of nineteenth-century Scottish paintings — including works by artists of the Glasgow School and Royal Scottish Academy painters — and twentieth-century Scottish art including examples by the Scottish Colourists and their successors.
The new display in Perth City Hall gives these works their finest presentation in the museum's history, with gallery spaces designed to complement the quality of the paintings and drawing on recent scholarly research into the collection's history and significance.
Collections
Perth — Scotland's Royal City
The principal permanent display exploring Perth's history as a former royal capital of Scotland and as a major commercial and cultural centre of the Central Highlands, from prehistoric settlement through the medieval royal city, the Reformation, and the modern era.
Art and Craft in Scotland
Display of the fine art and applied art collections, presenting Scottish paintings from the sixteenth century to the twentieth alongside the outstanding collections of Scottish silver, ceramics, and applied arts.
The Natural World of Perthshire
Natural history galleries presenting the remarkable biodiversity of Perthshire through the museum's collections of local geology, mineralogy, botany, and zoology built up since 1824.
Current Exhibitions
The new museum facilities include dedicated spaces for temporary exhibitions on Scottish history, art, and culture. Check the Culture Perth and Kinross website for details of current and forthcoming temporary exhibitions in the new City Hall building.