National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery "provides a unique visual history of Scotland, told through the portraits of those who shaped it." The building alone is impressive standing as a grand, neo-gothic building in red sandstone and was the first purpose-built portrait gallery in the world. This Gallery on Queen Street houses special exhibitions, two floors of portraits from the national collection, a shop and a cafe. The building feels small on entering but the exhibition space is generous covering two floors -details of current exhibitions and a floor plan can be found on-line. The main entrance hall is beautifully decorated with a processional or pageant frieze by William Holeas along the first-floor balustrade and a painted series of large-scale murals on the first floor. This makes the exterior as worth going along to see as any exhibition it holds. Admission to The Portrait Gallery is normally free but a charge may be made for special exhibitions. The shop provides gifts for tourists aswell as useful study guides and the cafe serves delicious hot main dishes and essential home-baked cakes. The Gallery is open daily 10am-5pm, Thursday until 7pm. Other facilities that The Gallery provides are a print room, reference section, library and archive of negatives. These form invaluable resources for genealogists, students, scholars and any visitor interested in the people and history of Scotland but are available by appointment only.