The story
National Galleries of Scotland is really three museums in Edinburgh under one name, holding the nation's art collection. At its centre is the Scottish National Gallery on the Mound, a pair of columned temples by the architect William Playfair set on the ridge between the old and new towns.
Inside hangs the story of Scottish painting, Ramsay, Raeburn and Wilkie, and one much-loved oddity, Henry Raeburn's small portrait of a minister skating on a frozen loch, gliding with his arms folded. Around them is a European collection reaching to Botticelli, Titian and Velázquez.
A short walk away, the Portrait Gallery gathers the faces of Scottish history in a red sandstone Gothic building, and the Gallery of Modern Art holds the 20th century, its lawn shaped into grassy terraces by the artist Charles Jencks. Two of Titian's Diana paintings are shared between Edinburgh and London, moving between the cities every few years.
