The National Galleries

 Five Galleries

      ©

The National Galleries of Scotland have five different buildings in Edinburgh:

1.   The National Gallery, The Mound  -   built 1820s

2.   The Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound  -  built 1850s

3.   The Portrait Gallery, Queen Street

4.   The Gallery of Modern Art,  Belford Road  -  opened 1984

5.   Dean Gallery,  Belford Road  -  opened 1999

Galleries 1. and 2. above are close to each other at the foot of The Mound.  Both were designed by Playfair.  Work is underway linking these two galleries together.

Gallery 3. is a large Victorian building in Queen Street, shared with the National Museum of Antiquities, but the latter is gradually moving it exhibits to the National Museum of Scotland, and so creating more space for the National Portrait Gallery's exhibits.

Galleries 4. and 5. are on opposite sides of the road, above Dean Village. 
No 4 is housed in what was originally John Watson's Orphanage.
No 5 has a new landscaped garden.

Bus Service

Bus Service
2000 to 2008

The bus that used to link these galleries can be seen in the photo above travelling up the Mound passing in front of the Southern Entrance to the National Gallery of Scotland on 19 September 2002. 

The Northern Entrance to the Galleries was temporarily out of use as work continued to create an underground link between the two galleries at the foot of the Mound, when I took this photo.

Bus Service
Today

This free shuttle bus service began operating in 2000, but was withdrawn on February 25, 2008.  A spokesman for the National Galleries explained* that the cost of renewing the contract beyond that date had become too high in relation to the galleries' limited budget.                  * Evening News:  December 8, 2007:  p.8

However, a new Gallery Bus Service, for which a voluntary donation of £1 is requested, is now linking the galleries.  For details of this service (including whether or not it is still operating) please see the this Gallery Bus page on the National Galleries' web site.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  November 12, 2015

Bus Services

The free shuttle bus linking the galleries, which began in 2000,  is being withdrawn on February 25, 2008.

A spokesman for the National Galleries explained that the contract was due for renewal, but that the costs had become too high in relation to the galleries' limited budget.

Evening News:  December 8, 2007:  p.8.