Scottish National Museum

The next day I headed to the Scottish National museum. I took one of the free guided tours there (definitely recommended). The part of the museum I liked the best was the section on Scottish history. It started with prehistory, in a room containing Pictish artworks carved on stone slabs which were many thousands of years old. The symbolism of these was regarded as mysterious for a long time, but apparently recent research has created a greater understanding of the symbols of the remaining artworks.

Some of the images contained mysterious figures and scenes. The strange bird-men kind of reminded me of medieval plague doctors. The stone carvings of fish and birds were pretty straightforward though!

I also saw the Lewis chess men. The museum guide said that little 'beaters' used to be given hallucinogenic mushrooms to stir them into battle. The beater (the one gnawing on the end of his shield) does look a little out of sorts.

Another room I liked was about the natural history of the British Isles. There is a great display on what it would have looked like before humans got there. It was covered in forests and wolves roamed the hills.