Our collection of minerals, meteorites and rocks includes everything from 4.65 Byr old meteorites through to anthropogenic minerals.
We have nearly 2,000 mineral species as per International Mineralogical Association classification. You are welcome to contact us if you would like to use any for research.
Notable collections include; minerals from important historical mining regions in or near Scotland, an internationally renowned agate collection, the Heddle Collection of Scottish minerals, many unusual igneous rocks from inaccessible regions, and a small but diverse meteorite collection (including three of the four known Scottish meteorites).
Altogether we have approximately 70% of all known mineral species from Scotland including good representation from the Leadhills/Wanlockhead, Strontian, Alva and Talnotry mined areas, to name a few.
Our igneous suites include a good coverage of St Kilda island rocks and Gardar Suite rocks from Greenland. Important historical specimens include eastern Africa ores collected by David Livingstone, the first Beagle expedition, and the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition.
Whilst our oldest collection of rocks was assembled nearly 300 years ago we are still actively interested in acquiring new specimens.
Looking for a particular object in our Natural Sciences collections?Search our collections
Specific responsibility: Head of Mineral, Meteorite and Rock collections with particular emphasis on developing our ore mineral and bio-mineral collections.
Research interests: Tectonic geomorphology, calcite morphology, geo-biology interactions, and tracing historical collections.
Specific responsibility: Curation of the mineral, meteorite and gem collections, XRD and FTIR analysis.
Research interests/expertise: Mineralogy, meteorites, topographical mineralogy, the history of National Museums Scotland and its mineral collections, the use of minerals as paints and pigments, the application of x-ray diffraction analysis, mineralogical etymology.
Specific responsibility: Providing curatorial support across Earth Systems. Working particularly with the gemstone collection and provenance research for the non-Scottish mineral collection.
Research interests: Gemmology, Scottish Minerals; Promotion and preservation of Scotland’s geological heritage; Collections care; Science communication.
Specific responsibility: Providing analytical support to Earth Systems. Analysis of geological materials with XRD, XRF, SEM, and other microscopy techniques.
Research interests: Igneous petrology, volcanology, the geology of Scotland’s volcanic districts.
Our specimens represent Scotland’s geological history and global mineralogical diversity.
Our collections date from the mid-1800s and include samples of many different groups of animals.
Our collection covers all the major groups of fossil invertebrates, vertebrates, plants and trace fossils.
Our collections comprise more than 200,000 vertebrate specimens from around the world.