Castle loses top spot to museum crowds
THE National Museum of Scotland overtook Edinburgh Castle as the most popular visitor attraction in Scotland last year, figures have revealed.
In total, 1.81 million people visited the museum in Edinburgh, which opened ten new galleries in July 2016 – a 15.5 per cent rise on the previous year.
Edinburgh Castle welcomed 1.77m people, up 13.4 per cent on 2015.
The Black Watch Castle & Museum in Perth and Kinross saw a 1,248 per cent rise in visitor numbers, largely on the back of the popular Weeping Window sculpture, which has previously gone on display around the UK, and features thousands of handmade ceramic poppies commemorating those who died in the First World War.
Last year 195,301 people visited the museum, up from 14,483 visitors in 2015.
Visits to sites around the country rose for the third year running in 2016, according to figures from the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions (ASVA).
Almost 30m visits were made to 249 of its members’ sites in Scotland in 2016, a rise of six per cent on 2015.
National Museums Scotland director Dr Gordon Rintoul said: “I am delighted the latest ASVA visitor figures have confirmed the National Museum of Scotland’s place as the most popular visitor attraction in Scotland.
“In addition, we recorded the highest-ever visitor numbers across all our sites with nearly 2.7m visits.”
He added: “Last year, in celebration of the National Museum’s 150th anniversary, we opened 10 new inspirational and engaging galleries of applied art, fashion and design and science and technology and the visitor response to them has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Four other sites welcomed more than one million visitors each – with Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the Riverside Museum, both in Glasgow, drawing more than 1.25m people each.
The Scottish National Gallery and St Giles’ Cathedral, both in Edinburgh, drew 1.54m and 1.17m visitors respectively.
Eleven of the top 20 2015 1,567,310 1,568,508 1,377,710 1,261,552 1,131,899 1,108,842 889,420 775,868 601,074 591,943 Y-o-Y% 15.5 13.4 12.1 -0.2 11.2 5.7 -3.6 2.4 13.0 9.2 Paid/Free F P F F F F F F F F attractions for 2016 were located in the capital, compared with nine in 2015.
Sites outside the top 20 also celebrated successes.
In the Highlands, interest generated by the Outlander TV series helped boost visitor numbers at the Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre near Inverness, which rose 21 per cent from 115,923 in 2015 to 139,691 last year.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “It is fantastic that Scottish visitor attractions recorded another successful year in 2016, with almost 30m visits to some of Scotland’s most popular tourist sites. I commend the sterling work of ASVA in creating quality visitor experiences and building Scotland’s reputation as a top tourist destination for visitors from around the world.”
Douglas Walker, chairman of ASVA, said: “These figures demonstrate the visitor attractions sector in Scotland is in robust health. [These] attractions have invested in their visitor offer by developing innovative new products and services and launching inspiring events and exhibitions programmes, supported by creative and effective marketing campaigns.”