The new Perth Museum will open to the public in March 2024, the museum has announced today.
Visitors will get their first look at the £27 million investment project which has transformed Perth’s former City Hall.
Construction on the new museum began in 2021, as the former Perth Museum and Art Gallery was separated. The museum takes up its new home at the heritage Edwardian building, while the former Perth Museum and Art Gallery became the Perth Art Gallery.
The museum will open with Jacobite treasures on public display for the first time. A new permanent display will feature Bonnie Prince Charlie’s sword and a rare Jacobite wine glass. It will be the first time the sword has returned to Scotland since it was made in Perth in 1739.
Also on display will be The Stone of Destiny, returning to Perthshire from Edinburgh Castle, close to its origins at nearby Scone, for the first time in over 700 years. As the centrepiece of the new museum, the Stone will be free for all to visit.
Charles Kinnoull, Chair of Culture Perth & Kinross, said: “The opportunity to bring new objects such as this beautiful Jacobite glass and sword alongside loans from national partners and the existing collections and the Stone of Destiny, all within a stunning new home in the former City Hall is one which I could not be more excited about.
“The collaboration between many different partners to bring all this about in the heart of one of Scotland’s oldest cities has been outstanding.”
Councillor Grant Laing, Leader of Perth & Kinross Council, said the museum’s opening next March “will significantly increase visitors from across the UK and internationally. It has created new skills and employment opportunities, and it will ignite our sense of civic pride in our beautiful and historic city”.
