Our past is our future

Fascinating work

Why are people fascinated by the past? There are two simple answers. One, we learn from the past – most importantly about human nature and the foundations of cultures and indeed whole worlds. Two, people love stories and history is the richest possible source of stories.

But what makes stories hit home? It's all down to 'how you tell them'. Museums across Scotland have really woken up to this fact. History can be re-told and re-interpreted ad infinitum. And the storytelling can employ any number of creative resources that are available. Indeed the past is the future for a whole range of professionals and the heritage industry today harnesses the skills and knowledge of designers, architects, curators, academics, researchers, writers, artists, model makers, film makers, digital animators, computer programmers and actors. It's an industry that preserves and promotes an understanding of not just the indigenous culture but cultures from far afield and therefore provides an enormous educational resource. And it's also an industry that overlaps with tourism – these days addressing spectacle as much as it does learning.

No looking back

There are 200 members of The Scottish Museums Council, the overarching organisation whose mission it is to achieve the best possible museum and gallery provision in Scotland for the public benefit. These members manage 320 museums and include all 32 local authorities, universities, regimental and independent museums ranging in size from small voluntary trusts to large metropolitan services attracting over 1 million visitors a year.

The National Museums of Scotland – which include The Royal Museum, Museum of Scotland, the National War Museum (at Edinburgh Castle) and the Museums of Flight (East Lothian), Scottish Country Life (East Kilbride) and Costume (Dumfries) – are arguably the collective jewel in the nation's crown. Edinburgh's Chambers Street is without question a 'must-visit' destination for tourists and Edinburghers alike for it's the address of both the Royal Museum, with its magnificent birdcage main hall filled with natural light and eclectic international collection housed in thirty-six galleries, and the stunning new Museum of Scotland, which is both an architectural landmark in a city of architectural wonders and a stunning presentation of the nation's history from its geological beginnings right up to the present day. It's a world class model of excellence and since its opening on St. Andrews Day 1998 there's no looking back for the industry in Scotland.

Other highlights across Scotland combining creativity with education include a clutch of Science interpretation centres like Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, Glasgow's Science Centre and Sensation Dundee which reveal science past and present to layman and child alike with inspired theatrical flair. New Lanark in the Clyde Valley is a World Heritage Site bringing to life a Victorian mill town via a combination of painstaking restoration and technological wizardry. Whilst on Orkney the Skara Brae Visitor Centre opens the imagination to a world older than the pyramids and serves as an introduction to one of the most remarkably preserved regions of Neolithic life in Northern Europe.

The past is all around us

Glasgow boasts its fair share of remarkable museums too. Its Hunterian Museum, Museum of Transport and Burrell Collection are justifiably world famous. Other attractions include the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, which houses one of the finest municipal collections in Europe and the unique Museum of Religion beside Glasgow Cathedral.

Elsewhere, Aberdeen's Art Gallery (which attracts over 300,000 visitors a year) and Maritime Museum, Elgin's new contemporary art space at Moray College, the award-winning Timespan Heritage Centre and Art Gallery at Helmsdale in Sutherland and the British Golf Museum at St Andrews are all well worth a visit or three.

The Highlands and Islands too are full of local museums, heritage and visitor centres. Particular highlights include the Inverness Museum, Strathpeffer's Highland Museum of Childhood, the reconstructed 18th century township at Newtonmore Highland Folk Museum and the Mount Stuart Gallery and Visitor Centre on the Isle of Bute – Scotland's Visitor Attraction of the Year 2002.

The days of fusty artefacts lit by ghostly lights in rows of glass cases are long past. Although nowadays, because of the amazing diversity of interpretation and presentation, when you do hit upon such a dinosaur it's strangely captivating. The past has many legs. And looks to be a source of inspiration and repeat business way into the future.