Scottish National Gallery

William Henry Playfair designed this building in the form of a Greek temple, and Prince Albert laid the foundation stone in 1850. When it opened to the public in 1859, the building was split down the middle: the east half housed the Royal Scottish Academy's exhibitions, while the west half contained the new National Gallery. The Ionic columns of the gallery contrast with the Doric order of the RSA next door — a deliberate architectural conversation between the two buildings, like siblings dressed in different styles.

The permanent collection spans from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century and contains over 96,000 works. Highlights include Botticelli's 'The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child,' Raphael's 'Holy Family with a Palm Tree,' Velazquez, Vermeer, and a room full of Impressionists that's worth the visit alone — Monet's haystacks, Cezanne's 'Mont Sainte-Victoire,' and Gauguin's 'Three Tahitians.' The Scottish collection is equally strong, with Raeburn's 'Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch' — the minister skating in his black coat — being perhaps the most reproduced Scottish painting in existence.

The Playfair Project in the early 2000s created an underground connection — the Weston Link — between the gallery and the renovated RSA, opening in 2004. This subterranean space includes galleries, a restaurant, and a direct entrance from Princes Street Gardens, solving the problem of how to expand a protected neoclassical building without touching its facade. It's one of Edinburgh's more elegant architectural solutions.

Admission is free, and the gallery sits in arguably the finest position of any art museum in Britain: looking north to the Firth of Forth, south to the castle, with Princes Street Gardens flowing below like a moat of green.