Keys handed over for new £27m Perth Museum

Perth and Kinross Council has been handed the keys to the new Perth Museum, which is due to open in spring 2024.

The venue will be run by the arm’s-length charity Culture Perth and Kinross (CPK), which currently manages cultural venues including Perth Art Gallery and Alyth Museum on behalf of the council. Perth and Kinross Council will be the core funder.

Perth Museum is located in the city’s Edwardian former City Hall. The project cost £27m, with the council contributing £17m, and the UK Government £10m through the Tay Cities Region Deal. Construction began in 2021.

The museum will be the new home of the Stone of Destiny – also known as the Stone of Scone – which is used in the coronation of UK monarchs.

The stone was kept at Scone Abbey near Perth before being seized during the English invasion of Scotland in 1296 and moved to London’s Westminster Abbey. It was returned to Scotland in 1996 and is currently kept at Edinburgh Castle.

The museum will also display Perth & Kinross’s Recognised Collections of National Significance and loans and exhibitions from the UK and overseas.

Council leader Grant Laing said: “Perth Museum is at the heart of our regeneration vision for our area and will be a world-class cultural attraction that will attract tourists from across the globe.”

He added that the venue and the Stone of Destiny “will bring tens of thousands of visitors to Perth and Kinross every year”.

CPK chief executive Helen Smout said: “To have reached this stage of the project is a significant milestone and the work of so many different people who worked incredibly hard to reach it is to be celebrated.

“Everyone at Culture Perth and Kinross is delighted to take forward the next phase of development, bringing in the thousands of objects which will be on display and making sure the new museum is something everyone in the region can take great pride in when it opens.”