Anatomical Museum

Anatomical Museum Open Days 2024

Entry is by advance booking ONLY

The Anatomical Museum is open to the public on a limited number of days each year. 

 

Our next Open Day will be;

 

Saturday 30th March

FREE tickets are available to book via the following link;  https://MarchOpenDay.eventbrite.co.uk The link is scheduled to go live on Monday 4th March at 10am.

 

How to find us

Our address is Doorway 3, Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG.

Find us on the Campus map

On our Open Days staff and student volunteers will guide visitors through the building and help those with restricted mobility who may require to use the lift. If you require further information ahead of your visit please contact us at Anatomy.Edinburgh@ed.ac.uk

 

Ground floor Entrance at Doorway 3

There is ramp access into Doorway 3 from Teviot Place quad. Walk past the stone pillars and turn left up two flights of stairs to reach the first floor.

Lift access – Turn right inside Doorway 3 to locate the lift. Press 1 for the first floor. Press 3 for the Anatomical Museum.

Toilets - there are female toilets and an accessible toilet by the stairs. There are male and female toilets through another door to the right.

There are seats on this floor.

Pram park - there is space inside the entrance to leave prams and buggies whilst you visit the museum. These items are left at your own risk.

Parking - Blue Badge Holders - There are two disabled parking spaces on the left side of the quad at Teviot Place and close to the entrance at Doorway 3.

 

First floor for the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, whalebones and elephant skeletons

There are two flights of stairs to the first floor from the ground floor entrance.

Lift access - Press 1 in the lift to access this floor from the ground floor or the museum.

Toilets - there are male and female toilets on this floor. There is an accessible toilet on this floor with a hoist and a fold down table.

There are seats on this floor.

 

Third floor for the Anatomical Museum

There are a four flights of narrow stairs up to the museum from the first floor.

Lift access - Press 3 in the lift to reach the museum from the ground or first floors.

Toilets – none in the museum.

There is seating in the museum.

Please note: Food, drink and pets are not permitted in the museum.

 

Accessibility

PLEASE NOTE: The museum and lecture theatre have limited evacuation facilities for people who may require assistance to evacuate, typically restricted mobility. In the event of an emergency, visitors must be able to either self-evacuate using stairs or self-transfer to an evacuation chair. Please contact the museum directly at Anatomy.Edinburgh@ed.ac.uk if you require further information.

 

Why are we not open to the public more often?

The collections and the museum itself are in continual use for teaching, therefore public access is limited. Every time we open to the public we are required by law to have a licenced teacher of anatomy on the premises.

 

What is on display?

The museum holds human remains prepared for teaching anatomy since the 1700s as well as zoology specimens, phrenology busts and masks, sculptures, artworks and models created to teach anatomy in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The museum is also the location of the skeleton of murderer William Burke who, along with his accomplice William Hare, supplied the anatomy lecturer Dr Robert Knox with bodies for dissection at his anatomy school in Surgeon’s Square in the 1820s. On the 1st floor leading up to the museum there are two Asian Elephant skeletons and a jawbone collected from a whale stranded on the beach at Longniddry near Edinburgh in 1869.

 

Things to do

Lego Skeleton Quiz - there are ten LEGO Skeletons hidden in the museum. Can you find them and unscramble the hidden word?

There are free colouring sheets featuring our penguin and elephant skeletons and plenty of colouring pencils.

Tell us what you thought of your visit in our visitor book or in our museum feedback forms.

 

Restrictions

Due to the law which governs the display of human remains, strictly no photography or filming is permitted in the museum. Please note, under 16s should be accompanied by an adult. Parents are asked to use their own discretion when deciding to bring younger children to the museum.

 

 

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