Scottish Museums Day 2025

For Scottish Museums Day (3 October) we’ve rounded up some of our favourite activities from museums from across the country, from this year's Maths Week Scotland. Maths isn’t just for Maths Week though - many museums are continuing to run workshops or make their resources available throughout the year.

Dumfries & Galloway

Dumfries Museum hosted a 'Gaming Through History' day, inviting visitors of all ages to have fun with maths and experience games from Ancient Egypt to the present day.

East Lothian

At the National Museum of Flight, families could explore the site with our updated self-led Family Maths Trail, which is now available to download all year round.

Behind the scenes, primary schools could book in to ‘Museum on the Move’ sessions, where pupils help us plan to move one of the museum's display objects. Working together they solve a series of maths-related problems, culminating in a removal truck coding challenge. These will be running again in January, March and May 2026.

Edinburgh

There was lots of maths fun happing in Edinburgh during Maths Week this year.

St Cecilia's Hall and Music Museum kicked things off early at the start of September, with their Family Maths Trail which ran until the end of the month. Finn Finity went along on launch day to check it out, and gave it a big thumbs up.

At the National Museum of Scotland, families with under 5s were able to take part in a Wild Maths for Wee Ones, where they discovered shapes, numbers, time and more through songs and action rhymes. Finn Finity made a guest appearance too - and surprised participants with mini versions of himself to take home!

At our big Science Saturday, the Maths Week team were out again with games, puzzles, books, robots, print making with fern fractals, and a Lego challenge, in the National Museum of Scotland’s Hawthornden Court and Learning Centre. The Lego challenge was to create Scottish animals out of Lego - with some incredible results! Can you identify what they all are? We also launched our brand new Wild Maths Family Trail, which is available to download from our website.

And on the final day of Maths Week, we welcomed author David MacPhail to the museum's auditorium, to talk about “Legends, Myths and Maths: A Journey Through Scotland” - exploring the myths, legends, wildlife and landscapes of Scotland, with hidden maths.

Behind the scenes, primary schools could book in to ‘Museum on the Move’ sessions, where pupils help us plan to move one of the museum's display objects. Working together they solve a series of maths-related problems, culminating in a removal truck coding challenge. These will be running again in December 2024 and June 2025.

The National Museum of Scotland also has a ‘World of Maths Trail’ available to schools all year round, which can also be downloaded from our website.

Also behind the scenes, primary schools could book in to Surgeon's Hall Museums for a workshop to explore forensics, bones and surgery. Pupils got get hands-on estimating, measuring and investigating bones & historical surgical instruments.

The Museum on the Mound were all booked up with digital workshops all week. Their ‘Maths Money Marvels’ free digital workshop is also available to book all year round

And visitors to the museum in-person could enjoy exploring some handling objects related to... Of course, Finn Finity had tom pop along to have a look too!

At Trinity House Maritime Museum, two 'Weather at Sea' tours highlighted, amongst other things, the maths involved in navigating stormy seas and changing tides. Visitors could explore the scientific discoveries in our collection that have helped to shape modern understandings of the climate and changed the course of history.

And during the museum's Doors Open Day, activities included make your own barometer sessions, which touched on the maths topics of gathering data and statistics, as well as family trails featuring maths questions.

Fife

Fife was very busy in Maths Week Scotland too this year. The World Gold Museum in St Andrews once again shared their maths based scavenger hunt around the town, where you could discover facts about the people who lived there, who were Open Champions while practicing your maths skills. Within the Museum trails, challenges and crafts were available throughout the week.

In addition, there was more maths fun to be had at the World Golf Museum's monthly Little Niblicks session for under 5s - which had 'Numbers' as the month's theme in honour of Maths Week; the Paint and Sip: Painting by Numbers (18+ only), where you could try your hand painting a picture by following the number chart; and the regular drop-in Lego session which was taken over by our mascot Finn Finty, Maths Week Scotland's mascot with some number based challeges using Lego bricks.

In Anstruther, the Scottish Fisheries Museum were running their fishy themed Kipper’s Family Maths Trail throughout the week. They also offer a maths trail for schools, which is available all year round.

And at the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum in Dunfermline, schools could book in for a session that challenged their maths skills, including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with large numbers; estimation; averages; percentages; shapes and symmetry; and measurement.

Highland

Dingwall Museum hosted maths activities, games, and a family trail throughout the week, and also highlighted some of the maths related objects from their collections on social media - such as a beautiful nested set of bronze weights for Dingwall Burgh. "Many burghs were issued with sets of measures like these in 1826, as it was important for commercial transactions to have precise, accurate weights."

At Gairloch Museum, schools could book in for an interactive session to explore the Fibonacci Sequence. Through looking at nature, doing art and some tricky puzzles pupils could learn about the sequence and explore some of the places it is found.

The West Highland Museum in Fort William was also working with local schools, exploring maths through nature with various Wild Maths based challenges.

And Hugh Millar's Birthplace Cottage & Museum joined in the fun online, with a dinosaur measuring challenge for their followers on Facebook.

Midlothian

The National Mining Museum in Newtongrange, one of this year's Large Grant recipients, hosted Creepy Crawly Calculations — a fun, hands-on event that brought together two unlikely companions: maths and minibeasts!

They invited pupils from Newtongrange ELC along during the week and then on Saturday welcomed families of all ages! You can read more about it on their website.

North Lanarkshire

The North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre in Motherwell had some special themed family activities in their gallery. Visitors could go on a shape hunt, create some shape art and follow the on-screen tutorial to draw 3D shapes.

Orkney

The Pier Arts Centre in Kirkwall promoted their series of maths related activities that focus on the collection, which you can download to do at home or in the classroom. One school on Bluesky share how they had used the resources.

Perth & Kinross

Stanley Mill near Perth offered a self-led for primary school aged children and their families throughout Maths Week. Visitors had to find shapes, spot symmetry and time rotations in the various challenges.

Scottish Borders

The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels had two booked up days of their brand new Number Ninjas maths workshop. Pupils could step into the role of Number Ninjas, discovering the hidden powers of maths through movement, puzzles, patterns, and creative challenges inspired by the world’s longest tapestry.

At the Wild Maths Family Fun Day at Hawick Museum, families could get get hands-on with activities like building animal dens, playing with clay, and even becoming a human sundial, while discovering how maths appears naturally in the world around us.

The day also included the T the launch of Explorer Backpacks, designed to help families explore Wilton Lodge Park and the museum in new and creative ways; as well as expert-led Wild Nature Adventures workshops.

A separate dedicated ASN Family Fun Session was also held at Hawick Museum earlier in the week, for children and families with additional support needs. This relaxed and inclusive event is completely free, providing a supportive space to explore maths through play, creativity, and discovery.

Throughout the week at the Borders Textile Towerhouse, also in Hawick, visitors could take part in Play with Patterns and Colour – self-led activities that explored the fascinating use of maths in textiles including symmetry, repetition, and geometry inspired by the Borders’ rich textile heritage.

The Thread Count: Textiles + Maths self-led family trail is also available at Borders Textile Towerhouse all year round. It's available from the front desk, or can be downloaded.

Shetland Islands

Shetland Museum & Archives in Lerwick launched a new Family Maths Trail, which will be available until the end of October.

South Lanarkshire

At the National Museum of Rural Life in East Kilbride, families could explore the site with our new self-led Family Maths Trail, which is available to download all year round.

West Lothian

And, last but not least, at Almond Valley Heritage Centre, schools and families had almost two weeks, starting the week before Maths Week, to take part in 'Sow Wild, Grow Wild, Go Wild'. Visitors could explore the history of Mill Farm through a journey of seeds and soil, watering cans and harvest baskets, and discover how maths helps everything grow. Sow seeds, measure plants, and spot patterns as you journey through the growing arc, revealing the role maths plays in supporting our food chain, past, present and future.