The King's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse — Attraction in City of Edinburgh

It is great, the staff are so so lovely and really very helpful. Beautiful little setting too. I've got to say though that the most random thing happened to us, so random. We went to the Da Vinci exhibition and the girl told us at the beginning that if we got our tickets stamped on the way out then we'd be able to come back for free. We forgot! We were the last ones out, the building was closing and completely forgot. Anyways, they were so lovely that we called the number and asked if we could come back and get them stamped then. We had the card used for payment so thought that would be worth a try. We called, explained the situation and asked if we could get our tickets stamped when we came back... She said that we could not do that, but what we could do is put our tickets in an envelope, send that to Buckingham Palace, and they would get stamped there and be sent back to us. Process should take around 10 working days...... EH?!?! Are you sure?? Not checked with anyone else yet but seems incredibly random that you would pop your tickets in an envelope addressed to nobody at Buckingham Palace and they would take them to the queen(?) And then she would know to get her official stamp out to say, "yes, these 2 Edinburgh plebs can go back to the Da Vinci exhibition." Because she is all seeing or what? I don't understand, doesn't make any sense, and needless to say we haven't sent the tickets to Buckingham Palace. Apart from that, do go! But get your tickets stamped, don't forget! I believe her majesty does have other pressing matters so she might forget to check the cctv at the Queens Gallery vs national records and make sure it really was you that spent £15 to get in and therefore she gives you her royal pardon for forgetting to get the...

This is not my usual choice of places to visit. I chose to visit The Palace of Holyroodhouse with restrictions (I thought) only to get an email confirmation for Windsor Castle as The Palace is currently closed to the public. I did manage to easily get the booking switched. A phone number is given which can be contacted 7 days a week. I did not rate the audio guide as it only covered about half, if that, of the pictures that are on display. It is not a large collection and you could comfortably get round in about an hour. I took less than that as I had a later booking for another venue, some distance away by bus (on a Sunday). There are pictures by very well known artists 🎨 with descriptions of them all. I am not sure how long this display will be open to the public in Edinburgh but guess that it will be available at several other venues. I apologise for my choice of photos 📸. I particularly liked only two pictures and only took photos of one...

As with any gallery your enjoyment will depend entirely on what the current exhibit is. When I went (several times) it was for "Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man". The gallery itself is well proportioned with a small reception area, downstairs introductory area to the left and then upstairs to the main portion of the exhibition.

The exhibit I saw was well curated and there were lots of different sources of information to utilise. The ticket was done by timed entry slots to prevent any overcrowding and this worked well in practice. If you have your ticket stamped at the end it works as a 12 month entry ticket for future exhibits.

Back downstairs to the right is a gift shop for the palace that also contained a section for the exhibition. You also have an adjacent cafe that does some quite delicious cakes and snacks. I did not visit the...