National Museum of Rural Life 5.14

National Museums Scotland and partners have developed the National Museum of Rural Life, previously known as the Museum of Scottish Country Life, which is based at Wester Kittochside farm, lying between the town of East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire and the village of Carmunnock in Glasgow.Creation of the museumThe project, opened in 2001, cost more than £9 million and was made possible through a partnership between the National Museums of Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and a number of private funders.The National Museum of Rural Life has greatly extended the work of the former Scottish Agricultural Museum, founded in 1949, latterly located within the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston, west of Edinburgh.The completed National Museum of Rural Life features a 50000sqft museum and visitor centre, the Georgian buildings of Wester Kittochside farm, the species-rich fields and hedgerows around it and a 24 ha (60 acre) events area.Lairds of KittochsideThe 44 ha farm was gifted in 1992 to the National Trust for Scotland by Mrs. Margaret Reid who had run the farm for many years with her late husband James, the last of ten generations of Reids. The Reids, as Lairds of Kittochside, farmed the property over a period of 400 years from 1567 to 1992.