Galloway Viking hoard artefacts to go on display in Edinburgh

Parts of the hoard will go on display in Edinburgh next month

A selection of artefacts from a Viking treasure hoard uncovered in Galloway three years ago is to go on display in Edinburgh next month.

National Museums Scotland, which saw off a Dumfries and Galloway Council bid to display the haul, is trying to raise nearly £2m to cover the finder's fee.

NMS said it would be exhibiting part of the treasure until October.

However, it added it would hold further talks with the council about displaying some items in Kirkcudbright.

The treasure will be on display at the National Museum of Scotland from 16 June to 1 October.

It is on loan from the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer and will give visitors a first glimpse of the unique hoard discovered by a metal detectorist.

'Delicate work'

NMS director Dr Gordon Rintoul said: "We have offered to carry the responsibility of raising the necessary funding to acquire the hoard and resourcing its long term conservation, care and research requirements.

"We have also offered to lend a significant and representative proportion of the hoard to Dumfries and Galloway Council for long term display in Kirkcudbright Art Gallery.

"The fragile nature of many of the items means a rigorous process of review and delicate conservation work must be undertaken before the future display of individual items can be decided."

The whole collection could also go on display in south west Scotland - for a set period of time - following the conservation work.

However, the decision to award the collection to NMS has come in for further criticism in Dumfries and Galloway.

Kirkcudbright-based councillor Jane Maitland said the region had been treated "shabbily" and should have been given the whole collection for permanent display.

"There should be nothing at all to stand in the way of permitting us to display it proudly to the rest of the world and to reap the benefit," she said.

She said the "default position" should be for the whole hoard to be displayed in Dumfries and Galloway and described the decision to allocate it elsewhere as the "theft" of the region's archaeological treasures.