Glasgow's Commonwealth Games, the Independence Referendum and the Ryder Cup have all been credited with helping boost visitors figures to Scotland's leading attractions.
The Games and their attendant cultural programmes helped see attendance figures rise considerably in 2014, with significant rises in visitor figures at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which provided the stunning backdrop for the bowls event, Riverside Museum and People's Palace in Glasgow and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Castle was the most visited paid-for attraction outside London with 1,480,676 visitors resulting in a 4% increase, but Kelvingrove's visitors rose to 1.12m, an increase of 7.5%, and the Riverside transport museum seeing a 41.8% increase to 1.04m visitors.
The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) saw a record 39% increase (up to 1,295,015) at the Scottish National Gallery, with the galleries saying this was due in part to the popular Generation show of contemporary art, which drew 200,000 people to the RSA building on the mound.
In total the National Galleries separate buildings in Edinburgh drew nearly 2m people last year.
The figures, annually released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) saw an average increase of 6.5% on 2013 visitor numbers.
Scottish attractions overall had the greatest increase of almost 10% increase, followed by London with an increase of 7.11%.
The National Museum of Scotland was not only the most visited free attraction in Scotland with 1,639,509 visitors but was the most visited museum outside of London, but saw a 7% drop overall.
Archie Graham, the chair of Glasgow Life, which runs the city's museums and galleries, said: "Glasgow is Scotland's cultural powerhouse and while we enjoyed an incredible summer of sport with the 2014 Commonwealth Games, our museums and attractions continued to attract millions of visitors.
"The success of the Riverside Museum, in particular, has been nothing short of phenomenal and is an outstanding example of how investment in museums can reap huge rewards.
"Glasgow is continuing to invest in our rich cultural heritage with the redevelopment of the Kelvin Hall and our ambitious plans for a full refurbishment and redisplay of the Burrell Collection."
Sir John Leighton, director general of the NGS, said: "2014 was an exceptional year and several factors came together, the Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup, and something rather big going on in the political world - which helped focus people's attention - and Scotland and Edinburgh felt busier than they had before.
"We had a very strong season of exhibitions, led by Generation, and the 200,000 people that were drawn to the RSA was pretty amazing."
Bernard Donoghue, director of ALVA, said: "Scotland's impressive visitor figures - which outperform the rest of the UK - are proof of the need for, and of the successful investment strategy by the Scottish Government, local government and
the Heritage Lottery Fund in investing in Tourism - Scotland's most important industry."
Outdoor attractions in Scotland saw a 7.88% increase, compared to 4.92% in the whole of the UK with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh experiencing an 18.5% increase.
Urquhart Castle saw a 6% rise and visitor numbers to Stirling Castle rose by 7%.
The British Museum remained the most popular visitor attraction overall for the 8th year running with 6,695,213 visitors and remaining in 2nd place was the National Gallery in London which saw a 6.4% increase to 6,416,724.
Included in the numbers for the first time was the Southbank Centre - who saw 6,255,799 visitors - securing them
the position in 3rd place.
Museums & Galleries throughout the UK saw an 6.09% increase, however in Scotland, the increase was 11.58%.
ALVA's 57 members are the UK's most popular museums, galleries, palaces, castles, cathedrals,
zoos, historic houses, heritage sites, gardens and leisure attractions.
They comprise over 2,200 tourist sites, hosting more than 119m domestic and overseas visitors each year - around 28% of the visits made annually in the UK.
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