A new museum charting the history of Catholicism in Scotland is to open in Glasgow at a historic site.
The museum will relocate the entire, internationally renowned collection of paintings, church textiles and Jacobite memorabilia from Blairs Museum in Aberdeen, which is now closed.
It includes the priceless Memorial Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots.
The site of the new museum will be the former St Mary's school, in Orr Street in the Calton area of the East End, which is undergoing significant regeneration.
The building once served as the temporary cathedral of the Archdiocese in the mid-19th century in an area that was home to many immigrant Catholics.
The monument to those who suffered from famine in the Scottish Highlands and Ireland in the 19th century is located close to this site.
The Bishops Conference of Scotland to move all its agencies, the Scottish Catholic Archives and the Scottish Catholic Museum to a new single location close to the historic parish of St Mary’s Abercromby Street as part of a cost-cutting plan.
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Established in 1992, Blairs Museum was originally known as the Blairs Museum Trust until 2014 when the name was changed to reflect the more diverse nature of its collections.
Blairs seminary closed in 1986 but the chapel continues to be used as a place of worship.
The site of the new museum has previously been a social work office, a parish/dance hall and a school and will bring all the branches of the Conference together to "promote the presence of the Catholic Church in Scotland at a national level".
Scottish historian, Professor Sir Tom Devine, said:"The Bishops Conference of Scotland have chosen wisely in siting their new office accommodation, the Scottish Catholic Archives and a very welcome new addition - a Scottish Catholic Museum - in Orr Street, Calton.
"This is an area which has great significance for Irish Catholic immigration in the nineteenth century and especially during the terrible era of the Great Famine, commemorated in a nearby monument to those who suffered during an Gorta Mór.
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"St Mary’s, Abercromby Street, the second oldest Catholic parish in the Archdiocese, opened in 1842, just three years before the potato blight started to ravage Ireland and is also in the neighbourhood.
"Father Peter Forbes, the first parish priest, had toured Ireland raising over £5.8 million in today’s values to help cover the costs of construction of the church.
"It also has resonance to this day as the parish where Celtic FC was founded."
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From the 5th century AD, Scotland was a Roman Catholic country, however, after the Protestant and Scottish Reformations, Scotland adopted Presbyterianism (the Church of Scotland) as its state religion.
Due to economic hardship especially following the Great Famine, many Irish Catholic emigrants settled across Scotland, particularly in the East End of Glasgow.
Bishop Joseph Toal, who has responsibility for Catholic Heritage and Culture said: “In the chosen location we wish to identify with plans to regenerate the area around St Mary’s, Abercromby Street, which itself has such strong historical and cultural links with the development of the Catholic Church in Scotland through the last two centuries.”
The Archdiocese of Glasgow said the presence of the archives and museum in Glasgow will give greater accessibility to the historical records and artefacts of the history of the Catholic Church in Scotland pre-Reformation, during the Penal Laws when Catholicism was banned in Scotland and the Emancipation of Catholics in 1829 up until the present day.
Consolidating the agencies with the archives and museum will also contribute to a "significant financial saving" for the Bishops’ Conference.
The new centre and museum is expected to be open by spring next year.
Ronnie Convery, head of communications for the Archdiocese of Glasgow, said: "The initiative underlines the Bishops’ commitment to using the richness of Scottish Catholic culture – including the famous portrait of Mary Queen of Scots – and many Jacobite artefacts to tell our story through the ages, engaging with the many nearby historical religious sites of the life of St Mungo but also as a means of informing and evangelising."
Glasgow already houses the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, which houses exhibits relating to all the world's major religions.
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