Perth Museum Missing From World’s Most-Visited List; City Demands Recount, Citing ‘The Stone Alone’
Beijing's Palace Museum tops the global rankings. Perth argues its Stone of Destiny is 'the heaviest exhibit per visitor' anywhere.
Perth Museum, home of the Stone of Destiny and a strong sense of grievance. Photo: Sahaib, “The Stone of Destiny, Perth Museum”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
A list of the world’s most-visited museums was published this week, with Beijing’s Palace Museum at number one and China claiming twelve of the top twenty. Perth Museum, home of the Stone of Destiny, did not feature.
“There must be a mistake,” said a Perth man who has visited the Stone twice. “Did they count me both times? Did they count my sister? She went in to use the toilet, but she looked at the Stone on the way.”
Perth residents point out that their museum has the advantage of being in Perth, where visitors can see an ancient coronation stone in the morning, have a scone in the afternoon and be home before the A9 gets busy.
The Perthetic has calculated that, adjusted for population, weather and the number of people who say “is that it?” before being told it really is, Perth Museum is comfortably the most-visited museum in the world.
The Palace Museum has not responded. We assume it is busy.
The real story: World news (BBC)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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I’ve been four times. Count me four times.
— Ian R., Perth, 30 October 2026 -
‘Is that it?’ is exactly what I said. Then I stood and looked at it for twenty minutes. That’s the power of the Stone.
— Wendy L., Bridge of Earn, 30 October 2026
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