Emphasis on may, depending on whether or not I can pull a travel scholarship, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

What are good arms and armor-related places besides the British Museum and the Tower of London?

If a London trip proves too expensive, I'm going to try and shoot for Dublin, so ditto for museums there. Anything besides the Dublin Museum?

if you can make it over to Leeds, then do it. The Royal Armoury cannot be missed.

In terms of London, you must hit the Victoria and Albert Museum. Much of their arms and armour is not shown currently (I don't know why), but there are still many things to see including pieces scattered around as well as effigies, portraits, and other things.

Most importantly for you is to go to The Wallace Collection. It's incredibly easy to get to on the underground and the collection is stellar.

I also enjoyed going to Windsor Castle, the National Portrait Gallery, and Westminster Abbey. The London Museum has a lot of really great artifacts as well.

You mentioned the British Museum and the Tower. These are both not to be missed. They are both premier places to those interested in arms and armour. The British Museum, however, is also full of items spanning all interests and contains some of the world's most amazing treasures. It's truly brilliant.

It might be worthwhile to visit some antiques dealers as well. Perhaps you coud handle, or at least closely examine, a period piece (or two or three...). If I had the privilege of visiting London, I would visit Peter Dale, Ltd. ( http://www.peterdaleltd.com/ )and Peter Finer ( www.peterfiner.com )--both reputable dealers located in London that have fantastic items in their inventories.

P.S. Peter Dale Ltd.'s staff treated me with courtesy, patience, and respect when I first visited as a 16 year old. I was allowed to handle several swords, and ended up getting my first antique basket hilt from them.

The Museum of London has an outstanding collection of bronze age weapons if you are interested in that. When I went last year the entire Medieval section was closed for remodeling, much to my disapointment. I would really be interested in hearing how it turned out. They also had one of the best book selections in their gift shop of any museum I went to.

If you have time for a day trip, you could go to the Royal Armouries in leeds, its about a 2 and a half hour train journey. The only problem is that rail tickets are really expensive.

The V&A's fine collection has been shut away indefinitely as part of the refurbishment, I think it just came down to cost.

There was a thread on it in a sister forum a while back:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?...ria+Albert