Historic Environment Scotland

Historic Environment Scotland is the lead body set up to investigate, care for and promote Scotland's historic environment.

We lead and enable Scotland’s first historic environment strategy Our Place in Time, which sets out how our historic environment will be managed. It ensures our historic environment is cared for, valued and enhanced, both now and for future generations.

We’re a non-departmental public body with charitable status. We're governed by a Board of Trustees, who were appointed by Scottish Ministers. 

We’re responsible for more than 300 properties of national importance. Buildings and monuments in our care include Edinburgh Castle, Skara Brae, Fort George and numerous smaller sites, which together draw more than 3 million visitors per year.

We’re also responsible for internationally significant collections including more than 5 million drawings, photographs, negatives and manuscripts, along with 20 million aerial images of locations across the world.

We invest about £14 million a year in national and local organisations, supporting building repairs, ancient monuments, archaeological work, the Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme and the voluntary sector.

Our conservation experts provide guidance, training and technical research into Scotland’s built environment. Through our outreach programme, we promote community and individual learning engagement with Scotland’s heritage. We contribute to the Scottish Government’s strategy to tackle climate change and reduce Scotland’s carbon footprint.