24 March 2010

Media Releases

Historic Scotland is challenging the view that traditionally built homes, which comprise almost a fifth of Scotland’s houses, are energy inefficient and a barrier to meeting Scotland’s carbon reduction targets in the housing sector. This is one of the issues which will be discussed at a conference, “Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Traditional Buildings” hosted by Historic Scotland on Wednesday 24 March at The Hub in Edinburgh. Historic Scotland will be presenting their results of research and activity to assist anyone who has any involvement with a traditional building, whether it is a home, school, hospital, shop or a factory to make it more energy efficient.

24 March 2010

Media Releases

The Stirling Castle website has been named best website at the recent Communicators in Business Scotland awards only 5 months after it was launched. The awards, which recognise excellence within the communications industry were held at the Radisson in Glasgow and saw the Historic Scotland e- communications team, who run the website, pick up the award for the second year running. The team won the previous year for the Edinburgh Castle website.

23 March 2010

Media Releases

Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture today announced that Historic Scotland is giving a three year cash commitment of more than £360,000 in order to help support the Built Environment Forum Scotland, (BEFS), become the intermediary body to represent the historic environment through the Voluntary Sector Funding Programme.

22 March 2010

Media Releases

Historic Scotland has invited every local authority in Scotland to join a planning scheme to improve and speed up the process of dealing with certain types of applications affecting category B listed buildings. This is part of a range of reforms aimed at strengthening the partnership between Historic Scotland and local authorities across Scotland. It follows a successful three month pilot scheme where Perth and Kinross, Glasgow City and the City of Edinburgh councils were able to issue listed building consent for B listed buildings without the need to consult Historic Scotland. The pilot found that consents were issued more quickly and in line with policy. On average, pilot applications were determined 27 days more quickly than non-pilot category B cases. Just over half of the pilot cases were resolved within eight weeks.

15 March 2010

Media Releases

Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop welcomed the three millionth visitor to go through the doors of one of Historic Scotland’s ticketed attractions in the 2009 – 2010 season. Historic Scotland manages 345 properties on behalf of Scottish Ministers across the country. During the Summer season, Historic Scotland’s Top 10 sites enjoyed a 9% increase on this time last year, with visitor numbers growing by 7% overall. Edinburgh Castle was up by 8% during this period, Urquhart Castle’s number of visitors increased by 9% whereas Stirling Castle’s numbers were up by 6%, during a major refurbishment for the Palace project. The Minister presented Joyce Churchill, 76, from Nova Scotia, a first time visitor to Scotland, with a quaich, Scotland’s cup of friendship, at Edinburgh Castle, its flagship property, to mark the occasion.