Our directorate

To ensure Historic Scotland is best-placed to care for the nation’s historic built environment, we are organised across a number of key business areas.

These directorates work together to achieve the agency’s mission, which is to ensure the historic environment provides a strong foundation in building a successful future for Scotland.

Each group is responsible for a different aspect of our work but together we are all responsible for caring, conserving and promoting the built heritage of Scotland.

Historic Scotland Structure Chart [pdf, 87 kb]


The Chief Executive's Group comprises the Chief Executive's Office and Communications, which is responsible for internal and external relations and digital communications.



The Commercial and Tourism directorate is responsible for supporting public access to as many as possible of the 345 buildings and monuments the agency looks after on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

Of these, 74 are staffed and charge admission, making Historic Scotland the largest operator of paid-for visitor attractions in Scotland.

The directorate is charged with ensuring the historic environment provides itself with a sustainable future through promoting tourism and generating revenue to fund the upkeep and conservation of monuments most at risk.



The Conservation directorate is responsible for the practical conservation of our 345 sites, with specialist teams spread across the country.

Conservation undertakes research on technical issues and promotes best practice through education.
The directorate also leads on traditional building skills and materials and in recent years has become the focus for traditional building and sustainability issues for Scottish Government.




The Finance directorate is responsible for the agency’s procurement, financial and corporate governance systems, including payments, revenue and Information Technology.

Finance is also responsible for administering Historic Scotland’s major grants, which work to support heritage projects across the country.

Also within Finance is our the major projects team, which provides project management services in respect of large-scale projects.



Historic Scotland’s Heritage Management directorate is responsible for protecting and providing advice on the management of the most important parts of Scotland’s historic environment, including listed buildings, scheduled monuments, wreck sites and gardens and designed landscapes.  

This is done through working with local authorities and a number of other public bodies that have an interest in Scotland’s planning system.



The Human Resources directorate, which provides operational policy in addition to human resources functions, also includes health and safety, training, office services team and other associated support services.


The Policy and Outreach directorate is made up of various teams.

The Listing and Scheduling teams, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, are responsible for designating historic buildings,  archaeological monuments, historic shipwrecks, designed landscapes and battlefields that merit state protection.

The group also includes the Policy and Legislation team, which is responsible for defining policy and providing policy advice to Scottish ministers in a number of areas.

The Education, Outreach and Publications team and the Cultural Heritage team are responsible for engaging with the public and supporting their learning and understanding of the historic environment through a number of initiatives, including grants for archaeological projects.