A new report on what heritage means to Scots has been published by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and reveals which of Scotland’s places, buildings and monuments should be recognised and celebrated.
The results of HES’s ‘What’s Your Heritage?’ project also gathered information on the public’s thoughts about what level of changes are appropriate for Scotland’s buildings and sites.
In the first phase of this project, 2,000 people across all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities took part in the survey that ran between November 2016 and March 2017. Key findings include:
- 95% believe that Scotland should look after its heritage with 89% wanting to see Scotland’s heritage celebrated.
- 78% of those surveyed believe that some change should be allowed to historic sites, 8% would prefer no change at all and 6% would like a lot of change.
- 70% of people would like to have a say in how HES decides what becomes listed or designated.
This feedback will form part of a wider process which will help to formulate historic environment policies which reflect the broader views of people living in Scotland in relation to protecting and celebrating historic sites now and in the future.
Barbara Cummins, Director of Heritage at Historic Environment Scotland, said: “As an organisation we wanted to involve the public and hear what’s important to them. The survey and workshop responses will feed into our review of our historic environment policies.
“I am delighted with the enormous amount of passion and interest in our first ever public campaign of this kind and I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone that took part.”
As part of the campaign, HES ran workshops open to everyone across the country to give people a chance to participate in conversations in their area and share thoughts about their heritage. 200 people took part in the workshops which were held at 12 locations across the country.
Participants shared their thoughts on what was important to them and how they view change to the historic environment.
Findings show that people feel heritage and local identity are closely linked and that it’s not just buildings and historic places that are important but also stories, dialect and local traditions.
Participants explained that ensuring communities are informed and included in decision-making at a local level is very important. The feedback also tells us that people believe that the historic environment is something that you inherit and that those who live in Scotland have an obligation to look after it for future generations.
The full report (below) and findings of ‘What’s Your Heritage?’ can be found on Historic Environment Scotland’s website at historicenvironment.scot/whatsyourheritage
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