Historic environment and cultural heritage

In 2015 Historic Environment Scotland (HES) was established, bringing together Historic Scotland and The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. HES is the lead public body set up to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment.

HES cares for 300 sites of national importance across the country including many sites at the coast. HES looks after internationally significant archives and artefacts and is at the forefront of investigating and researching Scotland’s historic environment and addressing the impacts of climate change on it.

Figure a: Forth Rail Bridge World Heritage Site (Forth & Tay SMR). © Historic Environment Scotland.

 

Figure a: Historic ships and museums with maritime exhibitions.

Source: National Historic Ships UK and Scottish Government.

HES is responsible for designating listed buildings and scheduled monuments (Table c) around the coast and advises the Scottish Government on the designation of historic MPAs (Table a) under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, for designations within territorial waters (up to 12 nautical miles).

All military aircraft wrecks are automatically designated as Protected Places under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Vessels may be designated as either a Protected Place or a Controlled Site (Table a). Divers can visit a Protected Place on a ‘look but don’t touch’ basis. Divers may not visit a Controlled Site without a licence. The UK Ministry of Defence administers the Act: the RAF for aircraft, the Royal Navy for vessels.

Cultural heritage sites can be considered in two categories. First, those which lie wholly within the marine environment, on the foreshore or under water, such as harbours, marine crannogs, and shipwrecks. Second, those on land, where the sea forms an integral part of their identity such as lighthouses and coastal castles, as well as maritime museums. For the purpose of this work, coastal sites are those on the foreshore or on land within 150 m of mean high water mark (MHWS).

Marine planning is also an important tool to help support cultural heritage work. The National Marine Plan (Scottish Government, 2015) included the following general policy (GEN 6) for the historic environment ‘Development and use of the marine environment should protect and, where appropriate, enhance heritage assets in a manner proportionate to their significance.’

Visitors to the historic environment and cultural heritage assets

HES leads the biennial Scotland’s Historic Environment Audit (SHEA) – an assessment of Scotland’s historic environment. The figures cover the historic environment as a whole and are not maintained solely for coastal and marine heritage. Heritage sites (not necessarily marine sites) attracted 18 million visitors in 2018 (up from 16 million in 2016). In 2017-18, HES alone welcomed over 5 million paying visitors and over 7 million visitors to unpaid sites (HES, 2018).

Another source of socio economic, as well as spatial, data useful for this assessment is the Scotland’s Marine Recreation and Tourism Survey (2015) (SMRTS) (Scottish Government, 2016). This was designed to gather information for 23 different recreation and tourism activities undertaken at sea or around the Scottish coastline. 923 people provided spatial information on their visits to historic sites and other visitor attractions showing where around Scotland people undertake visits to historic sites (Figure c).

However, of these, only 3% identified visits to historic or cultural heritage sites as one of their most important activities, meaning that the historic environment is not a key driver for visits to the coast. Nonetheless, the presence of historic and cultural heritage was by far the most important factor influencing where to go. Other important factors included attractive scenery, the possibility of seeing wildlife, the range of other things to do and availability of cafés, shops and restaurants.

Figure b: The location of visits to historic sites and other visitor attractions across Scottish Marine Regions. Source: SMRTS Annex 3 (Scottish Government (2016)).

The SMRTS survey also gathered information about SCUBA diving in the sea, popular for visits to historic wrecks, gaining responses from 168 people: enough for a robust sample. By far the most important factor in selecting where to go was the occurrence of good dive sites. Other factors included opportunities to see wildlife, the presence of facilities for diving and the quality of local scenery. A little over 10% of these divers said the presence of historic or cultural heritage was very important to them, but it was not important to over 30% of the respondents.

The Moffat Centre for Travel & Tourism Business Development (Glasgow Caledonian University) prepares a Visitor Attraction Monitor (by subscription). This provides information on visitors to attractions across Scotland. A specific marine version of the monitor was produced showing attractions within 2 km of the coast and presented by Scottish Marine Region (SMR). The categories of Museums/Art Galleries, Castles/Forts, Historic Houses/Palaces, Heritage Centres and Other Historic Properties are explicitly part of the historic environment (though historic attractions may also appear under other categories). Figures from the Visitor Attraction Monitor (see under Contribution to the economy) represent only those who responded to the survey. As such, the figures are not necessarily representative of all Scottish attractions and are not a complete record of all attractions in Scotland.

The Visitor Attraction Monitor reported 9.6 million visits to Museums/Art Galleries, Castles/Forts, Historic Houses/Palaces, Heritage Centres and Other Historic Properties in 2018, a slight reduction (3%) on 2017 (Table d). The reduction results from a reduction in visits to museums and art galleries which dropped from 7.3 million visits to 6.7 million; visits to the other historic attractions all increased, though there are many fewer of these than visits to museums and art galleries.

Condition of the historic environment and cultural heritage assets

HES holds monitoring data in relation to the condition of scheduled monuments and historic marine protected areas. These give an indication of their vulnerability to a wide range of man-made and natural processes. Since 2011 there have been two assessments that relate to the condition of historic sites around our coast.

The 2018 Marine Protected Areas report to the Scottish Parliament (Scottish Government, 2018) includes information describing progress towards preservation objectives of Scotland’s 8 Historic MPAs. Information based on monitoring surveys gives an indication of the trajectory in survival and site condition of marine historic assets within each historic MPA. In 2018, 4 Historic MPAs were considered to be in stable condition (Duart Point; Mingary; Drumbeg; Out Skerries), 1 in stable to declining condition (Dartmouth), and 3 in unknown condition (Kinlochbervie; Campania; Iona I).

HES has advised (pers. comm) that, based on its internal monitoring programme for scheduled monuments, results indicate that 88% of all scheduled monuments were in satisfactory condition over the period 2012-2017. While there were some regional variations, the overall figure for coastal scheduled monuments (on the foreshore or within 150 m of MHW) in satisfactory condition was the same: 88%.

It is clear that proximity to the coast has a complex relationship with scheduled monument condition. There are higher levels of unsatisfactory condition near the coast in some areas, but, marine erosion is not the main cause of damage recorded for coastal monuments. More prevalent causes of damage include ‘masonry decay’ and ‘tree/scrub regeneration’.

Ministry of Defence owned wrecks posing a potential environmental or safety risk are managed by Salvage and Marine Operations (SALMO) under their Wreck Management Programme (WMP). Notably, SALMO are responsible for managing the wreck of the battleship HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow. Significant quantities of oil have been removed from the wreck in a series of operations stretching over several years and the wreck is currently being monitored on a regular basis.