Address
John Sinclair House
16 Bernard Terrace
Edinburgh
EH8 9NX
Telephone
0131 662 1456
Notes
The archives and collections of The National Record of the Historic Environment (formerly the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland) form part of Historic Environment Scotland. Their records cover archeological excavations and surveys; records and images of monuments and buildings; records of industrial buildings; records relating to Scotland’s marine historic environment, including shipwrecks.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is a non-departmental public body with charitable status set up to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment. The organisation is responsible for more than 300 properties and sites of national importance including historic buildings, archaeological sites and monuments, gardens and designed landscapes and historic battlefields. They hold significant collections including more than 5 million drawings, photographs, maps and manuscripts, along with 20 million aerial images of locations across the world.
The HES archives and collections provide access to descriptions of drawings, photographs, negatives and manuscripts relating to Scotland’s archaeology, buildings and maritime heritage. The collections and catalogues include:
- Canmore: Canmore is the online catalogue of the National Record of the Historic Environment. It holds detailed information and archive images of over 320,000 buildings, ancient monuments, archaeological, industrial and maritime sites across Scotland and beyond.
- The National Collection of Aerial Photography: Explore more than 26 million aerial images featuring historic events and places worldwide, including 1.6 million images of Scotland.
- Britain from Above: View historic aerial images of Britain taken from 1919 to 1953.The project conserved 95,000 of the most significant images held in the Aerofilms collection which numbers more than 1.2 million negatives and 2,000 albums.
- Scran: Access more than 480,000 images, videos and audio files on material culture and human history from archives, galleries and museums across Scotland and the UK.
- ScotlandsPlaces: Search for a place name in Scotland to retrieve information about it from a number of national databases. The online resource offers access to millions of photographs, maps and digitised archives including tax records and Ordnance Survey historical records.
- Buildings at Risk Register: The online register of Scottish buildings of architectural or historic merit considered to be at risk or under threat.
- HLAmap: Provides map-based analysis of past and present-day land use throughout Scotland, creating a digital map of the historic landscape of Scotland.
- PastMap: PastMap shows you information about historic sites and landscapes all over Scotland, brought together on maps spanning from 1843 to the modern day including locations of battles, historic buildings, and places related to maritime history like shipwrecks.
