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Skara Brae in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) are tackling climate change and climate adaptation in several ways, from their internal operations to providing external support and guidance. This case study highlights some of the actions they are taking to protect the historic environment from the impacts of climate change, both now and into the future.

Building an evidence base to inform climate ready decision making for Scotland’s historic environment.

HES are responsible for the care and maintenance of 336 historic properties throughout Scotland. Many of these properties are situated in landscapes that are vulnerable to climate related natural hazards. Like much of Scotland’s historic environment, the properties often show an inherent resilience to Scotland’s wet climate, but climate change is creating new challenges that they were never designed to cope with.

In order to gain a more thorough understanding of natural hazard risk across the diverse and complex estate, HES worked in close partnership with the British Geological Survey and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, to combine various natural hazard datasets into a Geographic Information System (GIS) database. This was then combined with spatial data from HES properties to assess the likelihood of various natural hazards occurring at those properties, see the case study here. A baseline assessment was produced that will allow a more informed approach to managing climate related risks to be taken.

The initial assessment allowed identifies 28 properties that are considered to be at very high risk from one or more of the natural hazards assessed. The next steps are to ground truth the initial desk based assessment update them with any in depth, site specific risks, before considering the landscapes beyond the boundaries of properties, the climate impacts on staff and visitor safety, site operations and internal collections, and to consider how UKCP18 data is incorporated.

‘Evaluating the climate change risks to the HES Estate has already improved our ability to prioritise and allocate resources more efficiently. A strategic evidence based approach to managing climate risk is helping us give our properties, and the wider historic environment, a fighting chance of weathering the challenges presented by climate change’

David Harkin, HES

New HES strategy – Our Past, Our Future

In June 2023, HES published a new strategy for the future of Scotland’s historic environment: Our Past, Our Future, which has at its heart the transition to net zero, resilient communities and places and a wellbeing economy.

The strategy, which builds on the previous strategy ‘Our Place in Time’, is intended to provide a roadmap for the next five years and highlights the sector’s shared ambition to make a responsible contribution to Scotland’s economy and use the historic environment to improve people’s wellbeing. It also has a strong focus on the transition to net zero alongside a forward-looking ambition to empower communities and build a wellbeing economy.

The strategy also sets out the goal of further retrofitting and putting Scotland’s traditional buildings back into use; estimates put these buildings at representing 19% of Scotland’s housing stock, 33% of retail space, and almost 50% of spaces used by the public sector.


Increasing skills for adapting and maintaining traditional buildings

In addition to assessing their own properties for exposure to natural and climatic hazards, Historic Environment Scotland is pioneering work to up-skill the public and professionals so Scotland is better able to adapt and maintain its traditional buildings from the impacts of climate change.

Changes in the climate, such as increased severe weather events, are already causing problems for many of Scotland’s traditional building and will continue to do so. However, these problems are also being made worse by poor maintenance. HES have been actively undertaking and enabling a range of activities and research to improve the quality and availability of skills and knowledge across the sector and beyond to future proof the historic environment, see the case study here.

See also the guidance document produced by HES, Edinburgh World Heritage and Edinburgh Adapts here:

Download pdf

Trialling new techniques to preserve historic structures

Many of Scotland’s iconic monuments survive as unroofed standing structures with open wallheads and exposed historic masonry. Increasing levels of rainfall and extreme weather events can lead to erosion of the historic fabric and loss of structural integrity through processes such as water penetration, increased freeze-thaw cycles and damaging plant colonisation.

HES have undertaken trials of ‘soft-capping’ techniques at a number of sites across the country, applying an impermeable clay layer beneath living vegetation on wallheads and roofs.

Carefully selected slow growing vegetation types are designed to reduce rainwater runoff and withstand extremes of weather, requiring minimal maintenance. The results are both visually acceptable and technically appropriate for protecting some of Scotland’s most vulnerable historic structures.


Protecting prehistoric remains

Severe coastal wind erosion has caused the collapse of the dune system which protected the Links of Noltland prehistoric settlement site on Westray, Orkney for thousands of years.

In response, HES initiated a programme of detailed assessment, survey, and targeted rescue excavations in 2006. This was followed by dune stabilisation works, including dune recharge, fitting biodegradable erosion resistant matting, planting and sand entrapment to protect the surviving archaeological remains for future generations.

Recent inspection confirms that these measures are working and that the area is being recolonised by vegetation. Many of Scotland’s most vulnerable archaeological sites and monuments are located on the coast and this project provides a model for the stabilisation of similar sites.

Scotland has seen a significant change in its climate over the last 50 years – on average our weather has become warmer and wetter and we have seen more extreme events. This trend is set to continue with impacts felt across all parts of society.

The amount of information on climate change risks and potential adaptation measures in Scotland is increasing – at the national level, within sectors, and for specific locations. However, it can be difficult to access the breadth of information and consider it in an integrated way.

The six places

The Climate-Ready Places resource takes six typical Scottish ‘places’ and identifies:

The visuals

The visuals will be used to introduce adaptation to a broad audience – providing visual representation of climate impacts and a shared vision of ‘climate ready places’. They will be used to engage with specific audiences (e.g. planners or communities) to identify what they could contribute to achieving a ‘climate ready place’.

The adaptation ideas were gathered at a dynamic workshop that brought together people working on adaptation across Scotland and from many different sectors. The images used in the tool were drawn by professional illustrators as participants described the characteristics of each place, how climate impacts them, and how our adaptation responses would change that location.Adapting uplands

The resource can be used by anyone with an interest in exploring adaptation ideas, from planning professionals to school children, community groups to corporate business.

It is worth remembering that this resource is a collection of ideas – it is not descriptive, it is not a plan. There will be many more ways to get your own place climate ready.

The ideas for adaptation were gathered from a dynamic workshop with people working on adaptation across Scotland and in many different sectors. The discussions at this workshop were captured in images drawn as participants described the characteristics of each place, and then how climate impacts and our adaptation response would change that location. 

View Climate-Ready Places

Funding

The project received additional funding from the Scottish Government, Scottish National Heritage and Historic Environment Scotland.

Downloadable resources

The Climate-Ready Places pictures and the expert information behind them are now available as downloadable resources for you to print off and use to start an adaptation conversation of your own.

Below you will find A3 printable versions of all six of our typical Scottish ‘places’, showing them as both unadapted and adapting areas. There are also Information Sheets for each of the six places, explaining the changes that have been made.

Printing note: To get the best out of these resources, we recommend printing the A3 posters single-sided. This allows them to be set down side by side, making it easier to see what has changed.

Downloadable resources

Lesson plans

Lesson plans for primary and secondary schools using Climate-Ready Places have been developed. These allow students to think about their place and different environments and how a changing climate might impact their place.

Lesson plans
Triangle shaped sign with a red outline and the word "Flood" written in black text. The sign is sitting on some grass next to a large body of water.

A practical guide to values-based communication – engaging meaningfully with a diverse range of individuals and organisations is one of the biggest challenges surrounding climate change adaptation.

This practical ‘how-to’ guide has been developed by Climate Outreach in collaboration with Adaptation Scotland. It introduces the concept of values-­based communication and provides clear, concise summaries of the principles of engagement, combined with practical examples of how public bodies can use these principles in their work.

Download pdf