Credit: Crown Copyright: HES

Feature Image link: https://www.trove.scot/image/1201604

What is trove.scot?

It’s a new website from Historic Environment Scotland (HES) which we launched earlier this year.

A digital portal for Scotland’s heritage, it brings together millions of HES’s unique and diverse collections of information, images, video, spatial data and archival material in one convenient place for the first time.

What can I find on it?

A lot! From standing stones to skate parks, trove.scot contains over 5,000 years of Scotland’s history in approximately three million records, combining designation records of Scotland’s most important historic sites and buildings; the catalogue of Scotland’s archaeology and built heritage; over 2,000 culturally significant objects from HES’s properties; and educational and archival images and media from SCRAN.

Credit: Crown Copyright HES

Image link: https://www.trove.scot/object/28811

Who’s it for?

Everyone! trove.scot is for hobbyists, educators, historians and heritage professionals alike – whether you need in-depth information on the history of a landmark for professional or research purposes, or just want to explore photos of your local area, there’s a wealth of material for you.

Our designations information – about Scotland’s listed buildings, scheduled monuments and more – fulfils an important purpose for planners and other professionals, but can also be very informative for curious home owners.

Filters, keyword and map searches can help users find what they’re looking for in this extensive catalogue.

Credit: Crown Copyright: HES

Image link: https://www.trove.scot/image/1486880

What does the future hold for trove.scot?

trove.scot is an ongoing project and the team continues to work on new features and improvements.

We have already added new functionality since our launch three months ago – including 3D models and thesauri – and there’s a lot more in the pipeline.

Users are invited to give us feedback on the website, and this is being used to inform and prioritise what we do next. Improvements to the map search, enabling users to purchase licenses to reuse images and exploring what people want or need from user accounts are all high on our list!

Credit: Licensed by Cairns Aitken (Records of the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (SCRAN), Edinburgh, Scotland)

Image link: https://www.trove.scot/image/2766861

Why a .scot domain?

Well, HES already has a .scot domain – which simply makes sense given the geographical scope of what we do! With trove.scot, the ‘dot scot’ is a part of our brand, helping describe what the website is all about!

trove.scot’s collections do actually go beyond Scotland in some areas – for example, we hold collections from people who have travelled to and photographed parts of India and Australia – but Scotland is very much the focus of our work.