The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday March 13 2025 #Heritage
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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.
00:05My name's Dale Miller.
00:06I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our Heritage correspondent, Alison Campsey.
00:12Good morning.
00:13Good morning, Alison.
00:15We'll get to talking about a couple of stories that you've been working on over the past day.
00:22But firstly, the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:25It was hard not to lean on Nicola Sturgeon.
00:28It was a long-expected announcement, but it came yesterday,
00:32and the former First Minister and SNP leader spoke of her sense of relief at calling time
00:39and confirming she was standing down from the Scottish Parliament next year
00:44and she would not contest the election.
00:47She effectively said it was up to others to critique or judge her legacy,
00:53not herself effectively, but she did talk about being proud of her achievements,
00:58cited the Scottish child payment amongst others,
01:02also leading the devolution of social security benefits that's taken place in recent years,
01:10but some criticism over what she was not able to achieve while leading the country
01:16and her party, which were things like closing the attainment gap,
01:20which she had set out as a key goal when she first became First Minister.
01:25You can read all the wash-up of that coverage, including some very insightful analysis
01:29from our political editor, Alistair Grant, at Scotsman.com.
01:34There is a story referenced on that front page as well up in the top left corner as well, Alison,
01:41and we were going to talk a bit about this.
01:43It's about heritage attractions across Scotland.
01:45Now, we went through COVID, obviously, and people couldn't come here,
01:50and in the year or so after, it was sort of steadily building,
01:54but it feels like we're back to normal now and visitor numbers are booming
01:59at some of our most popular heritage attractions.
02:02Yeah, that's right, and this story is good news for a lot of people
02:06working in heritage attractions across Scotland.
02:10Like you say, visitor numbers were completely pummeled by the pandemic
02:14and that loss, particularly of international travel,
02:17really had a dent on the success and the viability of a lot of attractions.
02:23So there's new figures out from the Moffat Centre at the University of Strathclyde,
02:29and they specialise in tourism, the tourism industry,
02:33researching the tourism industry in Scotland.
02:35So they do this annual report, and it was really nice to look at this yesterday,
02:38just at the kind of time of year that we're wanting to get back outside,
02:42go and see some nice, interesting things, and this story really made me feel
02:45that I just want to do that straight away.
02:47So the Moffat Centre reported that last year there was 49.7 million visitors
02:55to Scotland's visitor attractions, so a fair few, and that's up 3%,
03:01just over 3% of the year before, and when we're talking about such figures,
03:053% is really, really good performance.
03:08So there'll be a lot of happy people working in the heritage and cultural sector
03:13in Scotland at the moment.
03:15Now, the Moffat Centre identified that heritage attractions were doing
03:21particularly well, and heritage attractions which have a link to film
03:25and television locations are, again, proving to be extremely popular
03:30and really keeping their end up, shall we say, in terms of their attractiveness.
03:36Now, the return of the overseas visitor is sort of seen as really instrumental
03:42to these increases and the return in numbers, and it was, you know,
03:47always got an eye on what's happening at Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre.
03:53We know that that has huge draw to outlander fans, and I think it's fair to say
04:00particularly outlander fans from overseas who sort of see a visit there
04:05as a little bit of a pilgrimage and proof of your fandom, and the fact that,
04:09and I would go further than that and say I think particularly outlander fans
04:13from the US have always provided a kind of strong flow of interest in Culloden.
04:20So when I was looking at the figures yesterday, Culloden had the biggest increase
04:25in visitor numbers last year, and the numbers were up 42.8%,
04:31and that's by far and away the biggest rise recorded.
04:35So that was 374,443 people visited Culloden last year.
04:41There have been issues reported about kind of over-tourism there.
04:45People really want to go to the Fraser clan stone, which is referenced
04:51in the outlander story, and there's been issues with erosion and so forth there,
04:56but the National Trust for Scotland are all over that and have kind of been
05:00strengthening the site to cope with the numbers.
05:04I also thought it was really lovely to see St Giles Cathedral.
05:09Visitors there went up 18.3% last year, and it's also had a starring role
05:17in a number of productions recently.
05:19I believe Frankenstein and Fast and Furious 9, I believe,
05:23but also St Giles celebrated its 900th anniversary last year.
05:27So I think that St Giles has had a good year, and it's also so key
05:34to the kind of religious history of Scotland that it's such a really,
05:39really important site, and who doesn't like a cathedral, quite frankly,
05:42to go in and gather your thoughts?
05:45So it was nice to see St Giles doing well, and Stirling Castle
05:50also did really well.
05:52A personal favourite of mine, kind of centre of the Stuart dynasty
05:58for so long, that amazing kind of view from the Castle Esplanade.
06:04They've got the Great Hall there and the Refurbished Royal Palace.
06:08I do think when you go to Stirling, again, you're really feeling
06:11that sort of strong kind of link back to the kings and queens
06:18of this country.
06:20I always find when you go to Stirling, you do get this really palpable
06:23sense of the past there.
06:25I think it's an excellent castle.
06:27So it had another healthy rise in visitors at 14.8%.
06:31And there was just one other one that I wanted to mention, really,
06:34which kind of stood out to me, was the Borough Collection.
06:38It was named Scotland's Building of the Year last year.
06:41Obviously had a major amount of money put into its refurbishment.
06:45It was shut for five years, reopened last year in a blaze of glory,
06:50and its figures were up 11.6%.
06:55I actually haven't been to the new Borough Collection,
06:57but I'm going to go there this weekend.
06:59And it just looks so stunning, and it'll just be, yeah,
07:04a very nice trip to go and see what's happened there.
07:06I must admit, I haven't been to visit the collection
07:09recently at all either.
07:11I have been to Culloden Battlefield, not that one.
07:14A shout-out to the Visitor Centre, which really brought the whole
07:17experience to life for me.
07:19I thought that was a great ticket to add to the battlefield,
07:24where when you step out and do it, you do need to use
07:27your imagination a bit.
07:29Yeah.
07:30There's that film in the Visitor Centre.
07:32I don't know if you saw it.
07:33It's projected on the four walls.
07:35Yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:36And that just kind of shook me, really.
07:41It's just like such a powerful presentation, you know,
07:44of events of that day.
07:46And it really, really is such a great experience to go there.
07:52And obviously the battlefield, like you say,
07:54you have to use your imagination, but very moving, I think,
07:58when you're out there and you start to get a sense
08:00of how things were.
08:02And, Alison, just quickly to wrap up something a little bit away
08:07from the heritage brief, but it's obviously, you know,
08:11sort of in the not exactly the area of Scotland where you live,
08:17but further up the way.
08:19You've been writing about the biggest offshore wind farm
08:23that's been approved here in Scotland as well.
08:26Now, this is one that creates a bit of conflict
08:29for people, effectively.
08:31This is offshore, though, but potentially visible,
08:34I think, as well from the coast.
08:36Well, that's what I was trying to work out last night.
08:38So we're talking about the west of Orkney offshore wind farm.
08:44And, yeah, my brief is heritage, but you can't really help
08:49but notice the number of energy developments
08:53that are really pushing ahead in Scotland at the moment.
08:57And people seem to be a little bit more or less concerned
09:02about offshore wind developments.
09:05But I think the scale of this one kind of really caught my eye.
09:10So this is the west of Orkney offshore wind farm.
09:13It's 31 miles north of Thurso, 18 miles off the west of Orkney.
09:20So I can't say actually whether you will be able to see this,
09:24but presumably, yes, somewhere within that area,
09:27it will be visible from land.
09:30But the height of the wind turbines is going to be 360 metres.
09:39Mostly they're usually about 200 metres.
09:42So these are, you know, really big in scale.
09:45And, you know, I started Google 360 metres to see what,
09:50you know, what that looked like.
09:52And it's taller than the Eiffel Tower.
09:54So I was really kind of struck by that and immediately had a picture
09:57in my head just the scale of it.
09:59Now, this isn't the biggest.
10:02At the moment, the biggest operational wind farm is Seagreens
10:05off the Angus and Aberdeenshire coast where I live.
10:10But in terms of scale, this kind of comes in ahead of that.
10:16But then there is another offshore wind farm, Berwick Bank,
10:22in the Outer Firth of Forth,
10:24which is going to blow all these other ones out the water.
10:27But you can see very clearly the refresh push, you know,
10:34for renewables, particularly, well, both onshore and offshore.
10:39And what happened yesterday with the west of Orkney application
10:43was that Highlands Council met and agreed not to raise any concern
10:48or objection about what was happening here.
10:51So developers say it's a milestone kind of moment
10:55in the development of west of Orkney.
10:58The developers here are a company owned by Macquarie Group,
11:01which is an Australian investment bank.
11:04It has its roots in Scotland, but it's based in Australia.
11:08They've put billions of pounds into this
11:13and the application has been taking shape over years.
11:17So Highland Council, who was the last statutory consultee
11:21to respond to the development, has agreed not to object to it.
11:27Scottish ministers will decide on the final plan.
11:31It's been recommended that they push it forward.
11:34I very much doubt that there'll be any further obstacles
11:37in the way to this going ahead.
11:39And it's thought that it could be producing electricity
11:42for 2 million homes, so the equivalent of 2 million homes by 2030.
11:46One final point is I thought it was interesting
11:50when they build this wind farm,
11:53they'll be running cables in Spittle, which is near Wick,
11:58and there'll be a new substation there.
12:02And Spittle is one of the end points for one of the new overhead power lines,
12:07which is going to run across the north of Scotland,
12:09which will allow renewable energy to go into the grid.
12:13So I think you can see everything's kind of coming together
12:18in the north of Scotland and that the production of renewable energy
12:23is really, really going to be ramped up in that part of the world.
12:26I think if ultimately these developments lead to cheaper power
12:32or electricity in parts of the country where it's an issue
12:36and we reach that point, then it will be widely welcomed as well
12:40and then pulled apart.
12:41Yeah, there's a whole discussion about that and whether that will actually
12:44be the case or whether this power is simply going to be exported elsewhere.
12:48So, you know, it is a really, really interesting subject
12:52and one that we've got an eye on because we know that people
12:54really care about it.
12:56And, you know, the debates are very convincing on all sides,
13:05particularly with the onshore stuff, there's concern about the level
13:09of wind farms that are kind of springing up or applications
13:14are being proposed because of the overhead power line upgrades.
13:19And I'll be writing about this again probably for Sunday
13:23about the sheer scale of applications and communities
13:28really feeling swamped and finding it hard to keep track
13:33and to keep their understanding there of what's actually proposed
13:38for roundabout them.
13:39So, an interesting topic and, yeah, very much worth covering, I think.
13:46You can read all the latest across those couple of stories
13:51that Alison's discussed at Scotsman.com.
13:55Look for her work on the heritage tab of the navigation bar.
13:59The wind farm story is also under the environment section
14:02on the navigation bar as well.
14:05As Alison says, there'll be more to come over the coming weeks
14:08around the friction between the creation of wind farms
14:12and their importance to the energy mix and the communities
14:17that sit in and around these developments.
14:19Please follow us on all social media channels and go out
14:22and pick up a copy of the Scotsman tomorrow.
14:24You'll have all the latest from First Minister's questions today
14:27and there'll be more around the situation in Ukraine.