Doune Castle: Guidebooks

Doune Castle © David Gill

Doune Castle was established in the late 14th century. It was leased to the state from the estate of the Earl of Moray in 1970.

1968 (3rd ed.)

A key early guide was prepared by W. Douglas Simpson (1962; 2nd ed. 1966; 3rd ed. 1968), who prepared a number of Ministry guidebooks. Profits from its sale went ‘to the upkeep of the Castle’. There are four main sections. The first, like the format for Ministry guidebooks, was on the history of the castle. The second relates to ‘other castles and Doune’, placing the construction in a wider context. The final two sections present a tour of the exterior and interior of the castle. Plans of the ground and first floors of the castle are placed inside the cover.

1987

R. Denys Pringle, the Inspector of Ancient Monuments, prepared the Historic Scotland guide, in the wake of the 1984 lease. The guide is introduced by a history, ‘Maist pleasant for our pastyme’. This was followed by a tour, ‘The banner’d towers of Doune’. Parallels are drawn with Caerlaverock and Tantallon castles.

2003 (repr. 2009)

The Official Souvenir Guide for the castle was prepared by Doreen Grove in 2003. This starts with a guided tour, which was followed y the story of Doune Castle.

Aydon Castle: Guidebook

1988 (repr. 1990)

Aydon Castle was purchased in 1966 and placed in the care of the Ministry of Works. Philip Dixon and Patricia Borne published a study in the Archaeological Journal (1978), and Dixon prepared the English Heritage guide that was published in 1988. This consisted of a section on the history, and another on a tour of the castle. The castle was acquired by the de Reymes family with links to Wherstead in Suffolk.

For advertising on some editions of the guidebook see here.

Heritage Tourism in 2023: National Trust for Scotland

Data Source: ALVA. Chart © David Gill.

ALVA released visitor figures for 2023 earlier this month. The top 10 most visited sites in the care of the National Trust for Scotland received 2.5 million visitors. The same 10 properties received 1.8 million visitors in 2022 (see the selection here), and 1.9 million in 2019.

The most visited property was the Glenfinnan monument with over 540,000 visits. Landscape properties were particularly popular—Glencoe, Culloden, and Killiecrankie—as well as the gardens at Inverewe.

Newhailes © David Gill

Heritage Tourism in 2023: Oxford University Museums

Chart Data: ALVA. Chart © David Gill.

The visitor numbers for Oxford University Museums has been released by ALVA. The six bodies received a total of 3.3 million visitors in 2023, slightly higher than the total for 2019, and marginally lower than 2018 (3.4 million).

Treasure Houses of England: Visitor Figures for 2023

Holkham © David Gill

ALVA has released visitor figures that include data for Treasure House of England. The eight houses 3.1 million visitors in 2023, almost identical to the numbers in 2019. Holkham and Burghley are well ahead of where they were in 2019: 112,785 (89,738) and 154,827 (107,887) respectively.

Beaulieu, Harewood, Castle Howard and Holkham saw modest falls between 2022 and 2023.

Data Source: ALVA. Chart © David Gill.

Historic Environment Scotland: Visitor Figures for 2023

Iona © David Gill

ALVA has released visitor figures for 2023. The top 10 sites in the care of Historic Environment Scotland attracted 3.7 million visitors, of which 1.9 million represented Edinburgh Castle. The same top 10 sites only attracted 2.6 million visitors in 2022, but 4.4 million in 2019.

Data Source: ALVA. Chart © David Gill

The chart is ordered by the top 10 most visited sites for 2023.

Heritage Visitor Numbers 2023

Data Source: ALVA. Chart © David Gill

ALVA has released its visitor figures for 2023. In this analysis we have selected the top 10 properties for the National Trust (NT), the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), English Heritage (EH) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES).

NTS has a marked increase from 2019, rising to 2.5 million visits (from 1.9 million in 2019). HES has seen an increase from 2022 to 3.7 million visits, though this is down from 2019 (4.4 million).

NT has a marginal increase on 2019, rising to 5.0 million (the same as 2019). EH saw an increase from 2022 at 3.1 million visits, though slightly down from 3.4 million.

Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) have seen an increase since 2020 and now has 3.8 million visits, down from 4.5 million in 2019. Treasure House of England are almost back to 2019 levels at 3.1 million.

Mapping the magnitude – communicating potential church closures at the Church of Scotland

The challenges for various religious organisations to maintain their buildings in the face of declining congregations and changing needs is well recognised, and has been commented on recently in this blog.

The charity Scotland’s Churches Trust has just added to the debate around the challenges facing the Church of Scotland’s built estate by publishing a map of data which has looked at Church Presbytery Plans and identified where buildings are under review and may be at risk of future closure. The map and data is explained in a pretty stark blog post by the SCT’s Director, but it is worth re-emphasising (as he does) that there are a lot of caveats and cautions with the data which need to be taken into account.

Graphic from SCT blog post https://www.scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk/blog/scotlands-closing-churches/

Needless to say this is all a rather complicated situation comprising multiple stakeholders with distinct viewpoints; and publication of the map will be controversial. Nonetheless, the gathering and publication of the available information is important. Beyond the core congregational management and mission issues themselves within the Church, this flags again debate on the role of heritage within society and also complexity in communication around heritage issues – both in terms of comms management and comms perception, as mentioned only yesterday here.

The map is linked to below.

When it hits the fan at The National Trust – the challenge of communication

The National Trust continues to frequent as a target in media coverage of the so-called ‘culture wars’ with all kinds of accusations being levelled at it of late. An interesting and thoughtful angle on communications and media at the institution is examined in last week’s edition of When it hits the fan, on BBC Radio 4 (from 20:52 in programme).

The presenters, David Yelland (former editor of The Sun) and Simon Lewis (previously director of comms for Gordon Brown and the Queen) single out the Trust’s Director of Communications, Celia Richardson for praise on her personal X (Twitter) account posts which call out and challenge some of the biased views and mis-reporting levelled at the organisation. They consider her role, the tone of response, and the challenge for cultural organisations such as the National Trust.

Celia’s posts are indeed worth following, as they provide a great insight into what communications professionals have to deal with; what should but cannot always be said in formal public relations by organisations as they maintain their balanced tone of voice in a noisy and polarised media landscape; and the centrality of heritage as a lightning rod in wider social and political debates. Whilst that final aspect proves challenging for managing communications by cultural institutions, I’d argue that it is generally a positive thing that culture is being debated and maintains a high profile for heritage in wider society.

Heritage hospitality rebooted at Jenners

It is interesting to see the continued rejuvenation of Princes Street in Edinburgh highlighted in a BBC News article on the Jenners Store refubishment. This is currently undergoing a multi-million pound conservation and development project to combine retail, food and beverage, and a new hotel.

The BBC News article in a ‘sneak peak’ inside the currently empty building picks out various cultural aspects of the former Jenners store as a retail ‘destination’, and also specific heritage features associated with the department store including the directors’ board room, a rediscovered ornate lift cage hidden behind a partition, and parquet flooring dating back to 1895.

The private developer behind the scheme conveys a real recognition of different aspects of heritage value in a dedicated website on the project, which is pleasingly supported by the Cockburn Association, Edinburgh’s civic trust. The language used suggests that the creative reimagining of the building will derive real economic value from it being a heritage asset. It will be interesting to track the progress, and see how the historic features inside and out are made the most of in ambience, experience and design elements in the future rebooted uses of the building.

The reimagined grand saloon from ground level © David Chipperfield Architects https://heritagefutures.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/03373-grandatrium28129.jpg