Role
Historic Scotland was a successor organisation to the Ancient Monuments Division of the Ministry of Works and the Scottish developing Department. It was created as an agency in 1991 and was attached to the Scottish Executive Education Department, which embraces any aspects of the cultural heritage, in May 1999. As element of the Scottish Government, Historic Scotland was directly accountable to the Scottish Ministers.
In 2002, proposals to restore Castle Tioram in the West Highlands, by putting a roof back on, were blocked by Historic Scotland, which favoured stabilising it as a ruin. This position was supported in an extensive local Public Inquiry at which the arguments for both sides were heard. It has been implied that this dispute has led to a review of the operations of the organisation.
After widespread consultation, Historic Scotland published a comprehensive series of Scottish Historic Environment Policy papers, consolidated into a single volume in October 2008.
The agency's Framework Document shape out the responsibilities of the Scottish Ministers and the agency's Chief Executive. Its Corporate schedule sets out its targets and performance against them.
Historic Scotland and the Glasgow School of Art's Digital appearance Studio formed the Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualization to promote the documentation and 3D report of heritage objects, architecture and frameworks with laser scanning and 3D visualization software.