What does a modern Scottish garden or designed landscape look like?
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is working on an exciting and ambitious project to identify, record, champion and celebrate Scotland’s remarkable modern gardens and landscapes.
In the last century, traditional ideas about the purpose of green spaces and landscapes, how they should look, and who should have access them, were challenged. Those new dynamics can still be observed today - from private pleasure gardens to public parks, municipal spaces to industrial and commercial grounds, housing schemes to contemplative and commemorative settings.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) champions the nation’s garden and designed landscape heritage in a range of ways - through photographic and aerial recording, improving publicly accessible online records, and considering nationally important sites for designation.
For this project, we are interested in gardens and designed landscape that date from around 1945 to the early 21st century. Gardens and designed landscapes of this date are currently underrepresented in our publicly available records including the National Record of the Historic Environment and the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes.
The project began in 2021 with stakeholder engagement and a six-week public online survey.
For the results of the survey and to see other Historic Environment Scotland consultations, please visit Citizen Space
Later stages of the project will involve research and site visits in order to record and photograph gardens and designed landscapes of this date and to decide which to assess for designation.
The project is underway, but we still want to hear your views. Please contact us at modernlandscapes@hes.scot to tell us about a post-1945 garden or designed landscape you think should be included in the project.