Publications

A History of Scotland's Landscapes

These evocative spaces provide unique evidence for the way this land and its wealth of resources has been lived in, worked on, ruined, abandoned, restored and celebrated.

A Life of Industry

The Photography of John R Hume

John R Hume is Scotland's foremost expert on industrial heritage. In A Life of Industry, author Daniel Gray tells John's story, and the story of what has been lost – and preserved.

A Work of Beauty

Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh

Alexander McCall Smith curates his own story of Edinburgh, combining his incisive wit with a wealth of stunning imagery drawn from Scotland’s national collection of architecture and archaeology.

For the Safety of All

A Story of Scotland’s Lighthouses

Donald S Murray explores Scotland's lighthouses through history, storytelling and the voices of the lightkeepers.

How Was It Built? Colouring Sheets

Colour in some of your favourite Historic Environment Scotland sites like Stirling Castle, Melrose Abbey, or the Blackhouse in Arnol.

How Was It Built? Wordsearches

Can you complete our wordsearches about Scotland's traditional buildings and materials?

Mousa to Mackintosh

The Scottishness of Scottish Architecture

The architecture of Scotland exists in many forms. In Mousa to Mackintosh, Frank Arneil Walker examines the recognisable and recurring features evident in Scotland’s buildings across the centuries to build a picture of ‘Scottishness’ in architecture.

Who Built Scotland

25 Journeys in Search of a Nation

Experience a new history of Scotland told through its places. Writers Kathleen Jamie, Alexander McCall Smith, Alistair Moffat, James Robertson and James Crawford pick twenty-five buildings to tell the story of the nation.