Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has unveiled new guidelines towards protecting Scottish heritage buildings from climate change.

The 'Climate Change Adaptation for Traditional Buildings' publication contains a series of strategies to provide advice towards homeowners, landlords, and building and construction professionals.

In addition, the guidance describes good practice in maintenance and repair, as well as demonstrating how traditional buildings can be improved or adapted to better deal with the wetter winters brought by climate change.


Around 450,000 traditionally built buildings exist in Scotland, with many used as private homes, offices and public buildings.

Roger Curtis, Technical Research Manager at HES, said: "Scotland's built heritage is an important part of the country's wider historic environment. Our climate has already changed over the past 50 years and we expect that further change is inevitable.

"Drawing on technical research into how traditional materials and techniques can be effectively used to improve a structure's resilience, the guide provides up to date information and advice that can be taken to help secure the future of our traditional buildings in a changing climate.

"Assessing the wide ranging impacts on the historic environment is key and undertaking measures such as adaptation and increasing resilience is a very important part of our broader climate response.”

To view the publication, visit here.

(LM/CD)