How it all started
In the UK of the 1970s, dogged by economic stagnation, oil shocks, seemingly endless recession, depression and decline, the country’s churches were far from immune.

Church owners across the British Isles began to think the unthinkable, closures and requests for permission to demolition of churches became an increasingly commonplace. “We are the ‘Ministry of the Word’, not the ‘Ministry of Works’” became a commonly-used mantra from voices across the Christian denominations used to justify church closures.

In England, three built heritage organisations were already well established, each one drawing attention to the plight of religious built heritage south of the Tweed and raising funds for the care of these buildings:

– Historic Churches Preservation Trust (Founded in 1953, now the National Churches Trust)
– Friends of Friendless Churches (Founded in 1957)
– Redundant Churches Trust (Founded in 1968, now the Churches Conservation Trust)

Scotland had no such equivalent bodies to speak up for and advocate on behalf of its approximately 3500 historic places of worship.

Having successfully campaigned and fundraised for the restoration of the 16th century Magdalene Chapel in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, that famous guardian of Edinburgh’s historic amenity and built heritage, The Cockburn Association, had become increasingly concerned about church “redundancy” in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

In 1973, the conservation body fought a valiant battle to save the historic West St Giles church next to the Edinburgh Meadows. The Association was ultimately unsuccessful and the Victorian landmark was demolished to make way for housing. The following year it encouraged other local and national amenity societies, architects, academics and any others with an interest to attend a conference with representatives of the main Christian denominations to discuss what was to be done with surplus churches.

The meeting chairperson, Prof Alan Thomson, issued a call to establish a Scottish body that would look at the issue of church conservation and closure and attendees were in agreement. Conservation architect James Dunbar-Nasmith summed up the feelings of many at of the meeting in a wonderful call to action:

QUOTE BOX

Scottish Churches Architectural Heritage Trust (SCAHT)
After some years of discussion, the Scottish Churches Architectural Heritage Trust was officially launched in 1978. It’s first chairperson was well known broadcaster, journalist, historian and writer Magnus Magnusson, its first trustees were:

• Lawyer and judge Harold Leslie, Lord Birsay
• Politician and clan chief Robert Lindsay, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres
• Former Secretary of State for Scotland and politician John Maclay, 1st Viscount Muirshiel
• Politician and judge John Wheatley, Baron Wheatley of Shettleston
• Prolific journalist and author Alastair Dunnett
• Global tourism expert and leading Scottish businesswoman Margaret Hook
• Conservationist and deputy director of buildings at the National Trust for Scotland Donald Erskine
• Prominent architect and architectural scholar Prof Andrew MacMillan
• Conservationist and director of HCPT Hugh Llewellyn Jones

The purpose of the new trust was “to raise, invest and disburse funds to help pay for the repair and restoration of buildings in Scotland used for public worship which are worth preserving for artistic, historic or other cultural reasons.” Trustees hoped to raise a very ambitious £1m in capital to release £100k per year in grants.

Churches had to be regularly used for worship, in no danger of imminent closure, have “a valuable place in history”, form an “important landmark in the community” and be “regularly accessible to the public outside service hours.” Eight churches were grant funded that first year, the first being the famous “Round Church” in Bowmore on the island of Islay.

All manner of traditional and novel forms of fundraising followed. One of the most famous being “The Great Scottish Steeplechase” conceived by Magnus Magnusson as part of the Scotland’s contribution to the International Year of Youth in 1985. Youngsters aged 16-25 were provided with passports of participating churches and encouraged to travel in pairs and visit as many as possible by any means, barring car and motorcycle, raising sponsorship money for their efforts. Big prizes were offered, including a £4000 holiday of a lifetime to the USA and a “home computer”. Around 1600 young people from across Scotland took part.

By 2012, SCAHT had distributed over £2.5m in small grants, the length and breadth of Scotland, to hundreds of churches, two synagogues and a gurdwara. The bulk of this money had come from the personal connections of trustees, commercial and private donations, legacies and longstanding partnerships with major charitable institutions such as the Pilgrim Trust and Dulverton Trust.

Scotland’s Churches Scheme (SCS)
Founded in 1988 in East Lothian, with Christine Milligan as its director, the “Come and See Scotland’s Churches Trust” was set up to encourage Scotland’s churches to participate in the country’s burgeoning tourism industry. It began following a successful funding bid to Ecclesiastical Insurance, the trust was determined to grow religious tourism in Scotland.

Partnering with commercial sponsors it held nationwide competitions that rewarded the warmth of the welcome provided by churches, interpretative information about the building, visitor facilities, marketing activities and community initiatives to work with other local tourist attractions. It also carried out absolutely pioneering work in gathering data on the state of the nationwide tourist offer delivered by Scotland’s churches and began the task of upskilling certain congregations to act as beacons of best practice.

Building on the groundbreaking work of the “Come and See Scotland’s Churches Trust”, in 1994 Sir Jamie Stormonth-Darling, William Douglas and then Bishop Richard Holloway, founded Scotland’s Churches Scheme with Christine Milligan employed as the charity’s founding director. The following year, HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother agreed to become the new charity’s patron. In 2002, HRH the Princess Royal, very kindly took on this honorary role upon the passing of her grandmother.

Improving public accessibility to the country’s churches, cathedrals and abbeys was its guiding principle. SCS identified and supported a national network of membership churches. It published its first guide in 1995, listing 128 churches. Numerous regional and expanded national guides followed. It also published a series of “How To…” guides to help churches improve their interpretation efforts, overall welcome and appearance. Most importantly, it also developed an early “digital concierge” service for member churches with the first nationwide online directory of Scottish churches.

Merger
During the first decade of the 21st century the two charities worked on several projects together and co-operated closely. In 2012 their respective boards of trustees decided made the arrangement permanent and the two trusts merged to form Scotland’s Churches Trust.

The first major project to complete as a unified trust was a series of 14 “Pilgrim Journeys” supported by Scottish Enterprise, that threaded across all of Scotland, offering routes for pilgrims to follow and encouraging visitors to stop at hundreds of churches along the way.

We also continued to offer small maintenance grants, in partnership with the Pilgrim and Dulverton Trusts and others. This long-time collaboration came to an end in 2019 and the Trust has funded occasional small grants from donations and our reserves since then. We also disbursed organ scholarship grants and recital support, in partnership with Tunnock Foundation and the Goffin Trust.

Support for the development of a national pilgrim route network across the country continued, as we worked closely with the Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum that is carrying on this work. Our important church directory, signposting the public to almost 1400 Scottish places of worship, current and former, continues to provide an invaluable service, with many churches still having little or no digital footprint.

We support and provide performances, talks and other events, including a regular “Gathering” with our patron HRH The Princess Royal, and we also offer advice and support to congregations and church building owners on repairs, maintenance and promotion of their buildings and advocate at a regional and national level on behalf of religious built heritage.

Since 2020, we have also developed a rapid church recording methodology to assist local congregations and communities who wish to make a record of the closing church in their area. We support a small nationwide network of volunteers who are carrying out this work as three churches per month sadly close in Scotland.

The future
We continue to adapt our services to Scotland’s religious built heritage to the new societal and heritage landscape that we are operating in. This requires us to be nimble to the changing interests of society while staying true to our core objectives of protecting, promoting and preserving Scotland’s incredible inheritance of religious built and cultural heritage.

Keep watching this website for new initiatives, follow us on our social media channels or better yet, support our work by becoming a Friend of Scotland’s Churches Trust today.