2016 is almost over, and what a year it’s been! We’ve launched a brand new website and corporate plan, laid on loads of great events, welcomed record-breaking numbers of visitors to our sites, and appointed our new chief executive – and that’s just a few of the HES highlights of the past twelve months.
Have a look at the pictures that defined our 2016 #HESstory (click on the gallery below to see the full captions):
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January – Thousands of visitors saw A Tale of Two Cities at Edinburgh Castle with its new multimedia exhibition in English and Mandarin.
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February – We awarded a total of £87k for the repair of eight war memorials across Scotland, as part of the Centenary Memorial Restoration scheme, 100 years after WWI.
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March – For the first time in over a thousand years, we were able to give the public a glimpse of a Viking treasure hoard which had been buried in Galloway, following an extensive conservation exercise by HES.
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March – The new responsive Edinburgh Castle website won ‘Best Online Site’ at the Institute of Internal Communcations awards
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March – Elgin Cathedral shed new light on a 700 year Bishop alongside hundreds of other carvings with the innovative Stories in Stone exhibition
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March – We claimed the WWF public body climate change award for the second year in a row
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World Heritage Day 2016
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May – We launched our vision for Scotland’s historic environment – the HES Corporate Plan 2016-19
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May – We had a digital makeover with the launch of our new website
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May – A brand new event celebrated Renaissance fashion at Stirling Castle
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June – Scotland’s historic buildings got a £1.7 million funding boost from our Building Repair Grants
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June – We published research showing over 17,000 people volunteer for Scotland’s historic environment every year
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July – We challenged 6 top travel bloggers to help us get Scotland’s history trending. 2,313 people tweeted using the #HistoryHunters hashtag reaching 1.3 million people online
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July – The Honours (Crown Jewels) of Scotland were carefully cleaned before being used in the ceremonial opening of the Scottish Parliament
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August – Comedian Stan Laurel was one of a number of historic figures celebrated with our Commemorative Plaque scheme
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September – We welcomed our new Chief Executive Alex Paterson
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September – We announced a record breaking year as our attractions across the country welcomes more than 1.9 million visitors between April and July
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October – The second ever Scottish Heritage Angel Awards recognised the contribution of volunteers in Scotland’s heritage sector
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November – Stirling Castle hosts a special tribute to the pipers and shinty players who lost their lives in the First World War
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November – Our online shop celebrates its first birthday, a new Maeshowe Jewellery collection is revealed and we introduce international delivery
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November – Our annual St Andrew’s Day Ticket Giveaway is as popular as ever
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December – We had great fun filming our first videos with our new Gaelic officer Ruairidh at Edinburgh Castle
2017 will be the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology (#HHA2017) – a chance to celebrate Scotland’s unique historic environment. We’ll be running a range of activities, including a fantastic events programme with some brand new events, the launch of new research, and we’re also asking people to think about what heritage they care about with our ‘What’s Your Heritage?’ campaign.
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