Historic Environment Scotland (HES), the lead public body for the country’s historic environment, has launched a new digital portal containing over three million records for people to dig into Scotland’s captivating past.

The website, trove.scot, has brought together millions of HES’s collections of information, images, video, spatial data, and archival material in one easy-to-access place for the first time.

From standing stones to skate parks, trove.scot covers over 5,000 years of history, combining a catalogue of Scotland’s archaeology and built heritage, designation records of Scotland’s most important historic sites and buildings, educational and archival images and media, and more.

Site functionalities such as filters, keywords, and map searches will help the likes of historians, heritage professionals, hobbyists, and educators alike to unearth a range of detail from HES’s different sources in a single search.

“We are excited to be bringing heritage even closer to people’s everyday lives with this new platform,” said Katerina Brown, who serves as chief executive of HES.

“trove.scot will make it easier to learn about the heritage and historic environment that surrounds you, whether that is the listed buildings on your street or archive images of historic events that shaped communities.

“trove.scot marks one of the largest investments in our programme to improve and enhance digital access to information on the historic environment, and increase the number and diversity of people who engage with Scotland’s history and heritage.

“We hope that by making the vast store of information we hold more accessible, trove.scot will encourage more people to dig into Scotland’s past and see what they can discover with the new platform.

“Of course, the launch is just the beginning, and we’ll continue working hard behind the scenes to bring more exciting innovations to service.”

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The new digital portal has been made possible with funding from the Historic Scotland Foundation, which aims to promote and advance the work of Historic Environment Scotland for the public benefit.