ScotlandsPlaces launch

As part of Homecoming Scotland 2009, RCAHMS, the National Archives of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh’s GIS Department have been working together to create an innovative website that will mark a new beginning in accessing information on Scotland’s heritage.  ScotlandsPlaces was launched by Cultural Minister Michael Russell MSP as part of the Scotland’s Global Impact Conference at Eden Court, on 22 October in Inverness.

Created in connection with Scotland’s People, ScotlandsPlaces currently combines live data from two of Scotland’s national collections - RCAHMS and the National Archives of Scotland.  Invaluable resources ranging from listings of land ownership, Register House records and photographs, plans and drawings of the nation’s buildings and archaeology can be accessed through an easy to use gazetteer and interactive map search interface.

Everyone from novices to experts can use the site to investigate local and family histories and the geography and history of places across Scotland.  The website has the ability to grow and develop through the inclusion of data about Scotland’s places from other organisations and partnerships within and beyond the heritage sector.

To celebrate the launch, visitors to Eden Court can drop into the ScotlandsPlaces research clinic in the Bishops Palace Chapel (22-24 October, 10am - 5pm), to try out the new website for themselves.