Records of Land Use Consultants, environmental consultancy, London, England: Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland

Description Records of Land Use Consultants, environmental consultancy, London, England: Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland

Date 1985 to 2007

Collection Records of Land Use Consultants, environmental consultancy, London, England: Inventory of Gardens an

Catalogue Number 551 124

Category All Other

Scope and Content Due to time constraints, much of the background research for each garden is limited to secondary source material. The Collection comprises envelopes containing a mixture of original and photocopied maps and illustrations as well as printed and manuscript material produced during field surveys of each garden. This includes documentation of meetings with the owners regarding the background and development of the garden; assessment of the view of the garden from main windows of the house and from the surrounding landscape; and a detailed survey of the site. A large number of photographs were produced during the project, including slides and prints with matching negatives for most of the sites in the published Inventories.

Archive History A large initial deposit of research and publication material was made by the sponsoring bodies in 1987. Smaller supplementary deposits were made in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007, as the Inventory expanded.

System of Arrangement Files are arranged by region and then alphabetically by garden name.

Related Material The pilot publication, A Study of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, 1982, is held in the RCAHMS library. Following the creation of the Inventory, an appreciation grew amongst local authorities of the importance of recognising and protecting sites of local and regional interest. A Survey of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in North East Fife was produced by The Historic Gardens Study Unit of the University of Dundee and The Garden History Society in response to this feeling. Research material relating to this publication can be found in the RCAHMS collection (Accession No. 1999/111)

Access Conditions Access is unrestricted except where property owners have requested otherwise. In such cases the collections may be consulted after obtaining the owner’s permission.

Administrative History Commissioned in 1984 and published in 1987, An Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland provides the first systematically obtained record of 275 existing historic gardens and designed landscapes in Scotland. The survey was undertaken by Land Use Consultants on behalf of the Countryside Commission for Scotland (now part of Scottish Natural Heritage) and the Scottish Development Department’s Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate (now Historic Scotland). The Inventory was created by the sponsors in response to increasing numbers of decisions they faced regarding the protection of gardens and designed landscapes from threats such as road-building, new industry and houses. Such sites fell within neither the predominantly architectural remit of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate, nor the Countryside Commission for Scotland‘s responsibility to natural or semi-natural landscapes. The Inventory followed on from a 1982 pilot study of thirty-two Scottish gardens and designed landscapes undertaken by Land Use Consultants on behalf of the sponsors. The purpose of the pilot was to study a sample of gardens and designed landscapes in order to recommend general criteria by which they could be assessed. Initial sites were selected to represent the range of gardens and designed landscapes in Scotland and the resulting report traces the historic development of landscape design in Scotland. For the purpose of the Inventory, the methods of description, analysis and assessment set out by the pilot survey were retained. The selection criteria for sites were expanded to include cemeteries, botanic gardens, town parks and sporting lodges. A selection panel whose members represented the interests of the two sponsoring bodies, the National Monuments Record Office, the Nature Conservancy Council, the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the National Trust for Scotland, and private landowners was created to choose a further 250 sites to be researched from a list of 854 that qualified within the set parameters. The inventory was never intended as a definitive survey of Scotland’s gardens and designed landscapes, but in the absence of a more comprehensive list, became an integral part of the Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure)(Scotland) Order 1992. Subsequently, Historic Scotland commissioned a further survey in 1993 to identify noteworthy gardens not included in the original inventory. A number of supplementary volumes have since been published, and in 2007 a full updated list of sites was published in two volumes by Historic Scotland.

Accruals The Inventory is ongoing and so further accruals are expected.

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