From teen hangouts to historic sites... skateparks
ASKED to describe a historic site, most of us would name a centuries-old castle or an ancient stone circle.
But a set of very modern landmarks are now in a list of our most hallowed places.
Three skateparks have been surveyed and filmed in meticulous detail before being entered into the official database of sites overseen by government quango Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
In 2015 the public body launched the Scotland’s Urban Past project.
Funded with £1.65million of Heritage Lottery Fund money, the scheme aims to recruit volunteer historians to catalogue the present and more recent past of the nation’s towns and cities.
The five-year project has so far seen more than 1,500 people trained to record their favourite spots for the official record of significant sites.
Peigi MacKillop, digital resources officer for the project, said the Vennie skatepark, just outside Livingston, West Lothian was the first of the three to make the jump from teenage wasteland to hallowed ground.
She said: ‘The people who use the skatepark – mainly boys – came from a local youth club and wanted to have something of their own to skate in because they were getting chased off by various people around the town.
‘Fundraising happened and they got the money to build a skate park.
‘We’re trying to democratise the record by getting people to make their own contributions into the National Record.’