Mountain of chocolate donated by NTS after hunts called off

A heritage charity has donated thousands of chocolate eggs left over after its Easter egg hunts were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 30,000 boxed eggs were delivered to National Trust for Scotland (NTS) by Cadbury for its egg hunts before the lockdown began.

Staff have donated around half the eggs to hospitals, foodbanks and community groups around Scotland and they now want other groups to contact them if they can use the treats – which have a use-by date of July.

Eggs were given to Perth Royal Infirmary and Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

Locations including Stracathro Hospital in Angus, Kingsway Care Centre in Dundee, the Murray Royal Hospital and community mental health teams in Perth, Kinross, Arbroath, Brechin and Forfar, also benefited.

Mark Bishop, of the NTS, said: “It was absolutely heartbreaking to have to cancel our Easter egg hunts this year and not be able to welcome the tens of thousands of people who we usually see. As well as being our biggest weekend of the year, Easter marks the start of the season for many of our properties but given the unprecedented global situation, everything had to be put on hold. In the midst of all this, though, we saw that some good could come out of the situation.

“Thirty thousand Easter eggs don’t eat themselves and our operations teams have been finding places for them to go.

“It’s wonderful that so many have gone to the NHS and to other groups and organisations doing incredible work in our communities.”

Suggestions of organisations which could take the chocolate can be made through the NTS social media pages.