10 castles and historical sites to reopen across Scotland
Dunblane Cathedral, Fort George and St Andrews Castle are among the latest visitor attractions set to reopen as part of the latest phase in the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
The sites are among ten across Scotland which will start welcoming back visitors after being closed down since the end of March.
All visitors must purchase tickets in advance in order to restrict numbers.
The announcement comes from national body Historic Environment Scotland (HES), which is responsible for caring for, protecting and promoting the country’s heritage.
Dunblane Cathedral will reopen next Wednesday 2 September, followed by Aberdour Castle and Dryburgh Abbey on Friday 4 September, then Craigmillar Castle on Saturday 5 September.
Tickets for these sites have already gone on sale at www. historicreopening.scot.
Fort George, St Andrews Cathedral, St Andrews Castle and Dumbarton Castle will be back in action from 11 September, with Dirleton Castle and Jedburgh Abbey joining them on 18 September.
Collectively the popular Scottish landmarks have witnessed more than 1,000 years of history, from Viking invaders to Mary, Queen of Scots and everything since.
Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle and the ruined Urquhart Castle, on the shores of Loch Ness, were the first of HES’S ticketed sites to reopen after lockdown.
Tickets for Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle sold out, and 9 per cent of passes sold for Urquhart Castle.
The agency says an additional 12 ticketed sites will be open by the end of August, with Blackness Castle, Huntly Castle and Melrose Abbey amongst the destinations that have reopened within the past two weeks.
HES aims to re-open 7 per cent of its entire estate by midseptember on a rolling basis, to provide as much access as possible to historic sites across all regions of Scotland.
New safety measures have been put in place at each site, with cash payments no longer being accepted and visitors being asked to use contactless payment where possible.
One-way systems will be in place in some locations, while some indoor areas may be closed – such as small enclosed spaces where physical distancing is not possible.
Visitors can enjoy access to outdoor spaces, including courtyards, as well as some indoor areas which may be capacity-limited.
Visitors will be asked to wear face coverings when entering any retail shops, cafes and internal or enclosed spaces at sites, in line with Scottish Government guidance.
For parts of the sites where access is currently restricted, a programme of agile interpretation has been developed – this can be accessed via QR codes and includes digital film or audio to further enhance the visitor experience.
Alex Paterson, chief executive of HES said: “The heritage and tourism sectors have, along with many others, been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, so I am really pleased that we are now continuing to reopen more historic attractions.” the same thing here and I would really caution against anybody seeing this as you know two tiers of government having a clashing of horns or one lobbying the other, for goodness sake.”
“As we have seen all partners do, and this is not a criticism of Aberdeen City Council, we all have to work together here with the same objectives in mind and taking the same precautionary evidence led approach.”
Interim chief medical officer Gregor Smith added that it was true that he preferred a cautious approach last week, but that he was satisfied with the decision that had been made.
He said: “It is absolutely true to say that last week I was of the mind that we had to adopt a cautious approach and that we were getting ready from the data that I was seeing to be able to make a change in those restrictions.
“That’s why we put in place this mid-week review, that’s what would enable us to get additional information to be able to assess the trajectory that we thought we were on we had stayed on and fortunately that’s turned out to be the case.
“When we had the discussion yesterday it was right that we interrogated that data and we interrogated it fully but at the end of that conversation both myself and the national clinical director were both content to make the recommendations that we did which were to begin the relaxation of those restrictions from today.”
Latest figures, announced at the briefing, showed a total of 427 cases have been identified in the NHS Grampian area since 26 July.
Of these 259 are associated with the same cluster linked to Aberdeen pubs, and 1,258 contacts have now been identified from those.
Ms Sturgeon added of the 66 people in Scotland who tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, provisional figures indicate five were in the Grampian health board area.
A total of 17 were in Lanarkshire, 15 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and 14 in Tayside, she added, addressing areas which have localised clusters.
These include the outbreak in Coupar Angus, which is believed to have started at the 2 Sisters food processing factory.
The First Minister described the outbreak as “very significant”, adding there were 110 cases linked to the cluster as of Sunday, 96 employees and 14 close contacts.