National centre gains new retrofit facility to become premiere heritage hub

Historic Environment Scotland’s (HES) national Retrofit Centre for Traditional Buildings is to become part of Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills in Camelon, Falkirk. The new Retrofit Centre will strengthen the national centre as the premiere hub for retrofit heritage skills and science alongside the Engine Shed while supporting Scotland in tackling the climate emergency.

Supported by £1m of funding from UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council via the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS), the retrofit facility will put heritage science and research at the heart of its approach to developing bespoke solutions required for the decarbonization and conservation of the historic environment. The centre will become a key facility for climate heritage science, housing training, research and specialist equipment.

Scotland's Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skills is funded by £4m Scottish Government funding through the Falkirk and Grangemouth Growth Deal, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF), Scottish Canals, Historic Environment Scotland and the Pride in Place Impact Fund. The Retrofit Centre for Traditional Buildings is funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council via the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS).

The centre will support the retrofit of Scotland’s traditional buildings, crucial to achieving national net zero targets and addressing other challenges related to climate change and the quality of our indoor environments. The 2024 audit of Scotland’s historic environment estimates that almost 500,000 buildings in Scotland are of traditional construction, including around 18% of homes, 24% of offices, 33% of shops and 41% of public buildings.

Scotland’s Canal and Traditional Skills project, spearheaded by Scottish Canals in partnership with HES, sees the former AG Barr Irn Bru factory in Camelon, Falkirk, transformed into a new centre to bring heritage knowledge and skills together in one place. The centre will look to address some of the growing challenges of sustaining Scotland’s historic environment by supporting the development of specialist skills critical for its future, including pioneering canal management and maintenance. Works at the centre are currently gathering momentum as major internal and external construction progresses.

Colin Tennant, Head of Technical Conservation at HES, said: “We are delighted to include the Retrofit Centre facility within the new national centre. Expanding the scope of what the centre has to offer means that we are creating a central resource that will ensure that everything that makes up our built heritage – our castles, aqueducts, forts, canals and traditional buildings -- continues to be protected and cared for.

“The Retrofit Centre will deliver UK-wide benefits as an innovative knowledge transfer space, a research workshop, a retrofit materials library, and a heritage science laboratory. The new location will allow the centre to provide more training and practice more heritage science research, all while adding to the dynamic collaborative space that will make up Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills.”

Richard Millar, Scottish Canals Chief Operating Officer said this project is at the forefront of public service reform with two government agencies aligning to create transformation at a local, regional and national scale.

He continued: “Scotland’s Centre of Excellence for Canals and Traditional Skills will create a focus to safeguard and develop the traditional skills that are essential to caring for Scotland’s canals and historic places. The addition of the Retrofit Centre reaffirms that ambition, complementing the existing vision of the project by adding an exciting dimension where heritage science, innovation and training will come together. The Retrofit Centre will help equip future generations with the knowledge and expertise needed to improve the performance of traditional buildings while protecting the heritage that makes them so special.”

The public will have the opportunity to see some of the cutting-edge heritage science equipment that will be used in the Retrofit Centre when the Engine Shed in Stirling opens its doors for Doors Open Days on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September. Visitors will also be able to learn more about the wider project and the future opportunities the centre of excellence will create for heritage skills, volunteering and learning.

For more information on the Doors Open Days, visit the Engine Shed website.

To view the kinds of retrofit measures that are researched and taught at the Retrofit Centre, please view 3D models of two demonstrations on our Sketchfab profile. The specific demonstrations are a Traditional Energy Efficiency model and a Traditional Building Adaptation model.

The Retrofit Centre for Traditional Buildings is funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council via the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS).

We're the lead body for Scotland’s historic environment, a charity dedicated to the advancement of heritage, culture, education and environmental protection. We are at the forefront of researching and understanding the historic environment and addressing the impacts of climate change on its future. Across Scotland, we investigate and record architectural and archaeological sites and landscapes and care for more than 300 properties of national importance. HES is also working with sector partners to deliver Scotland's strategy for the historic environment, Our Past, Our Future.

Historic Scotland, trove.scot, The National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP), The Engine Shed, Stirling Castle, Edinburgh Castle and Stòr are sub-brands of HES.

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• Scottish Canals is responsible to the Scottish Government for the management and development of five of Scotland’s canals as well as the surrounding estate and The Falkirk Wheel.

• Built two hundred years ago to fire the Industrial Revolution, today the canals contribute to the Scottish Government agenda of developing a Greener; Healthier; Smarter; Safer and Stronger; and Wealthier and Fairer Scotland by acting as a catalyst for sustainable economic development, regeneration and tourism; contributing to education, biodiversity, heritage and promoting active living and healthier lifestyles.

• Today Scottish Canals is utilising these 18th century assets along with innovative technology to tackle modern problems. Through working with partners to create pioneering systems, Scottish Canals is helping to combat flooding and driving positive transformation in some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged areas.

• The Forth & Clyde, Union, Monkland, Caledonian and Crinan canals are recognised as Scheduled Monuments and attract 20 million visits per year. 

For further information, please contact:

Historic Environment Scotland Communications Office
07721 959 962
communications@hes.scot