Scheduled monuments

Two tall standing stones in a moor, surrounded by fir trees, with snow on the ground — The Laggangairn Standing Stones is a Scheduled Monument.

A scheduled monument is a Protected Historic Place designated by Historic Environment Scotland as a nationally important archaeological site or monument.

Scheduled monuments are added to a list known as the ‘Schedule’ under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act. The system exists to protect our most significant archaeological sites and monuments, so they can be passed to future generations to enjoy and understand.

This began in 1882, and Historic Environment Scotland continues to update the Schedule as our knowledge and understanding of what survives and its importance changes.

Each scheduled monument has its own entry on the Schedule and there is an associated designation record. The entry includes information about the location of the monument and its extent, including a map. For many monuments this includes a description. For more recent schedulings, the reasons why a site is nationally important are included in the online record.

Some Scheduled Monuments can also be Properties in Care and within World Heritage Sites or can be within or related to other protected places such as conservation areas.

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for the list of scheduled monuments, including adding, reviewing and removing sites. The schedule is updated as knowledge and understanding of what survives and its importance changes.

We make decisions about what should be scheduled using our Designation Policy and Selection Guidance.

Anyone can ask us to consider a site for designation as a scheduled monument or update or review an existing designation.

Read about the process and submit a request

Designation of a site or place as a scheduled monument recognises its cultural significance at a national level and the definition of a monument is broad. It covers any site comprising evidence of past human activity.

There are around 8000 scheduled monuments in Scotland.

Scotland has a huge range of different monument types including prehistoric burial mounds, Roman forts, early Christian carved stones, tower houses and industrial mills. The oldest include evidence of the human settlement of Scotland from around 8,000 years ago, whilst the youngest are surviving reminders of the Second World War, one of the defining events of the 20th century, including gun emplacements and anti-invasion defences.

Some monuments – like stone circles and ruined castles – are still obvious to the eye today but many important archaeological sites that appear to leave little trace, are protected because they survive buried beneath the ground.

Aerial view of a stone ruin on a grassy hill overlooking a lake and rolling countryside at sunset. — Dun Carloway Broch

Scheduling does not affect land ownership – a scheduled monument remains the property of its owner. Owners of scheduled monuments have no duty to maintain or improve management of their sites, though we do encourage this.

Our field officers visit scheduled sites and their owners from time to time.

They will:

check the condition of the site
offer advice on monument management
ensure that everyone with a current interest in the site knows about its protection

Scheduled monument consent

Many works, including repairs, on scheduled monuments need scheduled monument consent from Historic Environment Scotland. It is a criminal offence to cause damage to or carry out such works to a scheduled monument without this consent.

Scheduled Monuments are a factor in the planning system. Planning decisions must consider how development might affect scheduled monuments.

Our role in planning