Conservation science

Climate change is a very real threat, and our Conservation Science Team leads the way in researching its impacts on Scotland’s historic environment. Research into the chemical effects of warmer, wetter winters on Scottish sandstone, for example, can help us to adapt to the effects of climate change. Understanding the carbon footprint of various mortars, meanwhile, may allow us to make our activities more sustainable, mitigating emissions.  

Find out more about this work in our Climate Change Action Plan 2012–2017. 

Information gleaned from our scientific research underpins much of what we publish in conservation publications such as our Short Guides and INFORM leaflets for homeowners.  

Conservation science advice and analysis services are provided to: 

The team is also involved in numerous research projects with universities and research institutions. 

The work of the Conservation Science Team is outlined in our Research Strategy 2015–17. Our work also forms part of the overall Historic Environment Scotland Research Strategy, under the overarching Our Place in Time strategy.

The network encourages: 

Much of our equipment is portable and non-destructive in nature. So we can use it to analyse very valuable museum objects such as Robert the Bruce’s tomb. Equipment can be taken to our partner organisations or used on site in remote parts of Scotland. 

Conservation Science has a small budget to encourage research of direct benefit to Historic Environment Scotland. The team commissions research from external sources (academic and industrial) to fill gaps in Historic Environment Scotland knowledge.  

We strongly support collaborative research and, along with NGS, NLS and NMS, belong to the Scottish Cultural Heritage Consortium. The consortium funds up to six PhDs each year through the Arts and Humanities Research Council. 

Example partnership: The Tomb of Robert the Bruce 

We are partnering with NMS to examine fragments of stone said to be pieces of the Tomb of Robert the Bruce, destroyed during the Protestant Reformation in 1560. Work on Dunfermline Abbey in the 19th century uncovered some fragments of ornately carved rock with traces of colouring.  

No one has previously studied the rock fragments to establish exactly what they are. Records indicate that the tomb, imported from France, was made of marble and alabaster. But no analysis had been carried out to identify the composition of the fragments. Nor had any work been done to confirm whether the colour noted on some fragments was a coating or simply staining of the rock. 

Our initial inspection of the fragments using microscopes suggests that they are all types of marble; no alabaster fragments have been identified as yet. Whether the marbles came from different quarries, or whether a single quarry supplied a number of marble types, is work for the labs in the future. 

We’ve also used X-ray fluorescence to look at the chemistry of the fragments. This confirmed that the rock is marble, not alabaster, and also revealed that some fragments carry traces of lead and gold. This indicates that parts of Robert the Bruce’s tomb were once gilded – and the 3D digital reconstruction now takes this into account.  

The Conservation Science Team is actively or was recently involved in 19 co-funded PhD, postdoctoral and ‘knowledge transfer’ research projects at the close of 2015. We work with 13 universities across the UK.  

We also partner on research initiatives to: 

The team uses a range of analysis techniques to determine the composition of building materials and objects: 

Much of the equipment used in these techniques (XRF, NIR, thermal cameras, microwave meters) is portable and can be taken on site or into museums. Other techniques involve taking a small sample (e.g. of stone or mortar) and analysing it in our laboratory. 

Samples can be analysed using powerful microscopes at the Engine Shed laboratory. We can also use XRD to identify mineral contaminants present in stone, which is very useful when identifying salts that might cause damage to stonework.