07 February 2023

Starts: 19:00
Ends: 18:30

Recording Scotland's Closing Churches: A race against Time

Online talk/workshop by Scotland's Churches Trust. The Trust is appealing for volunteers to help record the contents of churches which may close in the next year or so. Bookings on Evenbrite.

Join us on Zoom on Wed 8th Feb at 7pm to hear more about our national project, supported by Historic Environment Scotland, to record the contents of Scottish churches that are likely to close in the coming months.

Scotland's historic church buildings are currently experiencing a period of upheaval last seen on this scale in the 19th century. Hundreds of sites, many of which have been places of sacred ceremony, community fellowship and spiritual refuge for centuries, are set to close their doors to the public.

In most cases, the exterior solid fabric of these well-known local landmarks will be saved, as the buildings are reused for other purposes, but the artefacts inside will mostly be removed elsewhere and scattered to the four winds.

Scotland's Churches Trust is working with Historic Environment Scotland on a pilot project to try to enlist and empower local volunteers across the country to make a record of as much of this unique, multi-generational, cultural heritage as possible, before it is lost forever.

By its very nature this is effectively an emergency recording exercise. Depending on the church size and the number of available volunteers, we would hope to complete the survey of each church in as little as a single morning or afternoon. The results of these recording sessions will eventually be made publicly available on the CANMORE website.

Book a free ticket to find out more about the crisis confronting Scotland's ecclesiastical buildings and how you can help to create for posterity a record of the fragile cultural heritage contained within.

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