The daunting task of updating the National Trust of Scotland's records to ensure that every piece of their extensive collections is recorded has begun.
The Project Reveal team, employing 26 people, has started work on the £1.3 million move which is planned to take 20 months.
It will cover all property in the care of Scotland’s largest conservation charity, from the huge Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, to the humble home of geologist Hugh Miller in Cromarty.
The endeavour, one of Scotland’s biggest heritage projects, will see experts photograph and record each of the trust’s 100,000 artefacts.
Over the course of the project, the team will learn about the pieces which are on display at trust properties all over Scotland, but will also, they hope, discover hidden gems which will give an even greater insight into the country’s history and heritage.
Simon Skinner, NTS chief executive, described the project as "huge, both for the trust and for the heritage of Scotland".
He said: "It will mean we know so much more about the many treasures in our care, and this information will help us as we strive to share Scotland’s spectacular scenery, amazing history and unforgettable experiences with more visitors, in more engaging and relevant ways.”
Wendy Turner, project manager for Project Reveal said: "This is an unusual project within the cultural sector because the majority of our collections are on display within historic houses, castles, cottages and workshops, and much of the inventory work will take place in full view of our visitors.
"We are revealing not just our collections, but our working methods as well.
"We fully expect the teams to ‘reveal’ hidden treasures and to uncover new stories about our collections.”
Teams have started work at Brodie Castle near Forres, Pitmedden Garden in Aberdeenshire, Newhailes in East Lothian, the Hill House in Helensburgh and Culzean Castle in Ayrshire.
They will be blogging about their work as they go – keep up to date with the latest news at www.nts.org.uk #ProjectReveal
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here