ALMOST five million pounds is to be spent on heritage projects in Scotland's, ranging from the restoration Peter Pan author JM Barrie's childhood home to the restoration of one of the country's oldest cinemas.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced funding worth £4.8million to different projects around the country.
Among the beneficiaries is a scheme to restore Moat Brae House in Dumfries, where Peter Pan creator JM Barrie played out pirate and castaway adventures in its 'Neverland' gardens.
In Barrie's words on the creation of his most famous story, his 'escapades in a certain Dumfries garden which is enchanted land to me, were certainly the genesis of that nefarious work'.
With the help of a £1.78million grant from HLF, an ambitious project will transform the house and its gardens into Scotland's first centre for children's literature and storytelling promoting creativity, imagination and play.
Actress Joanna Lumley, patron of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust, welcomed the funding boost, saying: "This grant will make a sensational difference to Moat Brae and the plans for the future of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust.
"It means that we can now move swiftly towards our goals of restoring the house and garden in readiness for its role in the literary life of children in Scotland.
"Our aims are to nurture the memories of past writers and to encourage the emergence of new young talent: to respect our extraordinary literary inheritance and to enable children's imaginations to fly, like Peter Pan. What a thrilling piece of good news. "
The funding will also pay for the restoration of Campbeltown Picture House, one of the first purpose-built cinemas in Scotland.
A grant of £1.1million has been earmarked to repair its Glasgow School Art Nouveau design and add new contemporary facilities, including a second auditorium and a new café bar.
From its origins in the silent movie days in 1913 through to the modern day and digital technologies the Picture House has provided an invaluable service to Campbeltown and Kintyre cinemagoers.
Almost £1million is also being given to Wildcat Action, a project which involving a partnership between eight organisations including Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Royal Zoological Society and the Royal (Dick) Vet School to address the threats to the species and increase awareness of conservation in six key areas of the country.
The Scottish wildcat, also known as the Highland tiger, is in grave danger of extinction and the project will provide training in wildcat surveys and wildcat-friendly land management practices.
The work will also co-ordinate neutering and vaccination of feral cats and will monitor the wild cat populations through an extensive network of trail cameras.
The funding will also help create a new new coastal trail from Finlaystone to Weymss bay in Inverclyde exploring the areas links to its maritime past, and the transformation of the derelict Merkinch Welfare Hall in Inverness into a sports facility.
Colin McLean, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: "Heritage is an ordinary word for something that is quite extraordinary. The strands that weave the rich tapestry of Scotland's history are too numerable to define.
"Literature, buildings, industry, popular culture and wildlife are all an essential part of where we come from. HLF is delighted to bring Christmas cheer to these presents from our past so that they can be cared for, enjoyed, learned from and celebrated well into the future."
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