TWENTY war memorials across Scotland will be restored to their former glory after funding of £160,000 was announced.
Each memorial has been awarded a grant for repair and conservation work.
The money comes from the latest round of a £1 million fund created last year as part of Scottish commemorations to mark the centenary of the First World War.
First Minister Alex Salmond made the announcement at the newly refurbished Peebles War Memorial following a £22,000 grant, and said Scottish communities were still eligible to apply for the funding.
He said: "Scotland's war memorials are a lasting tribute to our fallen servicemen and servicewomen who paid the ultimate sacrifice in defending our country in the First and Second World Wars and other conflicts. Each Scottish war memorial, such as this one in Peebles, remind us of the futility of war and the losses endured by our local communities. They also provide people with a place to go and pay their respects.
"It is extremely heartening to learn that communities are benefiting from this fund to upgrade memorials, particularly as this year marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War and the start of our commemorations for years to come."
A total of £319,000 has now gone to 43 projects from the Centenary Memorials Restoration Fund. There are 6,000 war memorials in Scotland, with up to 10 per cent possibly in "poor" or "very bad" condition. The projects include in Bearsden, in East Dunbartonshire, Ormiston in East Lothian, Walls in Shetland and Girvan in South Ayrshire.
Frances Moreton, director of War Memorials Trust, said: "Over the next few years it is vital efforts are made by people and communities to ensure that by 2018 Scotland's war memorials are in a fit condition for the services and commemorative events that will see us all mark the end of the First World War on 11th November that year."
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 hereComments are closed on this article