Scotland is a country steeped in history and tradition known worldwide for its heritage and heralded for its culture, but its cultural riches are varied, including football, gardening and TV watching, research by the National Trust for Scotland has revealed.

Ahead of the Scottish Government’s first culture strategy for 20 years, the heritage body has published new public opinion research that showcases exactly how Scots view culture, and barriers to its development.

The report, Scotland’s Culture Strategy: Overcoming Barriers And Unlocking Benefits, sets out how different cultural activities are enjoyed in Scotland, and by whom, but also the barriers people are experiencing to greater involvement.

It finds Scots take a very broad view of what constitutes “culture”, with favourite forms including film and television, music, food and cuisine, history, and sports, with substantial interest also in natural heritage, gardening, theatre and drama. 

This confirms previous National Trust for Scotland research from 2018 that came to the same conclusions, but the follow-up research goes further in identifying the benefits Scots gain from cultural participation.

The research shows a future cultural survey carried out by the Government will need to engage with the broad range of cultural activities enjoyed by Scots and address current barriers to participation, including cost, confidence, transport and information.

The survey found that of the 1,074 respondents, men were much more likely than women to take an interest in sports and games, and history while women had greater interest in arts, making and crafting, food and ; cuisine, theatre and drama and growing/gardening.

After finding the Scottish definition of culture incorporates “the established and more recognised forms of culture as well as the everyday and less visible forms, the report recommends any future culture strategy will need to recognise this breadth of cultural activity.

Only one-quarter of respondents considered there were no barriers to enjoying culture, while barriers to participation were more commonly experienced by young people, those on lower incomes, ethnic minorities, those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and people with disabilities.

The organisation also found the greatest barrier to participation was cost, followed by lack of time, confidence, transport, and lack of information – which was an issue for half of all women surveyed.

Local cultural provision came up trumps after being rated as “good” by half of the population,  but women, ethnic minorities and those in the lowest income bracket felt even that was lacking for their demographic.

Those surveyed with incomes lower than £19,999 were less likely to rate the provision of cultural activity in their area as good, compared to middle and high-income groups.

Among the most popular forms of cultural activity, there were noticeable differences by income. History, music and crafting were of greater interest in lower and middle income groups, while sports and food were more popular in higher incomes groups. Natural heritage, theatre and drama and growing and gardening were equally popular among all income groups.

The reported benefits of cultural participation include socialising and making friends, making localities better places to live and visit, increased health and wellbeing, education and learning, and building stronger local communities.

Respondents from the Highlands and Islands rated above the national average for all benefits, while people from the north east were also above average.

People living in the west of the country had above average results for the role of culture in strengthening local communities, and for making better places to live and work. 

By contrast, residents in the south were below average for the perceived benefits, including stronger local communities, learning new skills and increased physical activity.

When asked what form of cultural activity people would most like to see developed in their local area, film and TV dropped from the top spot, with greater priority given to nature and natural places, growing and gardening, and architecture and built heritage – suggesting these were areas people would like to see better provided for in their own areas in the future.

The National Trust for Scotland sees the forthcoming culture strategy as a way for the country as a whole to increase opportunities to enjoy its culture and believes an expansive definition of culture must be adopted if it to be relevant to the experience of most people.

Diarmid Hearns, the Trust’s head of public policy, said: “In its new strategy, the Scottish Government has a real opportunity to show leadership on this, tackling the barriers we have identified and enabling participation from all in the community, across the country.

“Our research found Scots see many additional benefits from their cultural activities, including learning, making friends, or creating a better place to 
live. But they also experienced barriers – and these were worse for those on lower incomes, and for those from ethnic minority groups.

“We need to better understand what the opportunities are at a local level, and what the role of national and local government is in supporting culture. We also need to work together to tackle the inequalities in access to culture our research has identified.

“This means looking at national and local cultural budgets and whether these are adequate for our ambitions. We also need to see the value of Scotland’s culture recognised in other public policies, for example in planning, economic development or regenerating our towns and villages.”