Historic Environment Scotland is pulling the plug on several of its long-running digital services as it shifts focus to its new flagship platform, trove.scot. With Canmore, Scran and ScotlandsPlaces among those facing closure by June, the change marks a major digital overhaul for how the nation explores its past.
The new centralised archive, launched in February 2025, is meant to streamline access to over 2 million records and growing. But for many researchers, educators, and heritage buffs, the shift also means saying goodbye to websites that have been part of their work and passion for years.
Canmore, Scran and ScotlandsPlaces: Goodbye for Good in June
Starting June 24, 2025, Canmore, Scran and ScotlandsPlaces will be switched off permanently. These sites, some more than two decades old, have acted as vital entry points for everything from archaeological research to school projects.
Canmore, perhaps the most used of the three, hosted Scotland’s national record of the historic environment. If you’ve ever hunted for details on a ruined abbey or a prehistoric broch, chances are you landed on Canmore.
Scran, meanwhile, held a massive bank of cultural images and sound clips—popular with schools and creatives alike. And ScotlandsPlaces, a joint effort with the National Records of Scotland (NRS) and National Library of Scotland (NLS), provided everything from old tax rolls to farm records.
They’re not being deleted overnight, though. A lot of their content is already being absorbed into trove.scot. But for users, the interface, experience, and search tools will be different.
What’s trove.scot—and Why Now?
trove.scot is HES’s new all-in-one platform for heritage material. It brings together data from:
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Canmore
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Scran
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The Historic Environment Portal
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Property in Care Collections
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Other partner databases still to be integrated
HES says the older platforms are just too outdated to maintain anymore. Technology’s moved on, and keeping them running was turning into a losing battle.
The new platform isn’t just about fixing what was broken. It’s also about building for the future.
trove.scot is being designed to allow:
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Seamless browsing across multiple types of records
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Better support for images and multimedia
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Easier licensing and digitisation requests
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New tools for users to contribute and annotate
User Accounts Won’t Transfer—You’ll Need to Re-Register
One small but important note that’s catching some people out: accounts from MyCanmore won’t be moving to trove.scot. You’ll need to sign up again when user registration goes live.
Right now, you can browse everything without logging in. But if you want to order digitisation, request permission for reuse, or contribute your own material, you’ll need an account once the feature is ready. That part’s still in development.
So yes, it’s a bit of a clean slate for long-time users.
Redirects, Delays and Gaps: The Bumpy Road to Migration
HES says most Canmore content has already made it to trove.scot. That includes sites, archives and thesauri. And the good news? Canmore URLs will redirect to the new location, so old bookmarks won’t break.
Scran’s trickier.
Only about 50,000 images have made it over so far. That leaves over 200,000 still in limbo—including video, audio, and materials from third-party contributors. Because these files often belong to galleries or museums, each one has to be reviewed.
Redirects from Scran’s URLs? Not working yet.
The target for completing this enormous transfer? March 2026.
Need something urgently? You’ll need to contact the HES Archives team directly.
The Full Retirement Timeline (So Far)
Here’s a look at what’s happening and when. Some services are already on the chopping block, while others will linger a bit longer.
| Service | Status | Shutdown Date (if set) |
|---|---|---|
| Canmore | Redirecting to trove.scot | June 24, 2025 |
| Scran | Partial migration | June 24, 2025 |
| ScotlandsPlaces | Access via partners post-shutdown | June 24, 2025 |
| Property in Care Collections | Retirement planned | Late 2025 |
| Historic Land Use Assessment (HLA) | Retirement planned | Late 2025 |
| Historic Environment Portal | Future retirement considered | Not set |
| PastMap | Future retirement considered | Not set |
| Dictionary of Scottish Architects | Future retirement considered | Not set |
| Buildings at Risk Register | Future retirement considered | Not set |
| NCAP & Britain from Above | Staying active | No changes planned |
So, if you use any of these, it’s time to start making note of what’s moving where.
What Happens to ScotlandsPlaces Content?
This one’s a little different. ScotlandsPlaces is a collaborative site, hosted by HES but stocked with material from NLS and NRS as well.
Once the site goes dark, you won’t lose access—just the central hub.
Here’s where things are going:
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HES records → trove.scot
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NLS materials → nls.uk and maps.nls.uk
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NRS archives → scotlandspeople.gov.uk
It’s not quite as convenient, sure. But the content isn’t disappearing. It’s just going back to its respective homes.
What Users Are Saying—And What They Want to Know
Reactions from the heritage community have been a mixed bag. Some see the need for modernisation. Others are anxious about losing familiar tools and features.
One Edinburgh-based academic who’s used Canmore for two decades said, “The new site looks cleaner, but I just hope the functionality catches up soon. Losing MyCanmore contributions hurts—there was a lot of community knowledge baked in.”
There’s also been confusion about redirects, especially for educators who’ve built lesson plans or web resources based on Scran or Canmore links.
Meanwhile, digital archivists have voiced concern about broken citations and gaps in metadata during the migration.
HES insists the team is working on it. New features, including contribution tools and expanded metadata search, are on the roadmap.
Still, it’s a transition. And like any big change, it’s bound to come with some hiccups.
