Your Gift in Action: Our Year in Review
Forget Hogmanay: at The National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA, our new (fiscal) year ends on June 30. We’re delighted to share some of the successes that American donors like you made possible in fiscal year 2023 – including more than $530,000 granted to the National Trust for Scotland for its most urgent conservation priorities.
In October 2023, NTSUSA adopted a new strategic plan, reaffirming our vision to protect Scotland’s heritage and natural beauty now and for generations to come. We’re achieving our goals by connecting with likeminded individuals; engaging them more deeply with the National Trust for Scotland’s work; and sustaining operations in the US to benefit the Trust.
Manuscript of Auld Lang Syne in the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. Image credit: National Trust for Scotland.
Over the course of fiscal year 2023, we helped Americans support conservation projects across Scotland, including:
The Burns Online Access Project
Through this initiative, 3,500 Robert Burns artifacts and manuscripts in the collection of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum will be catalogued and digitized, and a searchable online interface will be developed to provide public access to Burns scholars and enthusiasts around the world.
The Trust’s collection of Robert Burns-related material, including twelve original manuscripts recently acquired as part of the Blavatnik Honresfield Collection, as well as the First Commonplace Book jointly owned with the National Libraries of Scotland, is rich with stories that have the potential to elevate the public’s understanding of the poet. But right now they are only accessible by a visit to Alloway – and even then are often not on public view due to conservation considerations. The Burns Online Access Project will increase the collection’s reach far beyond the walls of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.
The project is set to be completed by January 25, 2024, and was fully funded by NTSUSA donors, including the Burns Society of the City of New York, the Family of Bruce International, the St. Andrew’s Society of Los Angeles, and Scottish Heritage USA.
Preliminary rendering of restored Picnic Lodge by Moxon Architects
Restoration of Queen Victoria’s Picnic Lodge
Support from more than 100 NTSUSA donors in fiscal year 2023 enabled the Trust to take the first steps toward saving Queen Victoria’s Picnic Lodge. The crumbling cottage, located near the Linn of Quoich on the Mar Lodge Estate near Balmoral, was a favorite spot of Queen Victoria and her guests. But the building is at risk, and a commitment from NTSUSA allowed the Trust to work with planners, architects, and surveyors to develop a plan for its restoration, which is currently under approval by the Aberdeenshire council.
Like the Victorians in the Industrial Age, we are increasingly disconnected from the natural world. By restoring Queen Victoria’s Picnic Lodge, we hope that visitors to Mar Lodge will have the opportunity to find respite in reconnecting with nature and with each other. And by preserving this piece of history, we hope to inspire future generations to do the same.
Canna House
Ongoing work at Canna House
This fiscal year saw major steps forward in the Trust’s work to restore Canna House, a project for which NTSUSA has pledged $600,000. The collection, including John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Fay Shaw’s remarkable archive of Scots Gaelic songs and language, has been removed from the house; an interpretation strategy has been approved; and a garden plan has been developed. Most excitingly, construction on the project began in May 2023, and the Trust aims to have the house open to the public by the end of 2024.
Completion of NTSUSA’s Save Our Scotland (SOS) Pledge
In 2020, with the advent of the pandemic bringing tremendous uncertainty to the National Trust for Scotland’s operations, NTSUSA pledged $500,000 to sustain activity in Scotland, ensuring the future of the organization. This year, we fully completed our pledge.
View from Lunga toward Bac Mòr (or Dutchman’s Cap)
Acquisition of the Treshnish Isles
Now uninhabited, the Treshnish Isles in the Inner Hebrides have a long human history that dates from the Iron Age. They were in the possession of King Haakon of Norway until 1249. The islands feature the ruins of two medieval castles and have strong historical links with the Scottish clans MacDougal, MacDonald, and Maclean. Today they are an internationally significant seabird nesting site. We are proud to have secured the future of this distinctive seascape by enabling the Trust to bring them under their protection.
Guests enjoy A Celebration of Scotland's Treasures. Image courtesy of Hechler Photographers.
Individual American donors supported many other projects across Scotland, from Culloden Battlefield to Falkland Palace and beyond, totaling more than $530,000 granted to the Trust. In fiscal year 2024, NTSUSA will turn its attention to conservation of the Bachelors’ Club in Tarbolton (the site of the first-ever Burns Night) and Souter Johnnie’s Cottage, as well as work at Fyvie Castle, Hill House, and more. We look forward to sharing news about how you can help in the coming months.
In addition to financial support, NTSUSA was proud to bring American visibility to the Trust’s work in fiscal year 2023. We honored tennis legend and philanthropist Judy Murray at our A Celebration of Scotland’s Treasures gala in April. Other outreach programs:
- A visit to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games at the invitation of Scottish Heritage USA, with special guests Catriona McIntosh from Culloden and Chris Waddell from the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum
- A tour of the gardens of Perthshire, Kinross, and Fife
- A Burns Night in Boston with the British Consul General to New England
- A Tartan Week lecture by historian Flora Fraser, author of Flora MacDonald: Pretty Young Rebel
- National Trust for Scotland chief executive Phil Long in conversation with Tony Jones and Gus Noble of Chicago Scots, Alasdair Nichol, and Andy Scott in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago
- A visit by Ellen Fogel Walker from Culloden, who spoke at New York’s Fort Ticonderoga
- The Outlander season 7 premiere event at the 92NY
- A tour of country houses of the Scottish Borders in partnership with American Ancestors
Members of our September 2022 Garden Tour hugging a Douglas fir at The Hermitage
Of course, none of this work would be possible without the support of NTSUSA members and friends across all 50 states, including our thirteen Clan Partner organizations. We are grateful for their commitment to protecting Scotland’s natural beauty and heritage in fiscal year 23 and excited to see what we can accomplish together in fiscal year 2024.
