Scotland: delegated decisions July 2025
National Lottery Heritage Grants £10,000 to £250,000
Aberdeen Mela: A Community-Led Cultural Festival
Applicant: Aberdeen Multicultural Centre SCIO
Project description: This project aims to foster an inclusive, connected community by celebrating cultural diversity and promoting social cohesion.
Decision: Reject
86-88 High Street Phase 1A – strip out and consolidate
Applicant: The Ridge SCIO
Project description: This project seeks to refurbish 86-88 High Street, with a focus on saving heritage. In the process of restoring this historic building, The Ridge will provide supported training opportunities in stonemasonry and joinery through their trainee/apprenticeship programme.
Decision: Award grant of £185,402 (21%)
The Wood Metric: Groundwork for practitioners in measuring, managing and valuing carbon and biodiversity in the forestry and wood supply chain
Applicant: Moray Estates Development Ltd
Project description: The project aims to develop a practitioner-led, evidence-based initial methodology to measure, manage and value carbon and biodiversity in the Scottish forestry and wood value chain.
Decision: Reject
MetaMapping St Ronan's Well
Applicant: Maiden Mother Crone CIC
Project description: This project aims to reconnect the community of Innerleithen with the deeper meanings, traditions and spiritual heritage of St. Ronan’s Well.
Decision: Reject
Gracemount Mansion – Opening the Doors
Applicant: Gracemount Mansion Development Trust
Project description: This project aims to begin the transformation of the building through conservation standard repairs, reversing years of neglect. Some of the community services delivered for decades will be enabled again by reopening the doors, allowing some spaces to be used by the community.
Decision: Reject
Chapter House Museum: Trust in the future
Applicant: Chapter House Museum
Project description: This project seeks to re-invigorate the Trust’s purpose, structure and operations, and explore the potential to move the archive into new premises to create a lively heritage centre.
Decision: Reject
Blackburn Lives: Celebrating Our Shared History
Applicant: Community Action Blackburn
Project description: This project aims to engage the local community in the preservation and celebration of the strong social, cultural and industrial heritage of Blackburn.
Decision: Award grant of £13,423 (90%)
Diverse Heritage
Applicant: Scottish Civic Trust
Project description: This project seeks to enable sustainable sector change, embedding new approaches into participating organisations to ensure that they are more inclusive and representative in both their operations and activities through working with under-served audiences to address barriers.
Decision: Reject
'Wills' Ciggy Factory, Glasgow: A People's History'
Applicant: Lost Strathclyde Heritage Group
Project description: This project aims to record and preserve the lived experiences of an older generation of former tobacco factory workers, creating a publicly accessible archive and providing learning opportunities for volunteers and young people.
Decision: Reject
Historical Mural Project
Applicant: CITY OF DUNFERMLINE MEDIEVAL HERITAGE GROUP
Project description: This project aims to deliver an historic mural depicting two of Scotland's most famous heroes during Scotland’s First War of Independence 1296–1328: Robert The Bruce 1274–1329, King of Scots 1306 and Sir Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray 1278–1329.
Decision: Reject
The Halterburn Valley Landscape Heritage Project
Applicant: Till Valley Archaeological Society
Project description: This project seeks to undertake further investigation of the previously unknown Medieval-period structure discovered in 2023, enhancing the understanding of this and other archaeological sites within the Halterburn valley.
Decision: Reject
Remembering the history of the Gala Water Valley
Applicant: Gala Water Archive
Project description: This project aims to connect the communities of the Gala Water Valley with the history of our built heritage concentrating on four sites: the Auld Kirk, the Bishop’s Palace, the Packhorse Bridge and the Holy Well.
Decision: Reject
Unlocking the City Observatory's Heritage
Applicant: Artists Collective Gallery Ltd
Project description: This project aims to safeguard the unique heritage of the building, while providing the organisation with the skills and capacity to share and protect this heritage with local communities.
Decision: Reject
Dunfermline – A City Built on Heritage
Applicant: Carnegie Dunfermline Trust
Project Description: This project seeks to focus on using built and natural heritage locations to define, design, and deliver a programme of cultural engagements to promote the history and heritage of Dunfermline.
Decision: Award grant of £138,000 (41%)
Developing the Future Museum Workforce
Applicant: Museums Galleries Scotland
Project description: This project seeks to secure funding as a contribution towards a complementary programme of support for Scotland's museums, to build the skills in the workforce that are essential to the future sustainability of museum organisations and their ability to care for collections and share them with communities.
Decision: Award grant of £250,000 (71%)