[4] The Trust owns and manages around 130 properties and 76,000 hectares (190,000 acres; 760 km2) of land, including castles, ancient small dwellings, historic sites, gardens, coastline, mountains and countryside.

[7] The Trust was incorporated on 1 May 1931, with John Stewart-Murray, 8th Duke of Atholl being elected as its first president, Sir Iain Colqhoun serving as the first chairman.

Sir John Stirling Maxwell, owner of Pollok House, was appointed as a vice-president, and provided the trust with its first property, Crookston Castle.

[8] When the Trust took on the management of mountain estates there was controversy concerning issues such as the siting of visitor centres, which some considered inappropriate for land of "wild" character.

[11] In August 2010, a report called Fit For Purpose[12] by George Reid, commissioned by the Trust, cited shortcomings that were corrected though organizational restructuring largely completed by the end of its 2011/12 Fiscal Year.

[14] Historians working for the NTS have estimated that at least 36 of the 139 historic properties owned by the Trust have links to the Atlantic slave trade.

[17][1] The Trust's Patron is King Charles III; the President is Jackie Bird; the CEO is Philip Long OBE; and the chairman is Sir Mark Jones.

A three-year Business Recovery Plan was put in place to restore financial sustainability and ensure the trust was able to undertake repairs and maintenance delayed by the pandemic, and to continue to invest in conservation and visitor engagement activities at its properties.

[23] The Trust is the third largest land manager in Scotland, owning 76,000 hectares of Scottish countryside including 46 Munros, 8 national nature reserves, more than 400 islands and islets, and significant stretches of coastline.

[28] During the 2023-24 financial year the Trust received in 4.5 million visitors in total, including an estimated 1.8 million visitors recorded at free-to-enter countryside properties: the Trust considers this figure to be below the actual number due to practical challenges of recording open access across a large countryside estate.