List of World Heritage Sites in Scotland

"The Heart of Neolithic Orkney" includes Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness and other nearby sites.

It is a restored 18th century industrial cotton mill village in South Lanarkshire constructed by Robert Owen as an experiment in utopian socialism.

Network Rail, the current owners of the bridge, made their initial opposition to a nomination clear, being concerned this could impose "additional burdens" on their ability to operate it.

[8] The listing recognised it as "an extraordinary and impressive milestone in bridge design and construction during the period when railways came to dominate long-distance land travel.

[10] A year later the then Culture Minister Mike Russell MSP announced at Mount Rushmore in the United States that Historic Scotland had launched a project called the Scottish Ten.

Similar work recently done on Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh resulted in the storage of terabytes of data, the scans being made up of 8 billion individual points.

Its 4,000 square kilometres support numerous rare plants and insects and important populations of golden plover, dunlin, greenshank, and black-throated divers.

The 2010 applications to join the Tentative List that were not carried forward were: Arbroath Abbey; Buildings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow; and St Andrews, Medieval Burgh and Links.

I am delighted that so many of Scotland’s attractions have stepped forward and answered the UK government’s call for world heritage status.

[23] The Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop MSP (who took on the post from Fabiani in 2009)[24] said: "Many groups, individuals and local authorities across Scotland put work into nominating places that mean a lot to them and I would like to thank them for the enthusiasm they have shown for our historic environment".

[25] The Heart of Neolithic Orkney site has certainly been a marketing success, with annual tourist numbers visiting Skara Brae alone now exceed 55,000 per annum.

Examples quoted include Gulating (Norway), Tinganes (Faroe Islands), Tingwall in both Shetland and in Orkney, Dingwall (Highland) and Tynwald (Isle of Man).

[30][31] According to Historic Scotland "Scottish Ministers identify and put forward sites to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for nomination".

If implemented, the tax could raise £3 million or more, which would be used for marketing the city and on maintenance work designed to retain the existing World Heritage Site status.