National Trust for Scotland looks to create 300 jobs with £38m investment

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has unveiled £38m of investment plans including the creation of 300 jobs.

It comes two years after more than 200 staff were made redundant at the conservation charity.

The trust's future was in doubt when it suffered a dramatic loss in income at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now it is looking to expand its 2021 membership base of 317,000 to more than half a million people across Scotland over the next decade.

It is also aiming to increase the number of visitors to its sites to more than six million per year by 2032.

NTS, which was established in 1931, looks after more than 100 sites including the Culloden battlefield centre and Culzean Castle as well as gardens, coastlines and mountain ranges.

Among the projects set for new investment is conservation work on Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides, which is renowned for the hexagonal basalt columns of Fingal's Cave and home to a significant colony of puffins.

A new visitor centre is to be built on Canna in the Small Isles, while a visitor gateway building is being created at the Corrieshalloch gorge near Ullapool.

NTS chief executive Philip Long said the initial three-year investment - which will stretch to £100m across 10 years - would tie in with the trust's commitment to becoming carbon negative by 2031.

He said: "We've begun an exciting new chapter for the NTS, building on the experience, knowledge and skills we've gathered over the last 90 years.

"Everyone can benefit from Scotland's heritage and from the work of the trust, and in the years ahead we want to involve as many people as possible in this."

The conservation charity launched a series of emergency actions after seeing its income "virtually eradicated" at the start of the pandemic in May 2020.

More than 420 staff were put at risk of redundancy - with around half eventually retaining their jobs.