Scotland has five UNESCO listed World Heritage Sites. In no particular order of importance they are St Kilda, New Lanark, Edinburgh Old and New Town, the Antonine Wall and Skara Brae in Orkney. Duncan Harley writes.

Robert Owen’s New Lanark Industrial Village is of course currently under threat from open caste mineral extraction operations and was the subject of a recent Aberdeen Voice article entitled “New Lanark – A Mexican Menie”.

The situation as regards New Lanark is far from being resolved although Historic Scotland have now, somewhat belatedly according to conservationists, drawn up a management plan designed to protect New Lanark.
Historic Scotland was labelled “an embarrassment to the nation” by heritage groups after it failed to lodge an objection to a quarry planned in countryside close to New Lanark.