Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS)
About RCAHMS
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) has been recording Scotland’s built heritage for the last hundred years. Its archive of over 4.5 million items provides unique insights into the location of Scotland’s historic places and how the nation’s archaeological, industrial and architectural heritage has changed over time.
RCAHMS online
RCAHMS' online database Canmore is accessible from the website, and offers background information on 275,000 buildings and sites across Scotland, and access to nearly 100,000 images. Provided RCAHMS is credited as the source, any of these can be downloaded and used for educational purposes.
Many teachers will already be familiar with Scran, which recently joined RCAHMS, and forms part of the national content on Glow, the Scottish national digital network for schools. Both teachers and pupils can use Scran to access more than 360,000 rights-cleared images, movies and sound clips from museums, galleries, archives and the media. All Scottish local authority schools and teachers currently have full user access to Scran and Glow users will shortly be able to access Scran using their Glow login.
In person
The RCAHMS search room (open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 4.30pm) is free and open to everyone, and enables users to consult original archive material including photographs, drawings, manuscripts and aerial photography. No appointment is needed (unless you wish to look at items from the aerial photography collection). There is also an email enquiries service.
For all enquiries, please contact RCAHMS at info@rcahms.gov.uk or telephone 0131-662-1456.
To call in person visit the contact page on the website.
Happy Birthday RCAHMS!
This year RCAHMS is celebrating its centenary year with a series of ongoing education and outreach projects including Treasured Places and Scotland’s Rural Past. Both are working directly with schools and local communities through programmed events and activities.