Investment long overdue to bolster cash cow castle

AN SNP quango is embroiled in bitter infighting, with bosses accused of "milking" Edinburgh Castle as a "cash cow" due to lack of action to repair the tourist hotspot.

- John Glover

Historic Environment Scotland's new chief executive Katerina Brown admitted that the body was failing in its duty to look after the castle, acknowledging that "investment is long overdue".

Ms Brown joined the agency last June, taking over from Alex Paterson, who resigned from the £130,000 role in November 2024. The quango pays its 10-person leadership team more than £1.2million a year.

Edinburgh Castle is Scotland's most visited tourist site, attracting nearly 2 million visitors each year, with numbers growing by 4% last year.

But workers at the castle have been raising serious concerns for more than two years, which some claim were ignored by the senior leadership team.

Infighting

Now, we can reveal that the organisation is facing infighting among its senior leadership team over the failure to properly maintain Edinburgh Castle, while Ms Brown openly criticises her own staff and another boss apparently refers to the Royal Regiment of Scotland and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, which have their regimental HQs at the castle, as "lodgers".

Correspondence released under a freedom of information request revealed plans to "reprioritise work" and get the "toilet project moving" in January 2024. However, TripAdvisor complaints show that as of March this year, visitors were still complaining about the "filthy, smelly, and seemingly untouched" public toilets.