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Explora: Environment
and Resource Conservation, recreation, or both?

identity and the country park designation lost its precision SDD to produce a country park, to validate the concept as
of meaning. Each case study has been explored in depth relevant to Scotland. Stormonth Darling quickly secured
39
using primary archive sources, including the NTS’ own Scottish Office support for the proposition, receiving
40
archives, Scottish Development Department (SDD) papers considerable help from the SDD, who wrote to HM
(the SDD had control of government funding for country Treasury in very positive terms as to what country park
parks), the papers of other statutory and non-statutory funding might achieve at Culzean. He also successfully
41
bodies, and local archives. These original materials have lobbied not only the immediate local authority, Ayrshire
been supplemented by personal visits and exploration of County Council, but also the two Burgh Councils of Ayr
each of the parks concerned. A small number of secondary and Kilmarnock, suggesting (incorrectly) that they now
sources have been consulted; these are primarily histories had a statutory duty to provide a country park. 42
of the organisations involved, supplemented by analyses of There were nevertheless several complications that
countryside policy in Scotland in this period, and are all Stormonth Darling had to tackle. Match-funding was one
referenced in the Introduction section.
of these; the CCS grant would meet 75% of the costs of
3. Case studies providing a country park, but Stormonth Darling needed
to find the balance elsewhere, without compromising
3.1. Culzean 1
NTS resources. Cost sharing with the three councils was
In 1945, the NTS was still a relatively young organisation, the solution, and was agreed at an early stage, subject to
43
but it had developed from cautious beginnings to a more confirmation of the sums involved. 44
confident position, managing more than 20 historic A further complication was the eligibility implicit in the
properties, and a large acreage of the heritage landscape. country park legislation. Although no formal policy existed
34
However, this confidence was tested severely when in that
year Lord Ailsa offered the NTS the gift of Culzean Castle, at this stage, it was clear that country parks were expected
2
an A-listed historic building with extensive gardens set in to be close to population centres, with a presumption in
a 230 ha estate on the Ayrshire coast. Culzean had suffered favour of more active recreation than Culzean was likely
to offer. CCS’ own feasibility study noted the relative
45
badly from neglect, and was being offered without the
financial endowment the Trust would normally expect, to remoteness of Culzean from major population centres,
finance immediate repairs and ongoing maintenance. The something which might have disqualified it from becoming
35
46
offer of such an iconic property was irresistible, however; a country park. Even the SDD’s letter of support seems
after acceptance of the gift an appeal was launched, but written partly to defuse the possibility of rejection on the
41
Culzean nevertheless caused persistent deficits in the NTS grounds of ineligibility. Nevertheless, the application
finances, to the point where in 1948 it ‘almost sank the was encouraged enthusiastically by both CCS and SDD.
36
Trust’s ship for good.’ Deficits on Culzean’s revenue account Culzean’s transition into a country park can therefore be
continued to be reported into the late 1960s; with a further seen as subverting the very policy it was pioneering and
47
appeal launched in 1968 and Culzean’s finances continued to implementing.
be a major concern for the Trust as it approached the 1970s. 37 Stormonth Darling also had to convince his own
It was against this backdrop that the NTS’s Secretary, Executive Committee that the NTS’ interests and
Jamie Stormonth Darling, began in 1968 to think in terms statutory obligations would not be compromised through
of utilising the funding available under the Countryside a partnership with external bodies and funders, and to
(Scotland) Act to mitigate this problem. He needed support reassure both his own committee and external interests
from a variety of sources: these included CCS, the agency that an increase in visitor numbers would not damage
managing the country park programme; the SDD, who held the essential character of Culzean, something all parties –
the funding for it; the local authority, required by the Act to including the donor himself – felt strongly about. 42
assess the need for a country park in their district; and the These concerns were addressed in a formal agreement
38
UK Government’s Scottish Office, and the Treasury, which between the NTS and the three local authorities concluded
held positions of authority over all these bodies. Securing in March 1970. This set up a joint management committee
48
this support would not necessarily be difficult; there was a of the three councils while giving the NTS day-to-day
strong and urgent desire on the part of both CCS and the responsibility for managing the country park within an
1 Culzean is pronounced ‘Cullane’. agreed budget and policy, effectively allowing the NTS to
2 A-listing is the highest level of listed building status in spend the country park funding as it saw fit, within agreed
Scotland, indicating a building of national or international parameters which also expressly guaranteed ‘the character
significance. and atmosphere of Culzean.’ 49

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2025) 5 doi: 10.36922/eer.5890