Ian Reid, Director of Finance, National Trust for Scotland

Before introducing our speaker, President Peter welcomed Agnes Ritchie, RI District 1020 Assistant Governor and Dr Jacqueline Bell, Community Paediatric Specialist.

Ian Reid moved to the National Trust for Scotland after a career covering finance, property and software. He recently had a period as Interim Chief Executive of the charity in addition to his role as Finance Director. Ian introduced his talk with a slide stating that the National Trust for Scotland is a ‘conservation charity’ with responsibility for such diverse areas as Culzean Castle, Inverewe Gardens, Glencoe and, closer to our Club, Malleny Gardens in Balerno.

The scope of NTS can partly be demonstrated in numbers - 129 properties; 1,534 buildings; one million items in 56,535 collections; 400 islands and islets and 35 major gardens. It also manages on behalf of others (e.g. Pollock House, City of Glasgow).

With an annual income of £40 million to £45 Million, it spends all of it!  Income comes from membership, shops, catering and from more obscure activities such as two annual cruises and rental from film makers.

Expenditure includes buildings maintenance (e.g. Hillhouse, Helensburgh), renovation of footpaths (e.g. Ben Lomond), old roads into landscape, conservation of the collections, Ranger Service, archaeology (e.g. two iron age skulls found during driveway renovation at The Binns), education, community outreach and Interpretation (e.g. Culloden). Additionally, the maintenance of traditional skills is important to the Trust - flour milling (Barry in Angus); printing (Smails in Innerleithen) and stonemason work.

Of course, there are challenges for the future - income versus expenditure; declining grant support; uncertain legacy income and the preference of some visitors for free-entry venues rather than pay an admission charge.

This was a fascinating insight into the work of NTS evidenced by the range of questions asked at the end of the talk.

The Club’s vote of thanks was given by Walter Hallyburton who acknowledged the work of our programme committee in persuading such good speakers as Ian this week and Kathleen Dalziel last week to attend our meetings.

Report by Ian Greig