A team of experts will be visiting sites in Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde to assess monuments of national importance.

The team from Historic Scotland is responsible for identifying the most important archaeological sites and monuments in Scotland.

Dr Sally Foster, Head of the Scheduling Team, said: "We are all very much looking forward to visiting these sites and meeting the owners in the coming weeks. We have identified about 120 out of the known 5000 or so sites in the area that we would particularly like to visit, ranging from early prehistoric monuments through to military remains from the Second World War. Our aim is to improve the record of existing scheduled monuments as well as identifying the important monuments that still merit legal protection.

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"We are particularly excited by the opportunity to visit and assess some of the industrial remains for which Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire are well known, such as the Greenock Cut and associated Shaws Water system, in addition to some unusual prehistoric settlements located on the foreshore. The waterlogged conditions at these sites mean that timbers and other organic remains survive from several thousand years ago."

Following the visit, the team will assess which sites merit protection as scheduled monuments. The criteria for this takes account of a wide range of factors, including artistic, archaeological, architectural, historic, traditional, aesthetic, scientific and social.

Owners, occupiers and land managers of protected sites have access to information to support them and advise on the care of monuments and availability of grants, as well as any other works for which prior consent from Scottish Ministers is needed.

Over 260,000 archaeological sites and monuments, architectural objects and marine sites are recorded in Scotland, of which around 8,100 of the most important examples are currently scheduled.

(GK/KMcA)