The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded £1.5 million towards the restoration of Dean Castle in East Ayrshire.

The total £5.2m project involves modernising the historic visitor attraction, including essential stonework restoration to the external fabric of the castle and the internal modernisation/redisplay of museum collections and exhibition areas.

The HLF funding, including £500,000 from Historic Scotland, will also support a range of apprenticeship and learning programmes around the stonework restoration and collection conservation aspects of the project.

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Lucy Casot, Head of the HLF in Scotland, said: "Dean Castle is a major heritage attraction in the west of Scotland, housing important collections of arms and armour and musical instruments. Thanks to players of the National Lottery, we are delighted to give our support to a project which will revitalise these fascinating collections."

Council Leader Douglas Reid added: "We're delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has given us this support as Dean Castle is one of our major tourist attractions, and houses some of the finest museum collections in Scotland. This funding, alongside the £3.4M awarded from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2015 to develop the Dean Castle Country Park, will allows us to develop a fully integrated, five star visitor attraction."

(LM/MH)