Talk to anybody inside Historic Environment Scotland, or HES, and you might think they were working in a failed state, not a heritage quango.
Insiders use words such as “toxic” and “dysfunction” and describe the body as riven with warring factions and “fiefdoms”.
There have been press allegations that one senior figure at HES had enjoyed a private dinner in Edinburgh Castle on the cheap during this summer’s Tattoo, that another had called Indian tourists at the same venue “chocolates” and that a middle manager had twerked at the Hollywood star Martin Compston during an event.
Last week the gossip was all about a new COO, or chief operating officer. Which sounds a little more ominous when officials pronounce the acronym like the Scots word for a cow — or the French one for a sudden and unexpected regime change.
HES may not have undergone a full-blown coup. But the body — which is both the custodian of some of the country’s most important buildings, such as Edinburgh Castle, and the watchdog and regulator for thousands more — is firmly under new management.
It has a new chairman, Sir Mark Jones. It is about to get interim COO, essentially a fixer. Its chief executive, Kat Brown, has been brought back to sort out its accounts after months off sick or suspended.
Sir Mark Jones outside the British Museum, where he was interim director from 2023-2024
ALAMY
The change is not surprising. Months — perhaps years — of infighting and personality and culture clashes in recent weeks have spilled into the public domain. Gossipy media stories are smoke that suggests there is a fire inside Scotland’s built heritage sector.
One insider told The Sunday Times that the quango was stewed in a “culture of entitlement”.
A whistleblower was said to have claimed that managers “walk around like they own our castles”. Stephen Boyle, the auditor general, Scotland’s public finance watchdog, has described “weaknesses in governance and financial management” at HES.
Insiders suggest exhausted and stressed-out HES human resources officials have been fielding slews of complaints and counter-complaints from senior executives.
Most or all of HES’s executive leadership team, sources said, have taken out grievances against Brown — who was suspended in September after going off sick in the spring, just weeks after taking up her post.
Katerina Brown is working from home on HES accounts ahead of its annual report
The complaints are understood to be relatively trivial but so voluminous they suggest a breakdown in personal relationships between the chief executive and her lieutenants, some of whom had fancied her job before she was appointed.
Brown came to HES from the National Trust for Scotland — where she was the chief operating officer, and worked with Jones — after a career in finance. When she moved to the NTS she said she was swapping her “city suit and heels for waterproofs and walking boots”.
Prospect, the trade union representing staff, last week warned that staff were “stressed, are upset and some of them are angry”.
Complaints were made against Craig Mearns, the operations director, who had served as interim chief executive after the unexpected resignation of a previous incumbent, Alex Paterson, in 2023.
It was Mearns who was accused of calling Indian visitors “chocolates” — and also referring to French people as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”.
Craig Mearns joined HES after more than 30 years’ service in the Royal Navy
HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SCOTLAND
The National newspaper, citing internal paperwork, reported that Mearns, a former captain of the Faslane submarine base, has suggested such terms were common in the navy.
The official — who some at HES see as a “good soldier” who gets things done — is now understood to have gone off sick amid political calls for his dismissal.
Another director, Stephen Duncan, is now said to be under investigation for arranging to have dinner with his wife inside Edinburgh Castle. He runs the commercial wing of HES — trying to get the most revenue out of the properties it manages.
There is nothing new about wars inside Scottish heritage bodies. The old Historic Scotland — before its merger a decade or so ago with the Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland — was constantly rocked by claims and counter-claims of bad behaviour.
A survey of HS staff in 2011 found that one in 20 said they were being bullied. A clutch of executives, including then chief executive Ruth Parsons, resigned.
But heritage insiders with a long memory say tensions inside the sector date back at least until the time of Margaret Thatcher, when the ancient monuments division was part of the Scottish Development Department of the UK government. Even then there were tensions between those who wanted to preserve buildings — and those who wanted to use them as tourism attractions and cash cows — or coos.
Stephen Duncan is said to be under investigation for arranging to have dinner with his wife inside Edinburgh Castle
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HES in its latest incarnation is supposed to be independent of ministers. Constituted as a charity, its board is meant to call the shots. Trustees, however, have also been fighting Scotland’s “built culture wars”.
Hugh Hall, the board chairman, resigned in August. He had been scheduled to serve until at least January.
The veteran public sector stalwart used to work for Audit Scotland and had loyal supporters inside HES who sometimes called themselves Team Hugh — and who were in conflict with people they saw as loyal to Brown, or Team Kat.
Some sources close to Hall suggest Brown was put in place by the Scottish government in its latest attempt to sort out the quango, ruffling feathers in the process.
There are those who claim the SNP is interfering too much and others that think it is not doing enough. Stephen Kerr, a Conservative MSP, raised concerns with Boyle, the auditor general. It was in a letter to the politician that the watchdog revealed he was concerned at the absence of an accountable officer — Brown — at the organisation.
Kerr said: “The fact that the auditor general has felt compelled to intervene demonstrates the gravity of the situation.
“I have been calling for months for decisive action from the culture secretary. Angus Robertson has a duty to act and has failed to do so. He seems completely absent and out of touch with what is happening at HES.”
Mark Jones has said HES is “facing some complex and pressing challenges”
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Patrick Harvie, the Green MSP, said he was surprised by the lack of professionalism at HES.
“There has been a great deal of shock about what has been going on at HES, allegations of racism and the inappropriate use of properties,” he said.
“The organisation does not feel as if it has been acting as a custodian of heritage for us all. We are talking about national assets which belong to us all. I hope a leadership team is put in place that can require the scale of culture change which is required.”
Ministers are understood to have faith in Jones, who is widely respected in heritage circles and has previously rescued organisations including the British Museum. The official Scottish government line is that the new chairman’s priorities are “to ensure HES has the trust of the public and its partners”.
HES declined to comment on personnel matters. Announcing there would be an interim COO last week, Jones said the organisation was “facing some complex and pressing challenges — particularly around culture, governance, and staff wellbeing”.
He added: “These issues will require sustained attention over the coming weeks.”
Brown is not yet back at her desk: she is working from home on HES accounts ahead of its annual report. She has not commented publicly but earlier this month did make a cryptic post on LinkedIn, the social-media platform for the career-orientated. “Sometimes we need a wee reminder,” she wrote next to a picture of water carrying the message “the story depends on who is telling it.”