01 Identity
Scottish charity record
- OSCR charity number
- SC043105
- Status
- Active
- Regulatory type
- Standard
- Designated religious body
- No
- Geographical spread
- Operations cover all or most of Scotland
- Volunteers
- 51-100 volunteers
- Staff
- 2
- Postcode
- EH1 2LP
02 Purpose and work
What the charity exists to do
Scotland’s Churches Trust is an independent built-heritage charity dedicated to protecting, preserving and promoting Scotland’s unique inheritance of religious architecture. We support and advocate on behalf of the congregations and communities who sustain and maintain current and former places of worship, helping to safeguard these historic buildings and the stories, traditions and local identities that they embody. Alongside practical advice on routine maintenance, historical interpretation and community engagement, we also provide a national online directory that signposts tens of thousands of visitors each year to places of worship across Scotland. In recent years, as denominations make difficult decisions about their properties, we have also been assisting communities seeking to take on these closure-threatened buildings, developing as part of this activity an award-winning rapid-recording methodology to document quickly the fragile heritage contained within each site.
Charitable purposes
- the advancement of education
- the advancement of religion
- the advancement of the arts, heritage, culture or science
Beneficiaries
- No specific group, or for the benefit of the community
- Other charities or voluntary bodies
Activities
- It makes grants, donations or gifts to organisations
- It carries out activities or services itself
Constitutional objectives
The organisation is established for charitable purposes only and, in particular, aims to advance the preservation, promotion and understanding of Scotland's rich architectural heritage represented in its churches and places of worship of all denominations. Its purposes are: 4.1 to advance heritage and religion by the preservation and upkeep of churches and other places of worship including churchyards. 4.2 to encourage churches and other places of worship to open to welcome visitors, tourists and pilgrims. 4.3 to advance education and promote understanding of the public about the history, art, architecture and traditions of churches and other places of worship and their position as a focal point in the community. and 4.4 to provide grants or donations to other charitable or religious individuals, bodies or organisations with aims or objects analogous to purposes 4.1-4.3 or, more generally, with the common purpose of maintaining churches and other places of worship.
03 Annual returns
Income and expenditure history
| Year end | Income | Expenditure | Staff | Return received |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 March 2025 | £39,143 | £84,689 | 2 | 20 November 2025 |
| 31 March 2024 | £34,880 | £76,830 | 2 | 21 November 2024 |
| 31 March 2023 | £44,928 | £41,108 | 2 | 14 November 2023 |
| 31 March 2022 | £56,482 | £94,244 | 2 | 8 December 2022 |
| 31 March 2021 | £38,245 | £125,532 | 2 | 17 January 2022 |
Figures are those reported by the charity and supplied in the OSCR bulk download. Blank facts remain distinct from zero.
04 Contact record
Principal office or trustees address
- Address supplied to OSCR
- 15 North Bank Street, Edinburgh
- Website supplied to OSCR
- www.scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk
- Parent charity
- Not supplied
No direct external links on this profile. The official OSCR record and source documentation are available through BritDB’s dedicated source page.
05 Provenance
Source for this profile
© Crown Copyright and database right 2026. Contains information from the Scottish Charity Register supplied by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. BritDB is an independent service and does not claim to be the Scottish Charity Register.