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From 1 to 22 October 2025, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) sought views on a proposal to list the drinking fountain in Dalmuir Park, Clydebank.

The freestanding cast-iron public drinking fountain dates from 1907 and was manufactured by Walter Macfarlane and Company of the Saracen Foundry in Glasgow. Walter Macfarlane was one of the major suppliers in the Scottish ironwork industry in the 19th and 20th centuries, and they exported their decorative designs across the British Empire and the world. The fountain was gifted to the newly established Dalmuir Park and its casting pattern is the largest and most elaborate of the free-standing canopied fountains that the company produced. The fountain remains in its original location in Dalmuir Park. It is largely unaltered and is one of a very small number of this casting pattern that are known to survive worldwide.

Through Citizen Space, we invited members of the public to tell us if they agreed with the proposed designation and if they had further comments to make.

We consulted directly with West Dunbartonshire Council, as the owner and the planning authority.

Our selection guidance for designation and the policies we work to are published in the Designations Policy and Selection Guidance document.  

We received one response to the consultation, which was from the local authority, West Dunbartonshire Council, who own and manage the fountain. The response did not raise any issues that put into question the special architectural or historic interest of the building under review.

After considering the comment received during consultation, we have listed the fountain at category B as Drinking Fountain, Dalmuir Park, Clydebank.   

We have published a Report on Handling for this case on the Heritage Portal.

From 17 September 2025 to 8 October 2025, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) sought views on a proposal to list the Carnegie public library in Dumbarton.

Dumbarton Library, located along Strathleven Place, was designed in the Renaissance style by local architect, William Reid. The building is dated 1909 and is a two-storey, three-bay, purpose-built public library that was funded through the Public Libraries (Scotland) Act and the Carnegie library grant scheme. Its scale, relative lack of later alteration and its architectural quality overall all contribute to Dumbarton Library’s special architectural interest as a major example of an early-20^th century public library.

Through Citizen Space, we invited members of the public to tell us if they agreed with the proposed designation and if they had further comments to make.

We consulted directly with West Dunbartonshire Council as the owners of the building and the planning authority.

Our selection guidance for designation and the policies we work to are published in the Designations Policy and Selection Guidance document.  

We received two responses to the consultation.

We received a written response from the local authority in which they raised no objection to the proposed listing but provided information about the future proposed reuse of the building.

The other response was from a private individual via our Citizen Space Survey. This response strongly agreed with our proposal and provided further comments about preserving local heritage assets.

The responses to consultation did not raise any issues that put into question the special architectural or historic interest of the building under review.

After considering the comments received during consultation, we have updated our report of handling and we have listed the Carnegie library at category B as Dumbarton Library including boundary walls and the bell-shaped stone tablet and excluding the mid-20th century extension, 13-15 Strathleven Place, Dumbarton.

We have published a Report of Handling for this case on the Heritage Portal.

From 31 July to 11 September, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) sought views on a proposal to list the Brunton Hall, Musselburgh.

The Brunton Hall is a purpose-built civic centre complex and public arts venue that was built between 1968 and 1971. It is a landmark building in Musselburgh town centre and is a major example of post-war civic architecture in Scotland. It was designed by the renowned Scottish architect,  Sir William Kininmonth, of Rowand Anderson Kininmonth & Paul, who was an important proponent of modern architecture in Scotland, and features a large piece of abstract public art by the Scottish artist and sculptor Tom Whalen.

The building was in the process of being vacated due to the presence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in the roof panels, and the Council are considering the future of the building and this site.

Through Citizen Space, we invited members of the public to tell us if they agreed with our assessment of the special interest of the building and whether they had further comments to make on the potential listing.

We also consulted directly with East Lothian Council as the planning authority and as the owners/managers of the building.

Our selection guidance for designation and the policies we work to are published in the Designations Policy and Selection Guidance document. 

We received a total of 304 responses to our consultation. There were 297 responses to the online survey and seven written responses, including one from East Lothian Council, one from the Trustees of the Brunton Theatre, an open letter from elected members of the Labour party, and the remainder were from local and national amenity bodies.

79.8% of those who responded to the online survey agreed with our assessment of the special architectural and historic interest. 19.2% did not agree. There were 151 additional comments provided as part of the online survey.

East Lothian Council provided a detailed report and supporting documents setting out their proposals for the site. 

The responses provided many comments relating to the architectural or historic interest of the building. There were a range of other comments related to proposals to demolish the building and reasons for this proposal, including the building’s condition and related costs. There were also comments about general procedural matters, our designations policy on development, and roles and responsibilities of HES and the planning authority.

We have collated all the responses and published them in a consultation report, which includes comments in full (where we have appropriate permissions). We have published East Lothian Council’s response separately. A summary of the consultation is available in section 4.3 of our Report of Handling.

All of the relevant reports can be found under the Documents section below and on our Heritage Portal.   

We have taken all relevant comments on special interest into account in our assessment and updated it with the additional information. We considered again the architectural and historic interest of the building and remain of the view that the building is a notable and rare example of a post-war civic centre complex and community theatre.  

We have responded to any comments that are relevant to our decision-making in Annex B of our Report of Handling. 

Our Decision

Following the consideration of the detailed information received through our consultation, we consider that the Council’s proposals for the building are ‘particularly advanced’ in the terms of our policy (pp. 7-8). 

Our decision is therefore not to list the building because of development proposals that are at an advanced stage. We have set out how we have arrived at our decision at 3.3 in our Report of Handling.

We remain of the view that the building is of special architectural or historic interest. If the proposals to demolish are not taken forward, we will reconsider the listing of the building.  

Documents

HES – Brunton Hall – Report of Handling – Decision  

Designating the Brunton Hall - Consultation Survey Report  

East Lothian Council – Consultation Response – Brunton Hall