Conservation Management Planning
AOC routinely undertake Conservation Management Plans.
On recent example is at Auchincruive Estate located to the east of Ayr. The site is included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes and contains a number of Listed Buildings dating to the 18th and 19th centuries. The estate is currently home to the Scottish Agricultural College. AOC Archaeology Group were asked to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment in support of a planning application for a residential and golf course development to be sited both within and adjacent to the designed landscape.
Desk-based assessment and walkover survey revealed previously unrecorded elements of the designed landscape surviving and following on from the EIA the need for a Conservation Management Plan was identified by the council’s conservation officer and Historic Scotland. The conservation management plan was completed by White Young Green/Farningham McCreadie with input from AOC.
AOC were able to use historic map regression to illustrate the development and decline of designed elements of the landscape at Auchincruive and further walkover survey which involved our dendrochronogical experts was able to identify several specimen trees which were likely to have been planted at the time the designed landscape was being laid out. This enabled masterplanning for the new development which took account of the historic landscape and maximised its preservation.