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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Topic started by: EdinKath on Sunday 18 May 25 19:26 BST (UK)
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Announcement from Historic Environment Scotland that Canmore, Scran and Scotland's Places will be switched off on the 24th June 2025. https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/retiral-of-hes-web-services/
(I couldn't see an existing Rootschat topic on this but sorry if this is duplicate post.)
I've seen a few threads on social media saying that the replacement site trove.scot is not fit for purpose and turning off the existing sites is premature. Eg this one which I think you can read without having a bluesky account: https://bsky.app/profile/tagishsimon.bsky.social/post/3lpg2xtyo4c24
I've only used the three sites occasionally so I'm not familiar enough with them to know if the new site is a step backwards or not. Interested to know what Rootschatters who use the sites a lot think of the new one.
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Canmore
I had a big interest in Kenmure Castle.
https://canmore.org.uk/image/result?SIMPLE_KEYWORD=Kenmure%20Castle
Oh that is disappointing that the website will cease.
Canmore has photos and the Ordnance Survey Cards of buildings too.
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Many years ago I did a Search in Legal Documents, Local Council and County Council Minutes, newspapers, Valuation Rolls, Surveys, etc., to discover the exact circumstances of its demise.
The Dumfries Archivist traced me two photos and got two photographic prints made for me.
I have a 20th Century Sale Catalogue too.
Mark
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It's true that Historic Environment Scotland is combining the content of various web sites into a new one https://www.trove.scot/
The good thing is that the information currently on Canmore etc is not just going to disappear. It will still be there, but in a new format.
Unfortunately it's also true that trove.scot appears to be difficult, awkward and unwieldy to use. I have been looking at it for the last few days, and I am not at all impressed. It seems that the useful and interesting stuff requires a lot of drilling down, and linking to the URLs (if you can find them) appears to be unstable.
The search on the main page https://www.trove.scot/ does not appear to do anything. However if you click on Explore, then Explore Places, then Search by Keyword, you get a search screen that does work.It is now working. No idea why it wasn't before, or whether it will continue to work now.
I put in Kenmure, and it produces 160 results. That compares with results for 24 sites if you input Kenmure into the main page search screen at Canmore. Fortunately Kenmure Castle is the first of the 160 results, and clicking on that produces a record of Kenmure Castle with some images and a map.
However to get to the useful information and description you have to click on the tab named 'Activities' (??Activities??) which then opens the descriptions that are currently on Canmore. How on earth are you supposed to know that 'Activities' means 'Descriptions'?
The cards you mention are under 'Related Archives' and there is a tab for 'Nearby Places and Designations' of which I have yet to grasp the point or purpose.
There's a page https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/retiral-of-hes-web-services/ describing what is going on.
I think the one that is going to be the most awkward to deal with is the withdrawal of Scotland's Places because the information there is going to be split among three different web sites instead of all being conveniently in one place.
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BTW there is absolutely no point in whingeing about it here or on any form of social media.
If you don't like it, use the feedback tab on the trove.scot main page to tell them what you don't like and why not. If they get enough feedback they might even heed it.
I have done so, and have indicated my willingness to join their User Research Panel.