Philip Long

The trust’s new post-Covid strategy includes upgrades to the islands of Staffa and Canna to facilitate more visitors and the development of a new visitor centre at Corrieshalloch Gorge in Ross-shire, The Scotsman reports.

Philip Long, chief executive of NTS, said the trust’s financial position had improved following an unexpected £4.4 million increase in the value of its investment book.

“We have set out in our strategy our intention to increase our membership and visitor numbers and these will contribute to our financial position,” he said.

“It’s fair to say that as the scale of the pandemic became clear in 2020, we feared the worst and believed the trust’s future as a going concern was at stake.

“A number of actions were taken by the trust to address this position and ensure its survival. A combination of receiving generous support from our loyal members, from donors, and from the Scottish and UK governments, combined with the closure of our properties and a very severe, but essential cost-cutting exercise, all helped.”

He continued: “The biggest driver of our surplus were our investments. The book value of our investments went up by £4m, when we had expected it to go down by £4m. Altogether, this meant that we ended the year better than we expected, with a surplus of £4.4m.

“We are now in a much stronger and stable position, and this has enabled us to make the plans we’re sharing in our strategy, but we are still in a period of recovery and that’s the first phase of our strategy – recovery and planning.”