National Trust
Now that it looks like things are to open up again I’m thinking of joining one of the National Trusts but which? Is it still true that the National Trust Scotland membership includes the English venues but not the other way round?
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Unless it’s changed very recently, our English NT cards have been accepted in Scotland. We used them at Culloden in May. Same with English Heritage, once you’ve had them a year, in Scottish heritage places like Edinburgh castle. In the first year with EH cards it’s only 50%.
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We used to alternate between Scotland and England when joining to have an up to date handbook. The hand book for Scotland when we last joined the Scotland NT was not at all informative, advising use of their website, and so now stick with England.
In comparison I would have been better off joining Malts National Trust rather than Scotland!!
No idea if it has improved since
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We're in the Scottish one, only because we joined when we lived in Scotland and now get senior membership. It is cheaper too but that's just a side benefit and if you're based out of Scotland you'll miss out on local information, groups, volunteering and site books. I sometimes buy a secondhand property details book but on line details work out OK. You can use either memberships wherever you go, abroad too. Car parking in England with a Scottish card isn't always straightforward...we just plough on with our window sticker.
We've rented holiday places with both.
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Thanks folk, never understood why it wasn’t a UK wide National Trust but now understand that desire for independence in ‘today’s climate’. Parking was an important aspect of our joining and I guess it is possibly going to be even less ‘joined up’ in the future.
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ET.The Scottish NT have been drastically short of funds recently so I've not been expecting great amounts of detailed paper work from them and yes their property books have always been more basic.
English NT are now running on less "power" too, so don't expect the usual immaculate gardens and fully stocked tea rooms.
And you still need to book ahead at the moment to visit places.
We live near four big NT places and several small ones so during Covid they've given us somewhere to go as an escape, So our membership has been well worth it.
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We had no problem using our English NT cards in Scotland. We had no problem using our CADW Membership cards to visit English and Scottish historic monuments and gardens either. It’s free everywhere after a year, you pay half price at the places outside whichever country you join for first year. CADW is really good value, as they offer a discount in their shops, whereas EH don’t. Not sure about HS. We joined CADW in Wales while touring a few years ago, got our membership fee back easily that first tour.
We are just back from Scotland, some of their HS properties are still closed, or only partially open. For example Melrose Abbey, you can walk around exterior of Abbey, but inside is fenced off. Custodians told us that they couldn’t carry out routine inspections of properties last year, and once it commenced this year, inspectors found a lot of unsafe masonry etc... at some Sites, so they have had to stay closed or only partially open. Some of the private houses aren’t open either for inside viewing or tours. However, a lot of gardens are open, and looking beautiful at the moment.
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