trove.scot MCP Server

MCP server for Scotland's historic environment — 313K+ heritage records (castles, monuments, listed buildings, archaeological sites) via Historic Environment Scotland's open ArcGIS API, the backend for trove.scot. No auth required.

Tools

• search_heritage(term, sitetype?, council?, broadclass?, limit=50) — Search Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment (Canmore). Filter by name, with optional site-type, council-area, and broad-classification filters. Returns site names, types, locations (lat/lon), and trove.scot links.
• get_heritage_by_id(canmore_id) — Full details of a specific site by its Canmore ID (the number at the end of a trove.scot/place/{id} URL, e.g. 52068 for Edinburgh Castle). Returns the complete record with lat/lon and a trove.scot link.
• count_heritage(term?, sitetype?, council?) — Count how many sites match a search without fetching the records. Useful to check whether a query is too broad (results cap at 1000) before searching.
• heritage_near(lat, lon, radius_km=1.0, term?, limit=50) — Find heritage sites near a geographic point (WGS84 lat/lon). Builds a bounding box around the point and returns sites sorted nearest-first, each with a distance_km field. Optional name filter. Returns the {count, total_found, truncated, note?, sites} shape — total_found comes from a count query (the true number of matches in the area), and truncated/note flag when results were cut off by the 1000-per-query cap or by limit.
• search_listed_buildings(term?, category?, local_authority?, limit=50) — Search Scotland's 67K+ listed buildings. Filter by name/address, listing grade (A, B, or C — A is highest significance), and local authority. Returns building name/address, category grade, date designated, location (lat/lon), and a link.
• search_scheduled_monuments(term?, local_authority?, limit=50) — Search Scotland's scheduled monuments — nationally important archaeological sites protected by law. Filter by name and local authority. Returns monument name, class, area, location (lat/lon), and a link.
• list_properties_in_care(local_authority?, term?, limit=100) — List the castles, abbeys, standing stones, and other monuments that HES manages on behalf of the nation (e.g. Edinburgh Castle, Melrose Abbey, Callanish Stones). Filter by name or local authority.

Features

• No API key required — uses HES's free, open ArcGIS REST API
• Automatic retry with exponential backoff (the ArcGIS server can be slow under load — timeouts, 502s, and 503s are retried)
• British National Grid → WGS84 coordinate conversion built in — every result includes lat/lon (the API only returns BNG eastings/northings)
• Count-before-fetch with explicit truncation warnings — the API caps results with no pagination, so the tools tell you when a query was cut off and how to narrow it
• trove.scot deep links on every record (https://www.trove.scot/place/{id})

Install

cd trove-scot-mcp
pip install -e .

Configure (Hermes)

Add to your Hermes config.yaml under mcp_servers:

mcp_servers:
  trove-scot:
    command: /mnt/HC_Volume_105667182/kimbo/.hermes/hermes-agent/venv/bin/python3
    args: ["-m", "trove_scot_mcp.server"]

Or for Claude Desktop / other MCP clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "trove-scot": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["-m", "trove_scot_mcp.server"]
    }
  }
}

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest tests/ -v

API Notes

• Source: Historic Environment Scotland ArcGIS REST API at https://inspire.hes.scot/arcgis/rest/services — the backend for trove.scot. No auth required.
• Datasets: Canmore / National Record of the Historic Environment (313K+ sites), plus designation layers for listed buildings (67K+), scheduled monuments, and properties in care.
• Case handling: Text data in Canmore is stored UPPERCASE and the server's LIKE is case-sensitive — but this server handles it for you (it wraps columns in UPPER() and uppercases your term). Just search normally, e.g. term="castle". Literal % and _ in a search term are escaped (LIKE ... ESCAPE '\') so they match literally rather than acting as SQL wildcards.
• Result caps (no pagination): The API silently caps a single query at 1000 (Canmore), 5000 (listed buildings), and 10000 (scheduled monuments). There is no way to page beyond this. The tools count first and set a truncated flag plus a note when a query exceeds the cap — narrow your query with filters (sitetype, council, category, local authority) for complete results.
• Coordinates: The API returns British National Grid (OSGB36 / EPSG:27700) eastings/northings, not lat/lon. This server converts them to WGS84 lat/lon automatically (~5 m accuracy — plenty for locating sites on a map).
• Reliability: The ArcGIS server can be slow under load. The client uses a 20 s timeout and retries transient failures (timeouts, connection errors, HTTP 502/503) automatically with backoff (1 s, 2 s). If it reports the service as unavailable, wait a moment and try again.
• Data licence: Open Government Licence (per the API records).