There are four Local Planning Authorities in the SESARF region with archaeological advisors based in Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders and East Lothian. There has been a local authority Archaeology Officer in the Scottish Borders region since 1989, when as Borders Region, John Dent was employed, though there have been occasional breaks and interruptions to service. East Lothian Council Archaeology Service was formed in 2002 and since 2003 has also been responsible for the archaeology advice and provision for neighbouring Midlothian Council.
There are three separate HERs that cover the SESARF region, one for the City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology Service, one for Scottish Borders and one that covers both East Lothian and Midlothian. All are linked to the National Record of the Historic Environment: Canmore database.
The HER for East Lothian and Midlothian is available via the John Gray Centre website at https://www.johngraycentre.org/collections/her/ and on PastMap. It should be noted that the online version of the HER does not contain the full amount of information held in the HER, and is not necessarily fully up to date. It will not be sufficient on its own to inform the planning process, and commercial contractors should contact the HER directly to obtain the full data for an area.
The forerunner of the current Scottish Borders Historic Environment Record (HER) was commissioned by the Border Burghs Archaeology Project 1984 to 1988 with support from the council. This HER operates a shared system with Historic Environment Scotland, and the National Record of the Historic Environment: Canmore is therefore one and and the same. The HER for Scottish Borders database entries and mapped information is generally available through the PastMap and Canmore websites, but further supplementary information is held more locally in the Scottish Borders Council collections as well as Historic Environment Scotland (HES) archives in Edinburgh. Further information about the Scottish Borders HER is available at https://www.scotborders.gov.uk/info/20013/environment/603/archaeology. The HER data available online is not fully up to date, and is not sufficient to inform the planning process. Contacts should be made with the HER directly to obtain the full data for an area.
Further information about the City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology Service (CECAS) can be found at https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/about/archaeology-service.