A HUGE planned AI data centre linked to a Scottish aristocrat has sparked fears over the impact it could have on nearby 4000-year-old burial cairns.
Sunlaws Development Company and Roxburghe Estates – owned by Charles Innes-Ker, the 11th Duke of Roxburghe, and his family – are proposing to build the £2 billion Southside data centre in the Lammermuir hills in the Scottish Borders.
The proposed 225MW development would cover around 151 hectares and consist of three data centre buildings, each up to 24 metres high.
But Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has said the development has the potential to have “significant adverse impacts” on the setting of Dirrington Great Law and Dirrington Little Law – prehistoric burial cairns dating to the Bronze Age.
The warning came in HES’s response to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping exercise.
HES said no nationally important heritage assets are located within the proposed development area itself and said they were "broadly content” with the proposed scope.
However, it identified potential impacts on the setting of the two scheduled monuments, which sit prominently on the summits of the Dirrington hills near the proposed site.
It said the development could affect views from the monuments and their relationship with the surrounding landscape, with the potential for “significant adverse effects” requiring further assessment as part of the project's EIA.
The council’s heritage officer – also in submissions – separately warned of the potential for “significant effects on the setting of scheduled monuments and listed buildings within a sensitive upland historic landscape”.
But the findings have led to opposition from campaigners fighting the development, who argue that the significance of the cairns is inseparable from the landscape surrounding them.
A local supporter of the Save the Lammermuirs campaign told the Sunday National: “Thousands of years of history and landscape make this place special. Countless previous generations of human beings have looked up to the cairns on the Dirrington summits, and the hills retain their significance for folk in 2026.
“Locals and visitors alike get a sense of wellbeing, and of being restored, by gazing at the ancient and inspiring Dirringtons.
They added: “It’s the wrong development in the wrong place.”
The Southside Data Centre, meanwhile, stressed that the HES comments formed part of the EIA scoping process, through which the developer itself asked statutory consultees to identify issues that should be examined before a planning application is submitted.
A spokesperson said: “We committed to a full Environmental Impact Assessment precisely because we want to ensure that all possible impacts are carefully considered as part of Southside’s design, consultation, and planning application.
“As Historic Environment Scotland confirms, no nationally important heritage assets are within the proposed development area or proposed access route options. However, an assessment of cultural heritage impact is an important part of our EIA and its findings will be carefully considered and reflected in any planning submission.”
A Historic Environment Scotland spokesperson said: "Our advice on relevant information to be provided in any Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) supporting a planning application for the proposed Southside Data Centre is set out in our consultation response."
They added: "We identified potential for significant effects on our historic environment interests and advised carrying out assessments and providing further information (such as visualisations) to support an application. We will review further information about the potential impacts of the proposed development when it is available."
