One of the fund’s pilots, which was announced last month, involved £80,000 towards car parking at the stones of Stenness, providing much-needed facilities at a popular neolithic site. In the Scottish National Party’s 2016 manifesto, it pledged to reduce ferry fares on services to Orkney and Shetland and, last year, the minister stated that the fare reductions would be “rolled out in the first half of 2018”, saving visitors up to £100.