Cockburn Conservation Trust's aims and objectives are to promote and encourage the protection and preservation of Scotland's historic, architectural and landscape heritage, to further the study of such heritage and make the information obtained available to others.
Projects undertaken by CCT are focused on buildings of historic or architectural interest whose repair costs are unattractive to private or commercial developers, usually because of their physical state or restrictions placed on them through being listed buildings. Building preservation trusts are therefore often known as "restorers of last resort".