Loch Ness community awarded £217k to help develop a sports, health and wellbeing hub
A community near Loch Ness has been awarded £217,340 to convert the site of a former shop into a sports, health and wellbeing hub.
Glen Urquhart Rural Community Association (GURCA) plans to buy and develop the site of the former Scotmid store in Drumnadrochit.
The new hub will reduce the need for local residents to make a 30-mile round trip to access such facilities.
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It is one of four community projects across the Highlands to receive grants totalling £377,328 from the Scottish Land Fund.
They also include Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston Community Company which has received £44,800 to acquire the Memorial Hall building in Canalside, Fort Augustus, for development into a community space and office shared with workspace.
Susan Griffin, GURCA chairperson, said its award would allow the organisation to buy the old shop in Drumnadrochit which had lain derelict for several years.
“Working with the Glen Urquhart Shinty Club and the Glen Urquhart Football Club, this will allow us to move ahead with our plans to develop a sport focused health and wellbeing centre with enhanced changing facilities,” she said.
“A fitness suite and range of treatment rooms for use by our growing community are also planned, reducing the need for our residents to travel a 30-mile round trip to access such facilities.”
Key aims of GURCA’s community action plan include a more active and sustainable community and better health and wellbeing opportunity plus supporting local culture, sport and heritage.
“The facility we aim to develop will assist delivery of these outcomes in our own community and we will now be able to start the fundraising efforts for the build phase," Ms Griffin said.
Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston Community Company also welcomed its funding award to acquire the Memorial Hall.
Catriona Watson, of the community company, said: "We are delighted that, thanks to the Scottish Land Fund, this historic building will once again be under community ownership.
“We are excited to get to work in updating the building and bringing it back to use for local people once more."
Elsewhere in the Highlands a grant of £61,188 will allow Sunart Community Company to acquire Strontian Parish Church for future transformation into a heritage centre while North Sutherland Community Forest Trust has been given £54,000 to acquire the site of Rosal clearance village which it aims to preserve, interpret and promote as an historic site.
The grants are among eight, totalling £829,692, which have been announced during this year’s Community Land Festival, which runs until Sunday November 3.
The Scottish Land Fund is funded by the Scottish Government and delivered in partnership by The National Lottery Community Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).
Sandra Holmes, head of community assets at HIE, said the successful projects had identified opportunities to help their local area to thrive and were great examples of people taking control of local resources for the long-term benefit of their communities.
“Through the purchase of land and properties including a parish church and a memorial hall, groups will be in a position to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits to the community,” she said.
“Ownership will give them greater control over important assets that will reap rewards for people now and for generations to come.”
