My Place Community-led Project Award

The Atlantic Islands Centre is a £1.25m initiative by the Isle of Luing Community Trust. Developed to spearhead sustainable development on the island and to prevent further depopulation, the Atlantic Islands Centre opened in the summer of 2015 and has quickly become established as a focal point for community life. Providing much needed facilities for both residents and visitors alike the Centre has been recognised as bringing economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits to the people...

Bellsbank is a rural, former coal mining community that has suffered heavily from the loss of the local industry. It has consistently fallen into the category of the 0-5% most deprived communities in Scotland.

Despite a wonderful landscape setting at the head of the Doon Valley overlooking the Bogton Loch (SSSI), the physical appearance and condition of the housing stock had become dilapidated and forbidding. The original dry-dash cement render had blackened over time and the ad hoc pa...

Frustrated that their children didn’t have accessible space to play and socialise, a working group led by parents of disabled children formed to campaign for an inclusive play space in Dumfries. Their belief was that no child should have to sit on the sidelines to watch others play.

With the dream of redeveloping a run-down local playpark, the group constituted as ‘Include Us’ (a SCIO) in 2018. Following community consultation and participatory workshops to determine the community’s de...

The Grassmarket Community Project is a new facility in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, offering support, encouragement and meaningful opportunities for local people in an inclusive and engaging environment.  It offers a range of social activities, educational classes and social enterprises to enable people to progress towards healthier and more sustainable futures.

The Project developed from a long-standing partnership of the Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk and the Grassm...

The solution put forward in the winning design was to create a rectangular, timber structure (4m x 6m approximately) clad in Scottish Larch with Douglas Fir columns supporting a dramatic, oval leaf-shaped roof. The roof has the appearance of a folded leaf, which is tilted at one end, a device used by the architect to assist in the collection of grey water for recycling purposes in the garden. The roof overhangs the main activity space which can be used for various purposes ranging from talks ...

The project has seen the transformation of a derelict council run swimming pool in the Town Centre of Montrose into a community hub for arts and education benefitting north Angus and lower Aberdeenshire. The Playhouse includes an adaptable three screen cinema, education and exhibition spaces, retail space and café bar. This is a community focused project run by local volunteers under the charity Montrose Playhouse Project SCIO.

What began as a simple regeneration idea for a community c...

Springing from the half acre of unused and unkempt land at the rear of North Edinburgh Arts the North Edinburgh Grows project has created a growing space with art at the heart, right in the middle of Muirhouse. The project takes inspiration from Scottish gardens such as Jupiter Art Land, Little Sparta, the Hidden Gardens, and from gardens as far away as New York, Paris and Rotterdam. The garden has been developed to appeal to the five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. North Edinb...

The Ochiltree Community Hub is a SCIO Charity, formed in October 2014, and has 11 local residents on its Trustee Board. The OCH was formed after East Ayrshire Council announced that they were closing the village’s community centre and library, this action leaving the rural community with no access to facilities or services in which to improve health, wellbeing and inclusion. A village survey demonstrated overwhelming demand for a community facility. The Vision of the OCH was the establishment...

STRONTIAN PRIMARY – SCOTLAND’S FIRST COMMUNITY SCHOOL

At the heart of every thriving community is a primary school; with it come families whose working age members drive the local economy and provide care for the youngest and oldest within it.

So when our village school in Strontian was considered inadequate not just by local parents and the teaching staff but by Highland Council themselves, who ran it, we knew we had a problem. Worse still was the realisation that Council propo...

From 1763 until 1822, the forerunner of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), was located on Leith Walk. This Garden was established by the sixth Regius Keeper of the RBGE, John Hope, a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh. John Hope commissioned the building of a two-storey cottage, designed by the eminent Georgian architects John Adam and James Craig, which stood for over two centuries on Leith Walk, the gateway to a lo...

A place to socialise, celebrate and have a blether!

This was the very place where the Darvel Industrial Cooperative Society with its range of shops and function rooms was situated at the heart of our small town for well over a century – a cornerstone of our community.

In its heyday, when Darvel was a world leader in the manufacture of lace furnishings, the Co-op Corner as it was known was a successful gathering place.

However, over thirty years ago the Co-op ceased tradin...

The Swan has stood proudly at the Banton village crossroads for over 170 years, geographically and metaphorically at the heart of the village.

However, by 2016, the building had become dilapidated and a demolition proposal was issued. In a small, isolated, rural village (which had already lost its post office and only shop), the loss of our pub would have been devastating. The village rallied into action, and within 48 hours People United for Banton (P.U.B.) had formed.

An initi...

‘An Laimhrig’ provides Eigg’s 115 residents with a new facility, combining social and business space for residents and visitors to enjoy. The project transformed a small much-loved building in poor condition into a bright, spacious and energy-efficient community hub.

The original An Laimhrig was Eigg’s first project, built one year after the community took ownership of Eigg in 1997. An Laimhrig means anchorage or safe haven.

20 years later the island population and visitor numbe...

The project has completely renovated a derelict Galloway cottage in the middle of the village of Balmaclellan, turning an eyesore into a vibrant community hub and multi purpose building.

The original concept derived from two main places 1) a general feeling of redundancy and neglect in the centre of Balmaclellan village and 2)The continued ‘over-success’ of the Catstrand in the neighbouring settlement of New Galloway, being unable to host activities and events at the CatStrand. This re...

Bowhill Housing is a testament to how community vision, thoughtful design, and a commitment to heritage can transform a neglected site into a vital community asset. Located in Cardenden, the project reinstates the historic Miners’ Institute as a sustainable, affordable housing development, responding directly to local housing needs while preserving the village’s mining heritage.

The project emerged from a pressing need for high-quality, energy-efficient housing in the area. The Old Min...

In the heart of Alloa, two unlisted 19th-century heritage buildings, Ochil House and Harvey House, stood crumbling — threatened by vandalism, neglect, and potential demolition. Their future seemed lost, until the community, led by Resonate Together, chose another path: to save, to regenerate, and to reimagine.
At the start, the site had no water, gas, or electricity. Grounds were so overgrown they hid forgotten treasures, including a small underground air raid shelter, now to become a futu...

The People’s Project Dumfries is a group of volunteers who have recently become a charity. Our objectives include transforming neglected areas around the town, promoting advancement of education, community development and environmental protection and improved biodiversity. From 2019 our biggest project has been the upgrading and development of Castledykes Park which had become neglected, underused and was falling into decline due to lack of manpower. When we heard that Dumfries council were p...

We knocked through a wall and connected the cemetery with the Millennium garden, and established numerous memorial gardens in between the two. We have provided a quiet area of reflection, a sensory garden, a SANDS remembrance area for early loss pregnancies, and a poppy garden with ‘Tommy’ statue for our war fallen. We have involved all areas of our community, including groups of nursery and primary school children, to help establish new garden areas, for them to tend to on a regular basis. W...

The Craigie Street Pocket Park is a partnership between Sustrans, Scottish Water, the local community group The Stobswell Forum SCIO and Dundee City Council to deliver a new high-quality pocket park in Craigie St along with streetscape enhancements in a number of other streets in the Albert Street District Shopping Centre.

Previously perceived as being dull and grey due to the prevalence of high-stone tenements the area suffers from urban decay and high levels of multiple deprivation a...

'Our Land, our People, our Story' – the relocation and development of Gairloch Museum

Gairloch Heritage Museum opened in 1977 in a converted farm steading, its mission always to “promote and encourage interest in, and care for, the history, culture, beauty and character of the Parish of Gairloch”. Our acclaimed exhibitions include the first Pictish Stone found on the west coast (our logo still) and the brilliant Fresnel lens of Rubh Re lighthouse.

More than an independent Accred...

Old Luce Development Trust was formed to implement the action plan from a community consultation undertaken in 2015 on behalf of Old Luce Community Council. Triggered by new windfarm funding coming in to the area, the consultation aimed to engage the whole community to identify ways to improve the social and economic outcomes within the area. One of four priority areas identified in the survey was to improve the appearance of the village, particularly the Main Street, to restore pride in the ...

Our purpose is to create a happy, healthy, leafy Leith and foster responsible global citizenship. We believe engagement with nature is not only key to achieving environmental goals (e.g. combating climate change and biodiversity decline) but is also effective in addressing mental, physical and social issues. We aim to help locally, through helping individuals and enhancing collaboration between organisations, and widely to inspire change.

Our team achieves this through multiple integra...

Huntly is a small Aberdeenshire market town approximately 40 miles west of Aberdeen.
In many respects, Huntly has been showing signs of socio-economic decline for several years and SIMD data reveals that under many measures the town is comparatively more deprived (relative to the rest of Scotland) now than it was a decade or so ago.

The town centre is a particular concern. Vacancy rates in 2023 were c. 31% - the second highest in Aberdeenshire and double the national average at ...

Portpatrick Harbour Community Hub was created as a result of a renovation project. We were able to get funding in 2018 to totally resurface the harbour area to create a safe environment for all community members and harbour users and we then looked at the row of old sheds on the harbourside and it was decided that we should apply for funding and create a Community Hub from the old sheds. We were fortunate that our design/plan was provided free of charge by a member of our community who is als...

Stow Station House was built in 1848 by the North British Railway. The station closed in 1969 and the station house buildings were converted into two dwellings. Although the railway station reopened in 2015, it had first been proposed to demolish the station building as it was not required for the reopened station. However, the building was saved and after an award-winning conversion and refurbishment project, it has been re-born as a fully accessible bar/kitchen with multi-purpose function r...

The Raining’s Stairs development is reinvigorating this important part of Inverness; replacing a long-vacant ‘problem’ site with a building of significant architectural quality and profound, transformational benefits to the community. The building comprises 16 affordable housing units and a small commercial unit. It was completed in October 2018.

The site has a long and interesting history; it was part of medieval Inverness. The stairs are a core path through the city linking Inverness...

The announcement in 2014 that the former Rockfield Primary School would be demolished sparked a wave of reaction in Oban and surrounding area and launched a huge community campaign to save the building. Although the heart played its part - driven by nostalgia for their old school and their formative days – the community also recognised the potential value of the building and its grounds and the opportunity they provided to establish a community hub sitting central to the town, and a short wal...

The coastal village of Gairloch is a small village in the north-west Highlands, with a permanent population of around 750, but is the main hub for the region, with shops, services, and high school.

The primary school roll had declined, as families were unable to find suitable or affordable homes in the area. Outward migration by young people, also struggling to find homes, and dependent on a low-wage, seasonal tourist economy, was affecting the long-term sustainability of the village.<...

In 2018 the public toilets in the Maple Court area of Alloa Town Centre were closed by Clackmannanshire Council. The building of simple construction with terrible thermal performance lay derelict until identified for redevelopment as part of the multi-agency Living Alloa project.

Community engagement was crucial to developing the brief for Alloa Hub. A series of community consultations were undertaken including:

• Bid consultation undertaken by Alloa First identifying key pr...

An Crùbh is the realisation of years of planning and aspiration by a small community in the Sleat peninsula of Skye to take the initiative to provide essential services and facilities we did not have. Under one roof are a shop and post office, a café, a multi-purpose gathering hall plus a further meeting room, showers and toilets. It is owned and run by the people of the crofting townships of Camuscross, Isleornsay, Duisdalemore and Duisdalebeg, which together have a population of around 180,...

Founded on derelict land, in an area of critical multiple deprivation, (1% Virgintile SIMD 2016), Belville Biodiversity Garden has created a 500 square metre oasis of calm and wildlife, in an area where residents have little access to quality garden space. The design was inspired, influenced and built by the community on the most minimal budget, by using reclaimed and recycled materials from the local area and home grown or donated plants. The lack of budget was no bar to creativity, with hug...

Community Consultation undertaken by Community Action Blackburn in 2014 identified several areas within the community that would benefit from environmental improvement, one of these areas being the verges on the east side of Bathgate Road running between the Mill Centre and the pathway adjacent to the lockups leading into Beechwood Road. This stretch of area on the Bathgate Road was seen as the missing link in the regeneration picture and, given its prominence within the village, improvement ...

Bridgend Farmhouse is a late 18th century traditional farmhouse and outbuildings within its own walled site. Although the farmhouse is only 2.5 miles from the city centre, it is surrounded by the green spaces of Craigmillar Castle Park, a cemetery, council allotments and Inch Park across the main arterial road. The rocky outcrop of Arthur’s Seat to the North and the Pentland Hills to the West form distant backdrops. It was purchased by the City of Edinburgh Council from the last farmer occupa...

Castlebank Park in Lanark is a former private estate, taken into public ownership by South Lanarkshire Council in the early 1950s. The estate includes Category B listed buildings and a vast area of parkland and formal Victorian gardens.
The park fell into disrepair in the late 80s, when various areas of the parkland became neglected through lack of maintenance by South Lanarkshire Council. The former tennis courts became a dumping ground, formal gardens were fenced shut, the pond was fille...

Clearburn Natural Play and Picnic Area is a Big Lottery and Clyde & Avon Valley Landscape Partnership funded project which has resulted in a beautiful natural play space in the heart of New Lanark World Heritage Site. The space was designed, constructed and interpreted in collaboration with the local community and school pupils to allow natural play for all ages, a chance to explore the surrounding area and the opportunity to relax and enjoy the beauty of New Lanark. From the outset, our ...

Comunn Eachdraidh Nis (CEN) was constituted in 1977 as the first Historical Society in the Western Isles. Now in its 45th year, CEN is viewed as the flagship historical society in the islands. It has become one of the main cogs within the Western Isles Heritage Trail and one of the largest employers in the north Lewis area. CEN is managed by volunteers and currently employs 7 people, increasing to 12 during the busy tourist season.

CEN operated from various abandoned buildings througho...

Connecting Communities Along the River Carron Communities Along the Carron Association was formed in 2010 following a 9 month consultation with over 3000 people in the 16 communities along the River Carron. We spoke to them about their concerns and aspirations for the river and adjacent communities and recorded their comments, wrote a 31 point development plan then got to work. Since then we have achieved more than we could ever have imagined! Our projects were as follows: 

• ...

Dumfries House and its Estate represent an ongoing project in large-scale heritage-led regeneration extending across architecture, interiors, collections, landscape, education/training and activities (art studios, building workshops, educational playground, engineering classrooms, outward bound facilities etc.). As such, it has no definable end date, but the completion of walled garden, Morphy Richards engineering centre (2014), and the Manoukian Gym and Sports hall (2015) conclude the main p...

Dunoon Burgh Hall has been at the heart of the community since it was funded and built in 1874 by the town’s people. The most important civic building in Dunoon, and Argyll’s only theatre when it was built, it acted as the Town Hall and provided spaces for meetings, weddings, dances and games. Falling into disrepair, it closed for 25 years until 2009 when it was rescued, reopened and work began to plan its ultimate restoration into a much-needed arts-led venue and destinatio...

ECCI is the reuse of an existing building, the old High School, in Infirmary Street in the historic heart of Edinburgh.  It has been designed to achieve an exceptionally low energy demand and is the first refurbished building in the UK to achieve the industry sustainability ‘BREEAM Outstanding’ award at design stage.

The Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL) project facilitated the major refurbishment of the former Bridgeton Public Library in the heart of the East End, an area of multiple deprivation that has suffered decades of neglect and industrial decline. The Commonwealth Games in 2014 provided the catalyst for major transformational change across the East End, with the multi-agency regeneration project being led by Clyde Gateway. The GWL building is a two storey sandstone, Category B Listed, Carnegie Librar...

This project conserved and restored a derelict Category A-listed cast iron fountain situated within Paisley’s oldest public park. The Grand Fountain, the centrepiece of Fountain Gardens, was gifted to the people of Paisley by the wealthy mill owner, Thomas Coats of the world famous J&P Coats thread manufacturer. The world wide significance of the textile industry, and Paisley's role in it, is an important part of the heritage of the Grand Fountain. During the 19th century iron was one of ...

The High Mill Open Gallery at Scotland’s Jute Museum@Verdant Works is an exciting and ambitious £2.75 million project which has completed the restoration of the ‘A’ listed Verdant Works site, securing a sustainable future for this nationally important complex. Supported by development funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund the Trust has worked with a skilled professional team of architects, designers and engineers to produce an innovative and unique scheme for the High Mill and adjoining Glaz...

The Argyll Mausoleum is one of Scotland's undiscovered historical jewels within the Cowal Community. It stands connected to, but separate from, the church in Kilmun, Argyll and is the burial place for the Dukes and Earls of Argyll, Chiefs of the Clan Campbell. The building had its last major renovation around 1890 and was in urgent need of restoration and repair. Argyll Mausoleum Limited was formed as a charitable company limited by guarantee to carry out the task. The main aims were to resto...

The Humbie Hub is the central focus for the village of Humbie, which lies in arable and hill farming country about nine miles SW of the county town of Haddington. There had long been a small village shop and post office in Humbie. It was based in two rooms of a converted traditional house. The shop was barely viable commercially and depended on considerable contributions of time and financial support from local well-wishers. By the summer of 2013 the shop was badly run down and doing little b...

The project started with the creation of a 100-tree community memorial orchard. The idea was to bring a sense of ownership to the community. We have transformed 4000 sq metres of unused land into a wildflower meadow and regenerated our swing park all through volunteers from schools and the community.

Our overarching priority was to realise the park's history as central Scotland's WW2 airport and create a physical and social environment to sustain this through community ownership, volun...

Since 1928, Iona Village Hall has been at the heart of the local community and forms part of the lives and memories of local residents and visitors alike. It is our ‘everything’ community space; the place where our children grow up, have birthday parties, perform their school plays, dance, and get married. It forms the backdrop to the collective memory of our community and of many visitors. It is our debating chamber, our stadium, our cinema, our playground, and our gathering place....

The project was an effective rebuilding of once derelict buildings at Kirkmichael, Black Isle. The buildings and part of the graveyard are listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the building is also Category B listed. The original medieval ecclesiastical building ceased to be used for worship in the 18th century after which its condition deteriorated and in recent times had fallen into significant disrepair.

McGregor Bowes’ appointment as lead consultant was in 2013 and works start...

The population of three small communities in southwest Scotland (Keir, Penpont and Tynron in Dumfriesshire) has been diminishing for the last 50 years, and is now half what it was in 1971. Five years ago, a public meeting established that a large number of residents would be happy to co-operate in producing large-scale legacy projects to address rural depopulation in their three communities, making use of windfarm community benefit.

The “KPT Development Trust” was formed, and a communi...

Lanark Memorial Hall reopened in June 2013 following the successful completion of a £5.6M capital project to extend and refurbish the venue. The Hall was constructed in 1925 as a memorial to the 232 men from the area who lost their lives in the First World War and are commemorated in Hall of Memory at the entrance to the building. The Hall had undergone a number of ' improvements' over the years but by the early 2000s was no longer fit for purpose and was closed in 2008 pending refurbishment....

Started in 1984, Loch Arthur is a modern rural community where 70 people, including 28 men and women with a range of abilities, live and work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and involvement.  The new shop and cafe has provided the community with an excellent new facility which enhances the possibilities for fulfilling work opportunities, social interaction and mutual support.

Martyrs’ Kirk was born of the Disruption in the Church of Scotland (1843). That year, a church was erected in North Street. The present B-listed building dates from 1928. It continued in use until 2010 when a merger with another local congregation took place. The University acquired the redundant property in 2012. It chose to convert the church for two purposes: to provide a quiet reading room for postgraduate students and staff, and to facilitate public access for research into the Universit...

The £21m new-build Michael Woods Sports and Leisure Centre is one of the most striking local authority leisure facilities in the UK.  The primary driver in the design of the new centre has been the desire to create an engaging and stimulating environment that improves health by actively encouraging participation in sports and leisure facilities.

Following the continued success of The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust carrying out a number of projects within the estate it became apparent that the trust should look further into the local communities to see if it could assist with community projects. A group of local villagers from New Cumnock approached the trust to assist in saving their town hall, a building constructed in 1888 which was due to be demolished. New Cumnock was a village with a population decline with mos...

This project at Horgabost on the Isle of Harris has been developed by the West Harris Trust which took over ownership of the crofting townships on the west side of the island in 2010. Their aim is to revitalise the community, providing sustainable employment and housing opportunities. The community’s efforts have resulted in the construction of a mixed use enterprise building and a cluster of social housing, all powered and heated by a new wind turbine.

The location for the development...

The restored and renovated Birks Cinema in Aberfeldy once again provides a new community focal point in the town and a year round source of entertainment and activity.  The cinema offers a varied programme for all age groups with four screenings, seven days a week, and an additional children's programme on Saturdays.  Live broadcasts are especially popular.

The new Inverness Campus of the Highlands and Islands creates an infrastructure and framework of 35 Ha on the southern edge of Inverness for current and future academic and business development. The landscape was designed by Edinburgh landscape architects Harrisons Stevens (www.harrisonstevens.co.uk) with a contribution from Lisa Mackenzie, Senior Landscape Lecturer at Edinburgh University. The project was commissioned by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in conjunction with UHI. The fully acc...

The Whithorn Trust conceived the idea of building a full-size Iron Age roundhouse, after working with AOC Archaeology over the last two years in excavating the remarkably preserved Iron Age loch-side settlement at Black Loch of Myrton. The water-logged conditions ensured unprecdented preservation of architectural detailing, including woven hazel flooring and large oak timbers, especially those forming the doorway and an impressive facade to the house. The idea for the project was to build the...

A dramatic and emotionally powerful sculpture commemorating the Widows & Bairns left behind in Eyemouth by Britain's worst fishing disaster on 14th October 1881, cast in bronze. The sculpture is a 5m (17’) long bronze wall, 1.2m (4’) high, with all 78 widows and 182 children individually modelled. Each figure is an actual person and has a name and age. The 5m wall is an unfolding timeline, from the Friday afternoon when families watched as two of the first boats were smashed against the r...