Abriachan is a scattered rural community of about 150 people set high above the shores of Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1998 the community purchased 540 hectares of forest and open hill ground from Forest Enterprise. Since then, as a social enterprise, the Abriachan Forest Trust has managed this land to create local…
Inverness Creative Academy, which opened its doors in February 2022, brought a disused school building back to life as the Highlandsâ first creative hub. The project, which took four years, revived the redundant former Inverness Royal Academy buildings on Midmills Road in the heart of the city, sensitively restoring the Grade B listed Victorian…
The Inverclyde Shed was established in 2019, and in 2020 a few members expressed an interest in starting a community garden with the aim of offering different activities, growing their own food and being outdoors more. Shed members met with local councillors and the local authority representative, who helped them identify a space just off…
An âActive Travel Hubâ has been set up by the Vale of Leven Trust in West Dunbartonshire to help locals travel more actively. The long-term home for the Hub will be the âFormer Police Boxâ which the Trust acquired following an asset transfer in October 2020. Currently a feasibility and building options appraisal is underway…
The Crail Community Partnership (CCP) brings together community groups across the local area and Fife to deliver its Local Place Plan and tackle the challenges and opportunities for the community. The CCP has recently taken on the South Kilminning wildlife site through asset transfer from Fife Council. Located on the coastal path between Crail and…
The Langholm Initiative bought 5,200 acres of the Langholm Moor and Tarras Valley from Buccleuch Estates on behalf of the community, to create a vast new nature reserve and community regeneration project. Following extensive fundraising efforts by the Langholm Initiative, which received international support and hundreds of public donations, they were able to raise the…
Blackwood Estate Community Association in Lanarkshire has secured funding to purchase 65 acres of Loch Wood in the Estate. The purchase was completed in April 2021. The group has quickly got to work carrying out essential Health and Safety works to host outdoor classes for local schoolchildren and community groups and restore the Victorian path…
Auchinleck Community Development Initiative (ACDI) was founded to improve the area and create jobs. They began by taking over derelict sites and turning them into small, volunteer-led community gardens, growing and selling plants. Over time this has grown into a commercial gardening operation generating permanent employment opportunities and has created the Knowe Garden Centre. This…
Castlebank Park was in desperate need of renovation when Lanark Community Development Trust took over the management of the gardens from the local council in late 2013. A large part of the park was no longer in public use and was severely overgrown and neglected. Volunteers and work squads from Community Payback cleared and renovated…
The negotiated sale of 750 acres of land known as Holm Hill from Buccleuchâs Borders Estate to the Newcastleton and District Community Trust (NDCT) marks an exciting future for this community in the south of Scotland. Greg Cuthbert, Chair of Newcastleton & District Community Council said: âWe were probably reaching a crisis point in the…
