Tomintoul Masterplan, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Crown Estate Glenlivet

Tomintoul Masterplan

Cairngorms Regeneration Strategy + Master Plan, Scotland – by edge architecture & design

20 Sep 2011

Tomintoul Masterplan in Cairngorms

Architect: edge architecture & design

Location: Highlands and Islands, Scotland, UK

Urban Animation in the Cairngorms National Park

Urban Animation has been commissioned by the Cairngorms National Park Authority and the Crown Estate to prepare a Regeneration Strategy and Master Plan for Tomintoul and the surrounding Glenlivet area in the Highlands. Urban Animation will be working with sister consultancy and rural regeneration specialist Dhu Rural.

Tomintoul square ; Tomintoul spine:

photos from Urban Animation

Tomintoul is a planned village, constructed in the late 18th Century. It is the highest village in the Highlands, set in the Cairngorms National Park, between Grantown on Spey and the Lecht ski area. The distinctive, elongated grid and central square remain largely intact, although suburbanisation and kit housing have diluted the identity of the village over recent decades.

The Glenlivet area is best known for its eponymous whisky distillery, which attracts around 45,000 visitors annually. Mechanisation of distilling, agriculture and forestry has transformed the relationship between rural employment and village life throughout Glenlivet and its main settlement Tomintoul.

The timing of the study follows the recent closure of Tomintoul’s two largest hotels, which are important to the role of the village as a centre for tourism. It is also a response to proposed public sector service cuts which recently threatened the local museum, library, tourist information centre and transport links.

Urban Animation Director, Richard Heggie, said : “The project gives us a rare opportunity to deliver a fully integrated approach to human settlement and rural land management – going beyond the Scottish Wildlife Trust and RSPB SCotland’s innovative Living Landscape and Futurescape models. As far as we know, it’s the first project of it’s kind in Scotland.”

“Like our Inveraray project, we’ll be master planning a historic planned town at the settlement level. Development opportunities such as the two vacant hotels and the redundant secondary school site will have a key role. We’ll look to consolidate the established urban form but also to set out a long-term framework to guide growth of the village.”

In 2010, Richard Heggie, Director of Urban Animation, was selected as the Royal Town Planning Institute’s UK Planning Consultant of the Year.

www.urban-animation.com

Tomintoul Buildings images / information from Urban Animation

Location: Tomintoul, Scotland, UK

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