A campaign is under way to create a new heritage centre in a Deeside town.
Banchory Heritage Society is holding a public meeting on Monday to discuss plans for a facility in the town.
The group say the recent fire which destroyed the historic Glen O’Dee hospital has “galvanised” them to move forward with plans.
Gordon Walkden, who founded the society, said the blaze was a warning of what could happen if the town’s monuments and landmarks were not protected.
He said: “The heritage society has been working on these plans for the last year.
“A working group was set up to look at the issues of preservation of local history and strangely enough we were discussing the fire risk at Glen O’Dee before it even happened.
“The fire has now focused people and galvanised us, it shows what can go wrong if the preservation of heritage items is misplaced or inadequate.
“That building had been languishing there for 25 years, it’s been asking for trouble.”
Mr Walkden said the group has looked at a number of buildings where the new centre could be established.
But he acknowledged that the facility would have to be bought and run by the society.
And this is one of the reasons the group wants to hear the community’s views on any proposals and heritage in the town generally.
Mr Walkden added: “There’s a lot of disengagement with heritage locally, and there’s lots of reasons for that, one is a lack of information.
“People don’t necessarily associate the town with heritage, they think of Aboyne and upper Deeside, so we want to put that right.
“It would also be useful to get the views of visitors to Banchory, and what they think of the town.
“I mean the high street is there but it’s losing its Victorian identity and becoming homogenised.”
The group has prepared a report on its ideas and will present it at Monday’s meeting.
The event, in the Episcopal Church hall, starts at 7.30pm.
