A three-year project is under way to take stock of the rich culture of Badenoch & Strathspey and put it at the centre of the area’s future tourism and economic development.
Badenoch Great Place project is part of a £2.4m Heritage Lottery fund applied for by Cairngorms National Park.
Badenoch was awarded £352k and is the only Highland destination to bid successfully. The area joins eight other places in Scotland, mainly towns and cities, for an injection of cash to put heritage at the heart of regeneration.
Project office archaeologist Oliver O’Grady is based in Kingussie Courthouse with the charitable company Voluntary Action in Badenoch & Strathspey.
He is leading a drive to engage with local businesses and community to pull together information on Badenoch culture to put in the frame for potential tourism and economic development.
Mr O’Grady said: “There will be new volunteering and training opportunities, detailed new research into the area’s past and historic landscape, creation of new interpretation and mobile apps to tempt visitors, as well as marketing studies, development of new promotional and exhibition materials, and much more, all of which aim to help make Badenoch a stronger destination for heritage tourism.”
Themes like Badenoch’s Gaelic and military history, its clans, clearances and archaeology, its natural history, writers, musicians and story-tellers, not to mention its legendary shinty prowess will be explored through community engagement and the services of Inverness consultants Rowan Tree.
Rowan Tree have identified more than 3,000 ‘heritage assets’- points on the landscape with unique history attached.
Mr O’Grady said: “We won’t be reinventing the wheel, we know there’s already lots going on in Badenoch, and at the end of three years, we want to have created strong partnerships with clear strategic aims to take Badenoch’s successes forward with new projects and investments, but all within the aims of Cairngorm National Park.”
Along with Transport Scotland, Highland Council and Highland Islands Enterprise, the park has topped contributed funding to the project which now stands at more than £400,000.
