A 20-year campaign to establish a new visitor centre in a Moray village could finally be coming to fruition.
Plans for the £1.6million energy-efficient building at the Findhorn Foundation have now been submitted to create a gateway to the community for visitors.
Once finished, the café and shop at the village will move under the same roof from their current homes, which are believed to date from World War II.
The striking new glass-fronted facility will be fitted with solar panels in keeping with the village’s environmental ethos.
Foundation trustee, Mark Anderson, said: “The plans for this building date back about five years, but discussions about this sort of thing go back 15 or 20 years.
“There was a study carried out by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in 2012 and one of the things that came out of that was the need for a proper visitor centre and better facilities for the shop and café.
“We’re definitely not doing it just because we think it would be nice. There’s been a lot of work put into it and that has shown it’s needed.”
The foundation is submitting a bid to the Coastal Communities Fund for the project next week. If approved, construction could begin in autumn, 2017, with the first visitors welcomed the following summer.
At the moment, 30,000 tourists pass through the entrance to the community every year. As well as the shop and café, a new visitor centre could also detail the history of the foundation with information about other destinations in Moray.
The existing takeaway and shop store at the site are proposed to be demolished to make way for the new building in a to create a more inviting welcome – with the current shop being retained for a new use.
Mr Anderson said: “Historically, the entrance into the Foundation never used to be the way in. The current building that’s there isn’t really the sort that should be at the entrance to a major site.
“The shop used to be some kind of military shed and is quite cramped. It’s not particularly suitable anymore, it’s served its purpose.
“In the longer term we’re going to look into what we could have in there instead.”
