Borgie log cabin project wins £10,000 funding
A "magnificent" log cabin in a north Sutherland wood, which has never been put to any particular use, is to get a new lease of life following a £10,000 grant award.
The funding has been awarded to the Borgie Forest Log Cabin Project by independent body, NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).
Driving the project forward are artist Meg Telfer and retired postmistress Marilyn McFadyen. Both women are from Skerray and between them have many years experience in community development.
They now hope to form a social enterprise company to turn the cabin into a venue for arts and other workshops and also to rent out as accommodation for private groups and organisations.
But they are keen to stress that the cabin will not be competing for business with village halls.
"We are not in competition with village halls – we will be doing events that village halls would not do," said Mrs McFadyen.
Located in Borgie Forest not far off the main Tongue to Bettyhill Road, the massive, 100 square foot, turf roof cabin is accessed by a forest track suitable for vehicles.
It belongs to the North Sutherland Community Forest Trust and was built around five to six years ago as a "demonstration model," – not for any particular purpose but to show the skills required to erect such a building.
The cabin sits alongside another log cabin used by the Forestry Commission and both are thought to be the biggest structures of their type in the UK.
Mrs McFadyen explained: "At the time the Forestry Commission were building a cabin and there was funding available for another one.
"It was put up really just to demonstrate the skills involved. I think the Forestry Commission cabin is the largest cabin in Britain and the Forest Trust one is not that much smaller.
"The forest ranger was going to use it as a centre but for a variety of reasons that never came to pass.
"It has been used on an ad-hoc basis for art workshops. A spiritualist group booked it regularly and it has also been used by the Caithness Astronomy Group because it is an ideal base for star gazing as there is no light pollution there."
Mrs McFadyen described the cabin, which has one large room with a small room off it, as a truly "inspirational" building.
"It is a wonderful building - just a very, magical space. Everyone just gasps when they visit it first. It has a definite feel about it," she said.
The women are negotiating with the trust to lease the cabin.
"We’ve come to an agreement with the trust but the finer points of the lease have still to be worked out," said Mrs McFadyen.
"We have now formed a steering committee to take the project forward until we are in a position to set up a social enterprise company."
The NESTA award is to be used to upgrade the kitchen in the cabin and provide a new disabled access shower room as well as turn the small room into bunkhouse with accommodation for six.
The funding will also be used to market the log house and organise the first series of events.
Mrs McFadyen continued: "We intend to rent it out for weeks at a time to groups who maybe want to enjoy, for example, a surfing or a bird watching break.
"We hope that the income brought in from these rentals will help to subsidise the costs of holding arts and other workshops for local people.
"The cabin will hopefully create employment and bring visitors into the area. We want to make the community feel that they own the cabin and have a stake in it."
The NESTA funding has come from its ‘Age Unlimited Scotland 2011 Programme,’ – a project which aims to support people aged 50 plus who have the spark of a good idea for a new service which could benefit their local community.
NESTA’s Head of Innovation Programmes in Scotland, Jackie McKenzie, said: "The work that the Log Cabin Project will do in the community was what really attracted us to the project and Meg and Marilyn’s energy and creativity can make a tremendous difference in the local area.
Just five out of 70 applications to the Programme were successful. All winners, including the Log Cabin Project, will receive seed-funding and ongoing support over the next year.
