Historic school set for new life
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A HISTORIC roadside building in Brora that has lain vacant and boarded-up for years, is finally in line for a new lease of life.
Owner SSE Renewables has lodged a planning application to convert the 147-year-old old Clyne School into a heritage centre and cafe.
If the £500,000 project gets the go-ahead, the revamped building will either be gifted or leased to Clyne Heritage Society as a "lasting legacy" from SSE.
Society chairman Dr Nick Lindsay said it was a "fantastic" opportunity for the group which had never had a home to call its own.
"It’s all our Christmasses come together!" he said earlier this week.
Power company SSE Renewables controvesially bought the old school, located at "Knox’s Corner" at the junction of the trunk road with the Clynelish Distillery Road, in 2002 but has never done anything with it.
It was purchased with the intention of dismantling a surrounding wall, and possibly the school itself, to provide a large turning circle off the trunk road for construction traffic heading to the firm’s Gordonbush wind farm at Strath Brora.
But shortly after the acquisition, Historic Scotland gave the stone and slate two-storey property a Category C designation, meaning it is historically of local importance and thus subject to stringent planning restrictions.
Planners thereafter turned down two applications submitted by SSE Renewables in 2004 and 2008 for the removal and rebuilding of the boundary wall.
The oldest listed building in Brora, it is thought to have been built between 1863 and 1865 by the then Duke of Sutherland to serve as the parish school before the 1872 Education Act.
It incorporates many features common to other estate properties including a steep roof with dormers, prominent stacks and rugged rubble masonry and skewputs – the bottom stone of the slope at a gable.
The building ceased to operate as a school in 1903 when the new Clyne School was built. It was later converted into flats by the local authority before being taken over by Clynelish Distillery as accommodation for workers. It has not been occupied for around 40 years.
Before being sold to SSE Renewables, the school was owned by the Knox family, who formerly ran a fruit and vegetable wholesale and delivery business.
The power company has been liaising with Clyne Heritage Society for the past year over the conversion plans.
Dr Lindsay said: "The building is going to have to be stripped back to its shell with ceilings, lathe and plaster walls and floorboards all taken out.
"As it’s a listed building, everything will all have to be done sensitively and by the book but the local authority will make sure of that."
The new interior lay-out will provide storage space upstairs and a research area, display area, toilets, office and small kitchen on the ground floor along with a cafe/tea-room.
Clyne Heritage Society, which has 130 members, presently meets at Brora Community Centre and holds its exhibitions in the local library.
Dr Lindsay continued: "The society was formed in 1998 and has never had its own premises. All our archives and artefacts are scattered to the four winds so it will be great to have it all under the one roof.
"If this opportunity hadn’t come along, then we would just have had to continue to struggle along without premises."
The group is to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) before Christmas to discuss whether members want to take on ownership of the property or rent it.
Continued Dr Lindsay: "It is a huge responsibility to own and manage a property so we need to know that’s the way our members want to go. In any case, I can’t see us moving in until this time next year."
SSE’s Gordonbush wind farm project manager, Rod Crawford, said: "We are delighted to be involved in restoring this important historical building for the Clyne Heritage Society and wider community.
"Should we receive planning consent we hope to have the project completed during the autumn next year. However, there is a considerable amount of work to be done before then.
"Due to the listed nature of the building, we also need to ensure that we retain its architectural features, and the overall costs of the work are expected to be in the region of £500,000."
He added: "This project is very important to us as we talked during construction about wanting to leave a positive and long-lasting legacy from Gordonbush Wind Farm.
"We’re also keen not to lose the positive working relationships that we have developed with Golspie and Brora, and want to continue to be a positive contributor to their community, rather than a developer who builds a project and then walks away.
