Context 158 - March 2019

20 C O N T E X T 1 5 8 : M A R C H 2 0 1 9 closure prompted a firm of lawyers to move its offices from the town to Inverness. The Dornoch Courthouse has been converted into the Carnegie Courthouse, which acts as a community and visitor hub. It has conserved the building while remodelling and refurbishing the interior so that it now provides a whisky-tasting room and shop, health spa, cafe, and visitor centre, along with a lift, washrooms and disabled toilet – thus addressing one of the knotty prob- lems of many historic buildings, namely the lack of easy and equal disabled access. The work was carried out by a local contractor. The identity of the place has been emphasised by a mural, com- missioned from local artist Sandy Noble, in the cafe. It depicts a court scene from the past, but also 62 famous and local faces who are shown as watching the proceedings. The force behind this building rescue was a Chicago-born investor, ToddWarnock, who stumbled on Dornoch on a golfing trip. As well as having interests in archi- tecture and history, he came to love Sutherland. TheTudor gothic Dingwall Courthouse build- ing, which dates from the 1830s, is described as ‘built from high-quality materials, [with] a distinctive and prominent street elevation, [it] unusually served the combined function of Sheriff Court with prison, and later police quarters’. After standing empty for over a year, in 2016 the building was bought by a builder from Kent and his partner, who were reported as having ambitions to convert it to a residential property, while recognising that this would be a long-term project. A local councillor was quoted as saying: ‘It would have been fantastic if a community group had managed to purchase it, but that didn’t come about, perhaps there were concerns about that size of building in this day and age as it can be expensive. In January 2019 the Sherriff ’s Lodge within the Old Courthouse was being advertised as a holiday-let apartment on AirBnB. These two examples illustrate much about the conservation challenges in the Highlands and Islands. Hopefully the sheer significance of monuments like the stone circle and henge at the Ring of Brogdar, along with its modern day dysfunctionality for any other use, will be suf- ficient to ensure their continued conservation. The challenge lies in the less grand, much more numerous buildings that are, nevertheless, of architectural and historic value, and important parts of the local jigsaw in the many small towns and villages. The Dornoch and Dingwall examples show that at least in these cases entrepreneurs were prepared to invest following public-sector disinvestment, and that they saw the conservation of the building as fundamental to their project. It is also interesting to note that in both cases the initiative was not taken by a local business, but by an outside individual or family who had been attracted to the site by being enchanted by the qualities of the wider area. Grant schemes Inverness apart, the building conservation chal- lenge in the Highlands and Islands is focused on small towns, and in those towns, conservation areas are often designated in the town centres, which inevitably tend to be the most historic and architecturally interesting part of the place. The drastic restructuring of retailing that is occurring nationwide leaves these small town high streets especially vulnerable, and vacant units can all too easily trigger a wider sense of decline and disinvestment from property. In these circumstances imaginative schemes are needed to sustain existing businesses and find new uses for empty buildings. Councils need to be proactive in seeking funding and in building local partnerships. Historic Environment Scotland’s conservation area regeneration scheme (CARS) is important. It operates across the whole of Scotland and requires competitive bidding into biennial funding rounds. Since 2007 up until and including the 2017–22 round, five grants have been made to schemes in the Highlands and Islands, worth a total of £3.3 million. CARS will fund historic fabric repairs for single-property projects; third- party grants schemes for multiple properties; community engagement activities; training for professional craftspeople and construction workers (at least five per cent of the grant); public realm conservation and restoration (no more than 20 per cent of the grant), and costs of new staff. Boosting economic activity is a priority, along with protection and community empowerment. Another source of funding has been the townscape heritage initiative (THI) of the Heritage Lottery Fund. This is UK-wide programme was set up in 1998. It is not restricted to local authorities or non-profit bodies, and has a broadly similar intent to the CARS schemes (conservation and repair, Quay Street Conservation Area, Portree, Isle of Skye (Photo: Fiona Newton)