April 20 2018

Scottish Canals have unveiled a £1.5m community and heritage hub at Pier Square in Ardrishaig, Argyll, to double as a gateway to the Crinan Canal by 2019.

A team led by Oliver Chapman Architects will develop the former ‘Egg Shed’ to offer an interpretation centre designed to whisk visitors back in time by way of interactive displays and exhibits.

In a statement the architects wrote: “The site’s location close to the harbour meant it suited storage of local and imported produce, giving the building its name ‘Egg Shed’ from the transit storage of dairy. The site’s level has been raised in stages over the last hundred years to make more of the loch-side useful as depot. For the last few decades though, a large part of the adjacent site had been used for fuel storage in unsightly above ground tanks, creating a fenced-off obstacle between the village centre and the heritage sites at the mouth of the canal.

“The fuel tanks have recently been removed and the land level at the south of the site is about to be raised further above flood levels. The walls of the Egg Shed will have a new community room formed within them, built off the new raised safe flood level, creating a deliberately visible offset in building section between new and old. More facilities in a new building with a similar form to the Egg Shed will be built alongside it. The buildings sit hard on the side of the loch and have great views out to the east and south over the water.”

Local contractor TSL will commence work on the project later this week.

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