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Impetus 2030: Making Kilcreggan Village An Active Focal Point

Impetus 2030: Making Kilcreggan Village An Active Focal Point

Our vision for Kilcreggan is to create new public focal point destinations that add new capacities whilst improving the existing functions, and maintaining the village’s rural character, human scale and excellent architecture. Our vision will improve the permeability of the village whilst making significant public space improvements to link these focal points. It will respond to the specifics of the site whilst providing a model for other rural hillside communities by the sea. It will re-use and adapt existing buildings where possible and use locally-sourced, sustainable materials. We propose that our vision can be realised in three phases that each build on the success of prior phases. Together, these phases will create the impetus that makes Kilcreggan a destination of choice.


Phase One

A) New Community Centre and Crèche at Woodburn and Woodburn Cottage

Due to its strategic position adjacent to the pier/Temperance Brae axis of the village, a diagonal NW-SE route across this block offers a pedestrian shortcut to the shops from many homes, whilst a meandering path from SE to NE via Woodburn offers an attractive alternative to the harsh gradient of Temperance Brae.

We understand that Woodburn is uninhabited but retained due to it being the Canadian owners’ ancestral home. Given that an uninhabited house will be prone to poor maintenance, we believe that the best chance of obtaining the land would be to convert it into a community centre, thus guaranteeing both maintenance and the family’s descendants access. Moreover, the house is ideally sited; it offers spectacular sea-views, is close to the shops and is an intermediate point on the routes proposed above. Woodburn cottage, being close to the new community centre and set in woodland surroundings, is ideally sited to satisfy Kilcreggan’s stated need for a crèche.

B) New sheltered family housing at ‘Kilcreggan Activity Centre’

Located at the head of the pier/Temperance Brae axis, residents of this estate will be likely to walk to the shops due to the directness of the pedestrian routes and the substantial detours driving there requires. Due to the lessened need to drive, the proximity of the proposed crèche and community centre, and the need to cross only one road to reach the shops, this estate would be an ideal residence for young families. The site is currently for sale.

C) A petrol pump in a new car park behind the health centre

Whilst it is an unambiguous aim to make Kilcreggan a more pedestrian-friendly environment, it is important to make clear from the outset that our proposals are not ‘anti-car’. A petrol pump is a clear and urgent need of the community whilst being a potential revenue stream for the health centre, and a generous expansion of car parking facilities in that location will aid local businesses and serve the future redevelopment of the boatyard. Ideally the car park will initially be somewhat under-utilised; if so, its location so close to the shops would calm concerns about the removal of shopfront parking spaces during Phase Two.

The above interventions are designated as Phase One due to their strategic location, the relative availability of the land, and the extensive use of existing buildings.


Phase Two

A) Boathouse

The boatyard potentially offers a third public focal point in addition to the shops and the community centre. Moreover, it stands between the village and the expansive woodland to the boatyard’s east, which is ideal for strolling, dog-walking etc. Since the current route between the village and its woodland, Fort Road, is narrow and frequently used by cars, a pedestrian route through the boatyard may greatly improve the woodlands’ accessibility.

Although several Kilcreggan residents expressed a desire for the boatyard to become a marina, and a scepticism about its suggested unsuitability for such a purpose, there is an established marina just to Kilcreggan’s east that has the same owner as the old boatyard. The existing marina will have the advantages of incumbency, and the old boatyard’s current owner is unlikely to permit a mooted competitor. For these reasons we suggest that redevelopment of the boatyard as a marina would be inadvisable whatever the boatyard’s suitability.

Despite this, it is still proposed that Kilcreggan capitalises on its location at the tip of the peninsula and its boating heritage through the provision of sea kayaking and rowing facilities. Kilcreggan is almost directly opposite the Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club on the other side of the Clyde, and kayaking between this Boat Club and Kilcreggan seems a popular activity, as evidenced by sea kayakers present during the community consultation day and internet evidence. Developing a part of the boatyard to form a sister club to the RWSABC would help Kilcreggan become a focal point for kayaking and rowing both on the peninsula and along the Clyde.

A) Landscaped Woodland Entrance

The entrance to Kilcreggan Community Woodland, currently occupied by a football area with only one goal, will be landscaped to form an enticing gateway to one of Kilcreggan’s greatest natural assets.

B) Boardwalk and Shared Space

In order to link these public focal points of Hub, shops, pier, boathouse and woodland in an attractive way, a boardwalk that hugs the shoreline from pier to boathouse will be constructed out of sustainable, locally-sourced wood. It will create appealing ‘pocket spaces’ in the course of linking the community’s focal public places. In addition, the road in front of the shops will become shared space, providing an attractive walking environment and easier access to the boardwalk.

D) Public Art Competitions

The peninsula’s characteristic geology includes its ‘erratics’ boulders such as the King Tut Rock. Extending the local tradition of painting this rock, open competitions will be held to design similar boulders at periodic intervals along the shoreline will be established to add interest to shoreline walks, encourage greater use of the beaches and attract landscape photographers, whose wide-angled lenses require interesting foregrounds to be most effective.


Phase Three

Phase Three builds on previous successes that have made Kilcreggan a more attractive living and working environment, which enable an intensified use of the boatyard site.

A) Additional Affordable Housing

Some of the remaining parts of the boatyard site will be used for affordable studio flats and houses attractive to young adults who are attracted by the views, access to boathouse activity and the ability to walk to the shops, pier and Hub.

B) New Retail, Offices and Commercial Workshop spaces

These will benefit from the high footfall through the area, which will be increased through the creation of attractive public spaces within the boatyard site to create an excellent mixed-use destination.