Caithness Horizons recently held a stakeholder workshop to bring together all its funders, partners and local stakeholders.
Paul Cariss, Caithness Horizons Chairman, welcomed everyone to the event and thanked them for their support so far and gave a presentation outlining the projects progress to-date. Paul's introduction was followed by a presentation by Bill McPherson, of MkW Design Partnership, on the detailed design plans.
The key objective of the workshop was to enable board members and the project team to gather crucial input, ideas and feedback from the various stakeholder groups involved on how best to tell and display the Caithness story. There were three working groups who held simultaneous brainstorming sessions on the impact that Caithness Horizons would have on tourism and the local community and by operating as a registered museum. One of the community groups hoping to return to the newly refurbished facility is the Caithness Crafts Association, which was represented by their chairman Fred Haughton.
VisitScotland propose to move their Tourist Information Centre into the new facility and were represented by Elaine Mackay, Customer Service Advisor. Commenting on the event, Elaine said: "I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and found the whole day extremely worthwhile. To be able to talk face to face with the designer about the requirements of a tourist information facility was a really valuable exercise."
Historic Scotland has also recently reaffirmed its support for the project and has offered to work with the design team to develop the concept and museum interpretation.
Speaking on behalf of Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise, who also attended the workshop, Eann Sinclair, Senior Development Manager, said: "It was very useful to see the updated plans for how the inside of the Town Hall and Carnegie Library buildings will look once finished. I think everyone could see how exciting a centre this is going to be and we all look forward to seeing and commenting on the detailed plans for the exhibition material as they develop."
The first phase of enabling work has been completed by MM Miller (Wick) Ltd, with the main stripping out of the building well underway.
Work on the building will be ongoing throughout the coming months, with design work and surveys being carried out. The main construction work is scheduled to commence later this year.
Information regarding the building refurbishment and the project's progress will be regularly updated on the Caithness Horizons website at: http://caithnesshorizons.co.uk/
