Visitor centre plans drawn up

Plans have been drawn up to build a visitor centre at a beauty spot.

Scottish National Heritage (SNH) was recently granted funding for the proposed centre at Tentsmuir Point, near Tayport, and the organisation is set to launch a bid for planning permission.

The nature reserve has offered an education programme for 17 years, but has never had anywhere to accommodate visitors in bad weather.

SNH hopes the new building will provide the perfect starting point for school, college and university visits.

Planning applications are being submitted to Fife Council, and it is hoped work could start in the autumn.

Architect Kirsty Maguire, who was commissioned to design the new building, said: “It is an educational shelter for their use with school groups who visit regularly.

“At the moment they don’t have anything like this for when those visits take place.

“The design is based on the natural context of the surroundings and will be made from timber with its location in the woods.

“The area has been carefully chosen so as to not interfere with the environment.”

The shelter will be built on land just inside the Icehouse entrance to Tentsmuir Point, and will sit within the birch alder woodland on land previously used for the boundary ditch.

It will provide views out towards the dunes.