Seil art centre plans
THE new owners of Seil’s Highland Arts centre, a landmark in Ellenabeich for decades, have revealed more of their plans for the site before it closes for good next month, writes Sandy Neil.
Highland Arts will cease trading on or before November 8, but will continue to occupy the shop until February to allow C John Taylor’s family to find new homes for his art.
Seafari purchased Highland Arts in June with plans to expand its marine wildlife tourism business, which employs up to 15 people, from a small slate-quarrier’s cottage in Ellenabeich into the larger complex across the road.
Tony and Jess Hill, who live on the Isle of Easdale, offered their ‘general thoughts’ on turning the centre into winter boat storage facility, but stressed no decisions had been taken.
‘The train hasn’t yet left the station,’ they said. ‘Neither the journey’s route nor the final destination is known. Flexibility and adaptability are key.’
Plans include, in the early phases, removing ‘all lean-to, flat-roofed buildings and extensions’ surrounding the grade two-listed Monaveen Lodge, and ‘sympathetically increasing the size of the old Co-op towards the rear cliff’.
This could create a retail and exhibition space about the Corryvreckan, the world’s third largest whirlpool, located between the Isles of Jura and Scarba, and local accommodation for visitors or staff, which they argue is currently ‘insufficient’.
‘Tourism is a major employer in the area,’ they explained, but ‘tourism businesses struggle to employ staff,’ due to the ‘extremely limited’ number of young people seeking employment on Seil, and a lack of local accommodation available to purchase or rent at an affordable rate.
The new site could also provide motorhome stances for visitors, and a courtyard of six or eight workshops ‘for business to expand or for business startups to develop and flourish’, with ‘flats or bedsits’ above.
The development would also allow Seafari to relocate its overwintering facility from Ballachulish, increase the size of its ticket office, and provide an inside area to kit and de-kit customers, and dry waterproofs and lifejackets.