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More changes to Hootananny, Caithness war memorial trail plans move on and improvements for Inverness Travellers’ site

Thurso High School is also due to get modular classrooms.

The Hootananny venue wants to create tourist accommodation on its upper two floors.
The Hootananny venue wants to create tourist accommodation on its upper two floors.

Welcome to Planning Ahead where we look at the latest proposals lodged – or approved – across the Highlands.

This week, some of the details of the potential new layout of upstairs at Hootananny in Inverness are revealed.

Plans are well under way for a new war memorial trail across Caithness.

New modular classrooms are to be installed at Thurso High School where an extension block was shut down due to safety concerns.

And, back in the Highland Capital, the city’s Traveller site at Longman Park is in the market for some improvements.

Hootananny rooms will be ‘sustainable use’ of upper floors

Seven en-suite rooms are being created in the two upper floors of the city centre Hootananny building.

The upstairs venue, previously Mad Hatters, had provided a stage for indie bands for many years.

Hootananny owner Kit Fraser has invested in a mezzanine area downstairs to create space for 50 more people.

It will continue offering traditional music year-round with 3am opening at weekends.

Mr Fraser said he is responding to trends and concentrating all the live music downstairs.

Planned work outlined in a second application includes replacing “dilapidated” sash windows with new conservation-standard double-glazed versions.

New central heating, powered by a renewable air source heat pump, is also proposed.

Kit Fraser says he is responding to trends

In supporting information for the change of use plan, the venue says the previous use of the two floors as bars was “commercially unsustainable”.

“They were only open for two nights a week and did not earn enough to cover the costs of staffing.

“So a new sustainable use was needed for the top two floors of Hootananny.”

It adds: “There is currently a thriving market for tourist accommodation in Inverness with the explosion of interest in the North Coast 500 and other initiatives driving yearly increases in visitor numbers to the Highlands.

“The conversion of these currently unused upper floors of the Hootananny pub will offer a small number of good quality en-suite rooms to visitors who are keen to stay in an authentic Georgian building in the heart of Inverness above one of the centres of live Scottish traditional music.

“The proposals offer a commercially viable lease of life to this beautiful listed building, giving it a sustainable future.”

Panels will provide Caithness wartime information

A number of interpretation panels and signs are planned as part of a Caithness at War trail.

The applications, submitted by Sinclair’s Bay Community Council, include signs at the mouth of the River of Wester, in Keiss.

Interpretation panels are also proposed at Reiss car park; the Skitten War Memorial at Killimster; near Cliffhead Cottages, Ackergill; the north and south pillboxes at Keiss Harbour; and the harbour viewpoint.

They are the first in a series of interpretive materials planned as part of the project to tell the important part the area played during the conflict.

The community council is working with the Sinclair’s Bay Trust for a trail around the bay, and with Wick Development Trust for a trail in Wick.

One of the proposed wartime trail interpretation panels

Alistair Jack, development trust support officer with the Caithness Voluntary Group, said around a dozen panels are planned at Sinclair’s Bay and 23 around Wick.

It is hoped to have the trail opened by the beginning of August. Some of the panels will also have augmented reality features.

Mr Jack has been working on the project for 18 months and has spent around 4,000 hours on research.

“It’s a fairly big and involved project. We want to make sure it is an informative as possible”, he said.

Thurso High classrooms approved

Four pairs of modular classrooms will be built at Thurso High after permission was approved.

In October, a three-storey extension block was closed after structural engineers were concerned about the condition of the concrete frame.

Plans lodged earlier this year said the modular classrooms will provide accommodation for pupils displaced from the recently condemned building.

Teaching staff have been involved in the development at the north side of the school campus.

Four pairs of modular classroom are planned at Thurso High School

Plans are also moving along to upgrade the Travellers’ site in the Longman area of Inverness.

Last month the council outlined plans to improve living accommodation for the site’s tenants.

Longman Park, which homes up to 19 families, has been used as a site for Travellers since the 1980s.

Funding for the upgrade was secured from the Scottish Government’s Vacant and Derelict Land Fund and the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund.

A Certificate of Lawfulness has now been approved to confirm the original use of the site approved in 1985.

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