The TAC building and programme belong to YOU, so please make the most of them.
click here to see a fly-around of The Ardchattan Centre (old School)
In 1866, in the village of Bonawe, in the parish of Ardchattan, near Oban in the region of Argyll, the Ardchattan Primary School was built.
Due to centralised services, the school was closed in 2016 and pupils are now taken by bus to Lochnell school in Benderloch, a few miles away.
Community members collaborated to create The Ardchattan Centre (TAC) in 2018 as an agency and place for community benefit, and to raise funds to buy the building and grounds from Argyll and Bute Council in 2020.
We are a registered charity Company Number: SC642989.
Trustees include
- Ronnie Campbell
- John Campbell
- Deirdre MacKenna
- Emma Vincent
- Jennie Larney
- Lindsay Vare.
If you would like to join as a volunteer, on one of the Working-Groups or as a Trustee, please just email us on events@theardchattancentre.org, thank you.
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OUR VISION
A vibrant Centre that engages and inspires people of all ages to move to and live in this area.
OUR MISSION
To create a Hub for all the community by maintaining the building as a sustainable social enterprise which will:
- celebrate the identity, heritage and cultures of Bonawe and Ardchattan, Loch Etive and the surrounding areas
- promote wellness,
- stimulate enterprising activities,
- offer education and recreational opportunities,
- nurture creativity and confidence.
The building and grounds have been at the heart of the community for decades, providing space for community events and activities.
The school once served a thriving community of nearly 1000 people mostly employed and supporting the staff of the Bonawe Quarries and Bonawe furnace, which today is home to around 130 people.
The closure of the school impacted the community in many ways; by removing a meeting place for young people; by out-sourcing education services and by closing the public meeting-space.
After many informal dialogues, a semi-formal consultation meeting was held in Ardchattan Primary in March 2018 to seek the views of the community on the future of Ardchattan Primary School building; this meeting was well attended and confirmed the community’s support to secure the School building and grounds for community use.
The local community came together to form The Ardchattan Centre and successfully secured £157,000 from Scottish Land Fund to purchase the building and grounds from Argyll and Bute Council in 2020.
Volunteers, working groups and the Trustees are now working on and delivering plans to refurbish and improve the building and grounds, maintaining it at the heart of the community as a hub for meeting, explorations, celebrations, creativity and learning, all of which is assisting confidence, a strong sense of community and identity and encouraging and supporting enterprise and increased population.
OUR VALUES
- be open and transparent in our governance, decision making, planning and evaluations,
- promote inclusive behaviours based on trust, friendship, generosity and collaboration,
- work to build community resilience, developing local skills and promoting the circular economy,
- take an enterprising approach to running the centre, striving to achieve financial independence,
- take care of our places, resources and knowledge, and share this for the benefit of the community as a whole,
- work constructively and in a spirit of collective collaboration with our neighbours, locally and nearby,
- be mindful of The Ardchattan Centre’s environmental impact, aiming to minimise the carbon footprint and always be guided by the principles of environmental sustainability.
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Annual General Meeting (AGM) of
Sunday 21 July 2024.
Documents: