Create opportunity

West Kilbride is a coastal town with strong links to arts and crafts, particularly weaving and textiles. By the mid 1990s consumers moved away from buying locally and as a result, 50% of high street businesses had ceased trading.

In 1998 a group of community activists and elected representatives launched West Kilbride Community Initiative Limited (WKCIL) as a vehicle to regenerate the community by creating Scotland’s only designated Craft and Design Town and in doing so, gained national and international recognition.

The main ethos of the organisation was to use crafts in the social, economic, cultural and environmental regeneration of the community. The underlying principle was that craft was at the centre of the activities of Craft Town Scotland. These activities are brought to life by the initiative’s board of directors, paid staff and the valuable contribution of local volunteers.

Over the subsequent years the initiative – with support from local and national funders, such as the Moffat Trust and National Lottery – bought or were gifted 9 of the empty premises and turned them into working studios, with affordable rents, for a wide range of local Makers and Artists – each one using a different discipline. The studios serve as a platform for Makers and Artists to develop their skills, widen their network and evolve their craft business.

The Barony Centre was opened, creating a community focal point and showcase for the Craft Town Scotland initiative. This is housed in a multi-award winning redevelopment of a 19th century grade-C listed church. A ‘culturally unique’ building, the Barony Centre is a place where creativity inspires and communities connect. This is done through national and locally curated exhibitions held throughout the year, hosting events for local groups such as Microtalks for Creative Works and concerts and exhibitions for the Vertex Festival. Regular arts and crafts classes for people of all ages are also held in our upstairs studios.

Craft Town Scotland continues to work in partnership with local, regional and national organisations, businesses and tourist boards that share their objectives of using craft to unite, strengthen and sustain communities.

Over the years, the look of the town and diversity of its economy have been transformed. The main street is re-energised, with new businesses growing out of the Craft Town concept and the studios. Enterprises include an award-winning bridal outfitter, a sweet maker, a small gallery, an architect, a deli and an ice-cream shop. The pub has been upgraded and the station café is open again as a bistro. West Kilbride’s entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well!

For more information about how the Craft Town evolved and what it has achieved, read West Kilbride’s story in the Carnegie UK Trust’s Turnaround Towns UK report (page 33).

In an age when consumers are often given conflicting advice about what food is good for them and which ingredients to avoid, it’s refreshing that Castle Douglas Food Town offers high quality local produce that everyone can enjoy. It is known throughout the south of Scotland as having a great range of independent shops, selling excellent local produce – making the most of the town’s, and the region’s, strengths.

Castle Douglas celebrates its food town status with Castle Douglas Food and Bike festival offering a showcase of cycling, food and drink as well as Producers Markets.

The town’s website has a comprehensive and easy-to-use business directory for visitors and locals, listing around 100 local businesses.

Behind the scenes, the community organisation which co-ordinates the project – Castle Douglas Food Town Initiative – worked with the local authority when Tesco wanted to build a new store in town. They succeeded in persuading Tesco not to create a fresh meat or fresh fish counter in order to safeguard the town’s unique shopping experience and to protect the independents, because they are what make Castle Douglas the town it is.

For more information, please see the Welcome to Castle Douglas website.

From an intended one-off event to celebrate the 300th year of Portsoy’s harbour in 1993, the annual Scottish Traditional Boat Festival was born. Packed with brilliant moments, the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival brings together boats, music, crafts, food and drink to celebrate the region’s rich cultural heritage. Up to 12,000 people descend on Portsoy over the Festival weekend each June, cheering on crews in competitive sailing on the open seas, dancing and listening to live music, tasting fresh local food, watching skilled traditional craftsmen and women at work, and much more.

Now in it’s 30th year, the festival sees more than 20 bands and artists, 25 heritage craft attractions and generate £1 million in economic value to the area.

But the Boat Festival is only part of the story. It has enabled the local community to:

• Build and equip the Boatshed, where volunteers build and renovate traditional wooden boats, working with local Primary Schools and others to pass on skills. Over 60 boats have now been built in the Boatshed.
• Create the Salmon Bothy museum as a base for local maritime history, family history research and a community space and venue, by restoring a former working Salmon House. The museum attracts more than 3,000 visitors each year, and the community space is used for music, theatre and cultural gatherings, local clubs, weddings and corporate events.
• Develop a 25-bed self-catering accommodation at Sail Loft, which restored a group of buildings dating from the 18th century.

All these projects are co-ordinated by Portsoy Community Enterprise, which also operates the Portsoy Links Caravan Park providing further visitor accommodation and income generation. The organisation as a whole seeks to provide economic benefit from tourism for the town of Portsoy and surrounding area. All of its assets belong to the community.

These achievements do not come without a lot of hard work and collaboration by Portsoy Community Enterprise and others. Support for the projects has come from Historic Environment Scotland (CARS funding), Architectural Heritage Fund, European Fisheries Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund, Coastal Communities Fund, North East Scotland Preservation Trust, Aberdeenshire Council, local businesses and others.

Oban Winter Festival started back in 2011, when a small group of locals decided that the start of winter was a great excuse to have a Festival. They organized a Victorian Market to run alongside the Reindeer Parade, ice rink, comedy nights, music workshops for children, cocktails for the grown-ups, a ceilidh or two – all of which made the Festival a great success. News spread quickly and the next year people came from further afield to join the festivities.

Now the festival has become a 10-day event with light shows, markets, parades, ceilidhs, live music, art exhibitions and more. Events vary from day to day. Festival action takes place mainly in the town.

The festival gives Oban a busy period at a time of year which is traditionally quiet, even for a tourist town like Oban. And The local organising group works closely with businesses, charities and schools to put together a programme of events showcasing local crafts and skills to visitors and locals alike, so the community benefits in lots of ways.

Campbeltown Picture House is a Category A listed building and one of the earliest surviving purpose-built cinemas in the UK with important historical and architectural significance.

Campbeltown Picture House is a Category A listed building and one of the earliest surviving purpose-built cinemas in the UK with important historical and architectural significance. The restoration of the iconic building was recognised for sustainable design in the 2023 Argyll & Bute Sustainable Design Awards

Built during 1913, by the early 2000s the picture house had become so run-down that it was established that the only way to guarantee its future was a complete overhaul of the building. Campbeltown Community Business stepped in and ‘The Centenary Project’ was born.

“One of the core aims for renovation was to make the picture house a real hub and community space”, informs Ellen Mainwood, General Manager. “The cinema is so special because it feels so unlikely that it would exist in a place like this”.

The restored cinema reopened in 2017, with two screens, café, exhibition and community space, and educational facilities.

As well as screening films, the cinema hosts live satellite events showing theatre, dance and opera performances. It offers a pay it forward ticket scheme where tickets are purchased, put on the local notice board and any one in the community can access them free of charge. They also link in with other initiatives in the town to hold one-off events throughout the year such as the Malts Festival in May.

In addition to providing a focus for community in the town, the reopened picture house has created career opportunities and training in a town where new jobs are not always readily available. It is owned by Campbeltown Community Business Ltd (CCB), a social enterprise committed to transforming the cinema into the principal cultural and entertainment venue for Kintyre.

The enterprise has been warmly embraced by the community, as a local member of the public expressed: “We love what they’ve done with the renovation, it’s a real asset to Campbeltown”.

The reopened cinema is part of a much bigger collaborative effort which made Campbeltown town centre “Scotland’s Most Improved Place” in the SURF Awards 2020, due to a combination of community-led regeneration and multimillion pound renovation projects.