Cabrach Visitor Centre and Distillery
The Cabrach is a place of stories. It is the UK’s most underpopulated and remote mainland area. Lying at high altitude on the north edge of the Cairngorms, it was once a farming community, but the community has been eroded over time by the Clearances, the World Wars, and industrialisation. It is dotted all over with empty buildings and ruins and was once the centre of illicit whisky production in Scotland.
erz were commissioned by the Cabrach Trust to develop a masterplan for their extensive landholdings on the north edge of the Cairngorms. The Trust are aiming to revitalise the Cabrach and the first phase of development is focussed on the conversion of Inverharroch Farm into a new Visitor Centre and a distillery that explores the old style of illicit whisky making.
Our work uses the extensive grounds to interpret and enliven the myriad stories of the Cabrach landscape. Trails explore the riverside, the hilltops, the ruins of old farms and dwellings and the secrets of the landscape including a Cold War Bunker which operated until the 1980s.
The new access road is designed to have a sinuous and sculptural form echoing the legend of the Cabrach Wyrm, a mythical local beast.
erz worked closely with the trust and with the community of Cabrach to create a landscape plan that weaves together old and new stories of this remarkable landscape.
