About the Hall\Build History

The old hall The original Craignish Village Hall was built in the early 1950s on land gifted to the community by the then Laird, John Lindsay-MacDougall of Lunga.

After over 50 years this ‘temporary building’ as it was classed, was too small for a growing community, had a ‘condemned’ kitchen and was requiring to have more and more spent on it, so the community took the decision to demolish the hall and to build a new one on the same site.

Fundraising for the project started in 1997, but it was not until 2002 that efforts began in earnest to raise the required £471,000. By the beginning of 2004 and thanks to major grants from The Community Fund (now The Big Lottery) and the ERDF, the full amount had been achieved and the project went out to tender. Unfortunately, between the project being costed and the tenders coming in, costs had risen considerably and it was apparent that more money would need to be raised.

In order that the project could go ahead, the specification was pared back until the tenders matched the available funds and the architect was instructed to start the construction drawings. Meanwhile fundraising continued throughout the whole of the building period in order to re-instate those items which had had to be removed or reduced.

Building the new hall In the early autumn of 2004, a community work party, assisted by the builders and the architect, demolished the old building and in October of that year Rosemary Dalgleish, whose mother was very involved in the building of the original hall, turned the first sod to signify the start of the construction work.

The building was completed by the end of October 2005 and in early November the official opening was performed by all the pupils of the local Primary School. By this time enough funds had been raised to build and fit out the building to the original specification, the final cost being £600,000.

Site designed and maintained by Laura Neville.