Blairies tranquility garden

We're going to be building shortly to provide a home for a disabled member. We're having to do this as cheaply as possible to get it done quickly.

However, we also want to preserve as much as possible of the original house and outbuildings. The draft plan is to make the walls of the house secure and keep it as it is now, with benches and container plants to make it a tranquil and safe place to spend time thinking and relaxing. We would be looking to share this space with friends, members, family, and ex residents happy to contribute to the safety and tranquillity of the space.

The steadings need to be surveyed for viability before more detailed plans can be made, but options being examined include bothy lodgings, wood and other stores, housing and workshops. We'd like to keep as much of the original material on site if possible, and repurpose it where it can't be used for restoration.

Our home has been a source of happiness and pain to hundreds of people over the centuries; a refuge for people who had nowhere else to go or needed to escape for a short time, but also sometimes a place for people who faced very hard times, unfairness or violence.

In honour of its past we want to make a space for reconciliation of good and bad memories, and in recognition of Blairies continuing to be a home we want also to focus on the needs of people living here now.

At the minute we're not seeking funding but time and expertise.