A Perthshire group has been awarded £76,774 to allow them to provide a range of outdoor community activities.
Alyth Development Trust has received the grant from the Scottish Land Fund.
It will use the cash to purchase the former sawmill site at Millhaugh in the town which they will develop as an outdoor activities hub.
The Bamff Road site has lain derelict since the 1980s and is now in a bad state.
It is one of five projects in Perth and the Highlands that have been awarded funding totalling £609,040 from £1,972,701 that has been given to 16 groups across the country as part of the Scottish Land Fund’s latest round of awards.
‘Award will be transformational for Alyth’
The cash award comes just a month after the trust received a £94,000 grant from the Scottish Government for the project.
George Hall, chairman, Alyth Development Trust, said: “This award will be transformational for Alyth.
“We have been hoping to achieve the reclamation of the mill for over a decade.
“This new amenity will give access to the Den of Alyth, an important scientific site and lovely natural space, and we will be establishing a volunteer committee who will help us programme this space.”
Cara Gillespie, Scottish Land Fund committee chairwoman, said: “Every one of these grants allows for the provision of assets and services that individual groups have identified as being essential to their areas.
“This localised approach helps to strengthen both urban and rural communities.”
Plan is for ‘multi-purpose venues’
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “Alyth Development Trust proposes managing Millhaugh on behalf of the community.
“Their plan is to create a range of low-maintenance, multi-purpose venues which will support a arrange of educational, environmental, social, business and tourism-related activities.
“These respond directly to the findings of the recently completed community action plan for Alyth.
“The project aims to create space in Alyth that will promote economic and social development in the area.”
Conversation