Highlands and Islands Enterprise and consultants GVA Grimley are unveiling a vision of how the five hectares site could be developed. The masterplan, which has been shaped by the views of residents, businesses, tourists and public agencies, offers various design options. They all feature the creation of a destination focal point, possibly a sculpture or piece of artwork, drawing ‘end to enders’ to a main square near the harbour.

The top option also adds a market street and square, with car parking on the periphery. The consultants highlight the need for good quality building design from locally sourced natural materials and recommend a build sensitive to the landscape and reminiscent of a typical Scottish coastal village.

You can view the key masterplan themes, an aerial sketch and a 3D aerial sketch on the right of this page.

Update: Wednesday 11th February 2010.

Two prominent UK tourism businesses are joining forces to lead the way with a multi-million pound plan to revitalise John o'Groats.

Following public consultation and the production of the Masterplan detailed above, commissioned by HIE, Heritage Great Britain has revised its development plans for the iconic landmark.

The company has formed a new joint venture with luxury short break specialist Natural Retreats and together they have drawn up a vision for John o'Groats which they will be presenting to the local community for the first time tonight (Wednesday 11th Feb 2010).

The proposal is for the refurbishment and extension of the existing hotel, an exclusive leisure development of luxury self catering lodges and a visitor centre to encourage access across the site and into the wider area. Operated and managed by the highly successful Natural Retreats team, the proposed holiday properties would combine environmentally sustainable construction with cutting edge design to encourage visitors to spend more time in the region.

One of the benefits of the Natural Retreats model is that the company plans to create high quality self catering accommodation.  It is anticipated that this will create additional business opportunities for existing and new provision of food and drink to cater for guests.
 
Public consultation regarding the Natural Retreats proposal is expected to take place in March 2010, prior to the submission of any formal planning application.

Use the links below to view sketches of the proposed new developments:

Site plan

Aerial view of the hotel redevelopment, new residence layout and visitor amenities.

View north showing proposed Natural Retreats new residence layout and hotel re-development

View east across proposed new eyecatcher feature towards proposed new visitor/activity centre

View east along coastal footpath showing proposed hotel re-development and eyecatcher feature

Update: Friday 16 July 2010, John O’Groats Coastal Path

The coastal path from John o'Groats harbour towards Duncansby Head was surveyed in February 2010 by Walking-the-Talk on behalf of Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The current condition makes the path difficult to use for people without good mobility and it is very likely that the path will continue to deteriorate without intervention.

This relatively short section of path forms part of the informal coastal path to Duncansby Head, and the objective was to find a solution that improves the management of access but does not significantly change the visitors’ experience of the path.

The full report produced by Walking-the-Talk is available here.

The existing path condition can be seen in Annex 1 showing the extent of damage along the foreshore.

The specification for option 3 has been visualised in Annex 2.