Lairig Archipelago
Mar Lodge Estate, located approximately at the centre of the Cairngorms National Park, is widely recognised as one of the most important conservation landscapes in the UK. Owned and operated by the National Trust for Scotland, the Estate is characterised in part by its striking terrain and a series of small but important buildings, connected by a network of passes that weave around the area’s dramatic contours.
Many of these hill routes – known in Gaelic as a lairig - follow ancient glacial breaches in the granite. There is a deep-felt connection across timescales within the landscape, between events in geological history, to the directions of rivers & paths, and the subsequent the positioning of landmarks.
Although the buildings are secondary to the landscape they occupy, their role as cultural and economic assets for the National Trust enables important conservation work to be carried out. The title for this project Lairig Archipelago describes a series of disparate parts connected by prehistoric paths and a shared (modern) approach to landscape.
It also describes an overview of a multi-faceted brief, in which a suite of architectural conservation projects will be detailed and carefully phased across the next 5-10 years to meet current and future requirements of the Estate. Such overview is vital to the future of Mar Lodge Estate, substantiating business plans and economic forecasts with a clearly plotted set of operational milestones over the following years.