The new Munlochy Community Development Trust (SC055081) has made a funding bid to the Scottish Land Fund to acquire land in our village. This land comprises five plots of land spread across the village, which have been offered to us for sale by the local estate. Through community consultation exercises we've undertaken over the last year, we know that Munlochy residents feel our village lacks a strong sense of community, and lacks spaces and places for recreation and amenity.  We therefore want to use the land we'll buy to help overcome these challenges, and to create new community assets with them that can bring the people of our village closer together.

Once we have acquired the land on offer, we are looking for funding to:

1. Build a multi-use games area (MUGA) on the site of some old tennis courts. This will give locals a venue for sport that we currently lack across the village, and would also be used by the local primary school
2. Build a footpath (phase 1) and a small pavillion (phase 2) in a small woodland next to the site of the MUGA. We will also need to build a small bridge over a burn to link these two areas together. This development will further enhance this area as a place for community activity, particularly for pupils at the Primary School.
3. Create a new playpark and a small community orchard: further up in the village is a small park area that is perenially waterlogged, and whose equipment has badly corroded.  Our Land Fund grant will allow us to remove the dangerous equipment, but we are looking for funding to solve the drainage issues and install new equipment. We would also like to use some of the drier land in this park as a community growing space
4. Build a footpath in a small valley to the north of the village, with interpretation panels and community art installations. Our consultation feedback shows that people value this greenspace and want to retain it, while promoting responsible access and enhancing its biodiversity benefits

Both individually and collectively, these projects will help to provide spaces and places for recreation, play, leisure, and socailisation in our village. These are recognised challenges for our community, and were voiced in both our own community consultation events, and in feedback provided by residents when the Black Isle Local Place Plan was being developed. These developments will help us to meet the needs the community have told us they have, and ensure that both residents and primary school pupils no longer have to travel a distance to access facilities elsewhere.

Our outcomes will include:

• A stronger sense of community
• More opportunities for socialisation, recreation, and play, for people of all ages and abilities
• Enhanced biodiversity and greenspace
• Volunteers trained and active (e.g. tending community growing spaces, building and repairing paths, undertaking invasive species removal)
• Our community having more say over its own development
• Our Trust gaining experience and confidence, that we can use for larger projects (e.g. housing) in future

Our milestones are:

• We have already submitted and were successful in our funding bid to SLF Stage 1. This includes a business plan, founded on community consultation exercises that we held over the course of 2025 and early 2026.
• Community consultation activities included running stalls at the community market, running a community clean up day, hosting a quiz night, running a session with pupils at the local primary school, and conducting an online survey of residents.
• We will learn whether our bid to the Scottish Land Fund Stage 2 has been successful in October
• If we get this funding, we will have until 31 March 2027 to buy the land
• Following this, we will be focusing initially on securing funding for the MUGA, and path development in the woodland next to this
• We would be looking for funding to allow us to undertake path development work, as a first step, in financial year 2027-28, and funding for the MUGA starting from the year after (likely completion date 31 March 2030)
• We will start obtaining quotes for necessary works once SLF funding is secured, and planning permission too