Posts Tagged ‘hushinish’

Huisinis Gateway opens for business

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On Friday 8th September, the John Muir Trust work party was present for the opening of North Harris Trust’s new Huisinis Gateway building. Five months in construction, the new facilities replace the run-down toilet building that has served the area for the last 17 years. Huisinis Gateway incorporates three toilets, two showers and an interpretation area that includes information on the local area and wildlife. Additional parking has also been created next to the building.

With Huisinis proving increasingly popular with campervans, a dedicated site with five electric hook-up points has been built as part of the project. A Chemical Disposal Point with fresh water standpipe is located in the main carpark.

The John Muir Trust regularly brings work parties to Harris. On this occasion, they helped with fencing and landscaping at Huisinis. The picture shows NHT staff, the JMT team and the chair of the Trust, Calum MacKay. All enjoyed a celebratory BBQ to mark the opening.

 

 

 

The Huisinis panorama, showing the Gateway building, new car-park in the foreground, with campervan dump point and recycling bins. This £270,000 project, designed by architects Rural Design, was completed on schedule by O’Mac Construction. Funding for the project was provided by Outer Hebrides Leader, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Bord na Gaidhlig, Scottish Landfill Communities Trust as well as The North Harris Trust.

 

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Toilets no more

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The building that provided relief to so many, is no more. Huisinis public toilets were leveled today to make way for the new Huisinis Gateway development.

Excavators will be hard at work over the next four weeks preparing the site for foundations and a new carpark. They will then move up the road to the quarry that will be turned into a licenced camping area for campervans.

The construction project will run until August, so the Trust has installed temporary toilet facilities opposite the development for the duration. The existing carpark has been taken out of use as it now forms part of the construction site. Temporary parking space is available over at the Scarp jetty.

The recent decision by Scottish Water to suspend the new water main to Huisinis will hopefully only have a minor impact upon the project. We had planned to install a water supply at the campervan site. This will no longer be possible. The existing supplies down at the Huisinis Gateway will be made available for campers, alongside the new chemical disposal point. A decision on how we will operate the showers will be made once we know the outcome of the Scottish Water review.

The funding search is still on for the finishing details. Our application to the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund was successful. £4500 has been received to provide waste recycling bins. This will cut the volume of waste heading to the landfill site from Huisinis. Bord na Gaidhlig has also awarded us £1500 towards the cost of bilingual signage.

For more details of the project, click HERE

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