Former Forres church for sale

A ONCE thriving Forres building has gone on the open market after the owner failed to secure enough support for its development as a multi-purpose venue.

Health practitioner, Claire Love, had been renovating the listed Castlehill Church since 2010 but she was unable to get match funding for her plans to complete the work and develop it as centre for the community.

"I am really disappointed," she said. "The people of Forres wanted a community venue for all ages, demonstrated by the 500 signatures we gathered on the ‘Save Castlehill Church’ petition.

"A few of the local councillors were also interested in helping but, apart from that, there hasn’t been a great deal of support."

Claire had proposed that the building could be used for an number of activities including health re-skilling, youth work and musical entertainment.

As well as investing a great deal of money in the project, she had put together a document - ‘Proposal for use of Castlehill Church’ - to help push her plans forward.

Historic Scotland had been working closely with Moray Council’s listed buildings officer to assist Claire in finding ways of halting the deterioration of the building.

However, she was unable to convince prospective funders that there is a need for such a venue in Forres.

"I was really hoping the Castlehill Church development as a multi-purpose venue would work," she said. "All it needs is a few more people to get involved to provide the required energy to provide the anchor for any future project."

The building has planning permission and listed building consent for two houses to be built in its interior. It is currently valued at offers over £180,000.

Read the full story in this week’s "Gazette".