Funding secured to revamp historic Catrine water system

A £600,000 Heritage Lottery grant has secured the final funding needed to restore a 200-year-old water system at Catrine.

A 200-year-old water system at Catrine, which was once the most powerful water system in the world, will be revamped following the recent completion of a £4 million funding package. A £660,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has completed the funding, and will now allow conservation work to take place, with a disused chapel transformed into a community education centre. The site, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, comprises a tunnel, weir, fish pass and five reservoirs, which will all undergo conservation work.

Stuart Nelson, chair of Catrine Community Trust, said: ‘The community trust and its supporters have worked tirelessly over the last five years in building the case for funding to save Catrine's amazing industrial heritage and provide much-needed facilities to convey this to the many people who pass though the village on the River Ayr Way.

‘This generous award virtually completes the £4m funding package that once seemed very far away and provides a much-needed boost to the capacity of the trust to regenerate the village and provide employment.’

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