‘This vital enhancement strengthens our commitment to saving lives in some of Scotland’s most challenging terrain.’

Nada Shebab, Estates Projects & Strategic Planning Lead, Police Scotland

Mountain Rescue building with black metal and stone exterior, surrounded by trees, featuring parked vehicles and architecture by MOXON Architects.

Line drawing of a building set against a backdrop of trees. The structure consists of multiple sections varying in height and design, featuring windows and doors. The trees are illustrated in a light, sketchy style.

Architectural line drawing of a side view of a two-story house with adjacent garage. The buildings are surrounded by tall trees, providing a natural setting. The drawing features detailed outlines of the structures and foliage.

The Braemar Mountain Rescue Team is a registered charity helping provide rescue services in the Southern Cairngorms, Glenshee, Lochnagar and Deeside areas. Formed in 1965 by a group of local people who were concerned about the increasing number of mountain accidents, the Team now consists of a skilled group of almost 40 volunteers.

From the outset the Team has worked very closely with the local Police Mountain Rescue Team which had been formed a few years earlier. This tradition is maintained today, the two teams operating as one integrated unit with joint management.

The mountain rescue centre was established in 1973 following the purchase of the recently vacated Braemar Fire Station. It was the first mountain rescue base in Scotland and housed a garage and store, with attic accommodation for emergency overnight accommodation.

A mountain rescue building with a modern black upper section and a stone lower section, surrounded by trees, with vehicles parked in front, architecture by MOXON Architects.

Set amongst secluded woodland on the edge of Braemar village, the new centre unifies the original traditional granite building and adjacent outhouses, creating a 1.5-storey extension above, wrapped in dark grey corrugated steel. The original building’s complex roofscape has been replaced with a singular shallow pitched roof - a robust approach suited to the emergency service typology as well as referencing the agricultural pitched forms that populate rural Aberdeenshire.

Isometric exploded view of a two-story building. The image showcases different layers and sections such as the roof, floors, walls, and windows, each separated and elevated to reveal structural details. The layout is on a rectangular base.

The renovation includes the rationalisation of the centre’s ground and first floor, accommodating improved facilities for the Braemar Mountain Rescue Team to better support its operational challenges.

The remodelling of the first floor allows for an extended control room, looking over the courtyard, an extended avalanche coordination room to the rear, and a more generous bunk room to improve the welfare of volunteers during extended operations.

The control room balcony window breaks up the pitched form, allowing direct communication from the control desk to the team assembly point outside.