A site plan with terrain and building layouts on the left, a map of Scotland on the right, highlighting a specific area, architecture by MOXON Architects.

Mar Lodge Estate Masterplan

Built asset renewal for the UK's largest and most diverse National Nature Reserve.

Mar Lodge Estate Masterplan

Aberdeenshire, Scotland

2022

Client National Trust for Scotland

Buildings · Conservation & Retrofit · Masterplanning · Housing

Mar Lodge Estate, the UK’s largest National Nature Reserve, is best known for its Caledonian pinewoods, moors, and mountains. But the Trust also cares for much built heritage on the estate. This remarkable collection of buildings ranges from the imposing Mar Lodge at the heart of the estate, to the picturesque Victoria’s Picnic Lodge nestled above the Punchbowl of Glen Quoich.

‘This Strategy will give Mar Lodge Estate the buildings, infrastructure, and security that this incredible landscape deserves.’

David Frew, The National Trust for Scotland

Architectural plans of a historic building with a central courtyard, detailed floor layouts, and elevation views; architecture by MOXON Architects.

The Estate also includes a number of smaller buildings which are used to facilitate the smooth day-to-day running of this remarkable piece of Scotland. The uses of these buildings vary from visitor accommodation for all tastes and occasions, to working deer larders, to staff accommodation. This is a working, living landscape, and the buildings for which the Trust has responsibility are an integral part of the Trust’s work to provide nature, beauty, and heritage for everyone. They are a vital link to a lineage of people working and living on this land for the last eight thousand years.

Architectural plan and elevations of a traditional house with pitched roof, dormer windows, and detailed floor plan, architecture by MOXON Architects.

Architectural plans showing building layouts and elevations, with circled details highlighting specific areas, architecture by MOXON Architects.

Simple house facade with front and side elevations, floor plan, architecture by MOXON Architects.

Front and side elevations and floor plans of a house with steep gabled roof, chimney, and symmetrical windows, architecture by MOXON Architects.

Following significant research in conjunction with the NTS, opportunities were identified for the retrofit and repurposing of unused and underutilised buildings. With joined up thinking and intelligent sequencing, the renovation, restoration and repurposing works set out in the strategy illustrate a clear path to delivery. These project proposals have been conceived as a Masterplan, but each may be delivered as a discrete project. They are iterative and interlinked, and as such each are considered a part of a vision that is bigger than the sum of its parts.