Glasgow Disabled Scouts – Glengoyne Lodge

It’s just been over a year since the inaugural opening of the extended and refurbished Glengoyne Lodge at the Auchengillan Outdoor Centre nestled in the wooded hills just north of Glasgow. 

Opening Ceremony (Image: Glasgow Disabled Scouts)

The original building was a 1960s kit house from Sweden, but was not fit for purpose, unable to accommodate modern wheelchairs or allow robust activities.  The energy performance was also very poor with no insulation making it very expensive to heat and maintain.

Before: Original lodge from the front

Before: Original plans

Workshops: Through a series of workshops with the scouts, we explored and developed ideas together, and measured out and defined the exact space required by scouts using wheelchairs.

Concept: An early sketch

After: The new plan extended the building by 50%.

We extended the building to the side with a new large activity hall with an iconic overhanging tent-like canopy with a diagonal prop to allow covered outdoor activities.  Adjacent to this was the new social kitchen which was fully wheelchair accessible.  Also on the ground floor new accessible WCs were provided as well as a changing places and fully accessible dormitories.  Additional dormitories are provided on the upper level, as the organisation has a mixture of disabled and non-disabled scouts.  The lodge is now fully open for business and has been well ‘stress tested’ by the scouts!