In an age of identikit out-of-town multiplexes, the preservation of the beloved and unique Campbeltown Picture House could not be more meaningful.

It is not every town of 5000 souls that has its own cinema, far less such an architecturally significant one.

Whereas today there tend to be fewer but larger cinemas near big population centres, the first 40 years of the 20th century saw dozens open across small town Scotland, some purpose-built, others converted from existing premises.

Many fell on hard times in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and were subsequently demolished, converted into flats or found new life as bingo halls, but a number are still being run for their original purpose, such as the Aberfeldy Birks cinema, which reopened in April more than 30 years after the last ticket was sold, and the Bo'ness Hippodrome, Scotland's oldest purpose-built picture house, which closed in 1975 and reopened in 2009.

If the Picture House can win Heritage Lottery Funding it will not only preserve a cinema of international importance, but coming after the town's New Quay upgrade and the launch of a new ferry link, will also add to the community's sense of optimism and opportunity.