A new Highland cinema, thought to be the first in the UK to incorporate a real car into the seating area for an authentic “drive-in” experience, will open its doors later this week.
Millionaire businessman Angus MacDonald has footed the entire cost for an independent cinema in Fort William, as a “gift” to the Lochaber area where he grew up. The town has been without one for 15 years.
A red Lotus Elan was specially commissioned for the cinema, which the serial entrepreneur hopes will help boost the economic recovery of the town and also includes a restaurant and events space.
Mr MacDonald, who now lives in Roshven, near Arisaig, says research had shown that the two things that can help regenerate struggling high streets are a cinema and a book shop.
The two-screen cinema has been designed by Glasgow and Skye-based architect Dualchas in the style of a traditional black house and is due to open its doors on Friday.
Mr MacDonald made his money buying and selling four major Scottish companies and is also a published author.
Last year he sold an Edinburgh-based waste management firm in a reported £25.8 million deal and was awarded an OBE for services to the Highlands.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here