Much-loved art deco outdoor pool facilities are expected to partly reopen this year.

Two sections in the triple-pool lido – a boating pool and toddler pool – will open first, with the swimming facilities to follow once funding is secured.

It will bring a new lease of life to the Tarlair outdoor pool complex after its closure in 1995, with a cafe expected to open by late summer.

It comes after a dedicated campaign by the Friends of Tarlair community group, set up as a charity in 2015, after having worked as an interest group to Save Tarlair since 2012.

FoT gained a 99-year lease from the local authority via the community transfer route in 2020.

It said its purpose is to create long term stability for the Tarlair Pool area in Macduff, Aberdeenshire, "secure its structure for the future, and work as a catalyst for social economic and environmental regeneration".

The Herald: The complex in the snow last weekThe complex in the snow last week (Image: Friends of Tarlair)

It is hoped it will help secure the permanent preservation of the A-listed structure.

FoT said it plans to reinstate the art deco features of the Tarlair Pool structures and create a "safe friendly environment, where there can be year-round access to café facilities, community education, creativity, heritage, recreation and culture".

Studio Octopi and Heritage Architecture won the tender process to restore the Tarlair Outdoor Pool Pavilion.

FoT told The Herald: "It is a triple pool lido, so pavilion, workshop, cafe, boating pool and toddler pool will be completed, and [the] cafe will be open late summer this year.

"We have started applying for funding for feasibility for final phase, that being the swimming pool.

"The lido is a much-loved community asset and has a place in the hearts of the community and others who have visited it."

The £900,000 project received its latest planning consents in November.


Popeyes to open Sauchiehall Street restaurant

A famous US fried chicken chain is to open two new restaurants and a further drive-thru in Scotland.

Popeyes said that, following the successful launch of its first Scottish restaurant in Barrhead in 2023, the brand – famed for its Chicken Sandwich it says "broke the internet" – is bringing a second restaurant to the area, opening on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street later this year.


Isle of Arran Distillery co-founder named chairman of new 'cathedral of whisky'

The company developing a £20 million “cathedral of whisky” in Inverclyde has appointed industry stalwart Paul Currie, co-founder of the Isle of Arran Distillery as its new chairman.

Mr Currie joins an increasingly experienced team at Ardgowan Distillery Company, which is being assembled as it prepares to launch its new distillery by the end of the year. With 30 years’ industry experience Mr Currie, who also co-founded The Lakes Distillery in Cumbria, was heralded by Ardgowan with bringing an “extensive” understanding of the sector to the emerging distillery.