Risk List

Archaeolink Prehistory Park, Aberdeenshire

Status: At risk

Cullinan Studio, 1994-97
Risk: Dereliction

After receiving £4 million of funding from Aberdeenshire Council, Grampian Enterprise and Scottish National Heritage, the Archaeolink Prehistory Park opened in 1997 with a vision to open up northeast Scotland’s ancient archaeological heritage to the public, by creating an educational tourist attraction.
Cullinan Studio created a visitor centre of grass and glass, located in a beautiful and historically significant area boasting seven Iron Age forts set on conical hills, with a backdrop of the Bennachie Ridge whose silhouette was held in Pictish legend to be a sleeping giant.

The building melds seamlessly into its rural environment, set within incisions in the ground so that the landscape seemed to roll over it. A grass roof rising like one of the conical hills that surrounds the centre, and the land is ‘folded’ to form a sheltered courtyard and valley entrance. Pedestrian approaches to the site align with sacred landscape features and landmarks, an approach developed at the Studio’s Fountains Abbey Visitor Centre project. Energy efficiency was a high priority, achieving a steady temperature state by careful design. It required minimal heating in winter months, taking advantage of the large thermal mass of surrounding earth, while in the summer months the solar heat gain via the glass walls was regulated by automatically-controlled blue fabric shades.

In April 2011 the park shut its doors when Aberdeenshire Council withdrew funding, with low visitor numbers making it unviable as a visitor attraction. After more than a decade of abandonment, the Council sold the overgrown site to local developers in 2024. With a large part of the landscaped park earmarked for housing, the empty visitor centre building alone is now back on the market for just £150,000. If an entrepreneurial new owner or operator can be found, there’s ample opportunity to reinvent Archaeolink as a farm-shop, restaurant, café, or brewery.

How to help

Write to Aberdeenshire Council Planning and Conservation team to voice your support for the building: planningonline@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

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