Harlaw House,

Pentland Hills Regional Park

Balerno Village Trust appointed SFA to help identify the extent of community support for the idea of the community taking over management and operation of this former waterman’s house.

A well-known but under-used visitor facility at one of the Pentland Hills most popular entrance points, Harlaw House was originally built in the 19th century as accommodation for staff looking after Harlaw and Threipmuir reservoirs.

The idea of taking on Harlaw House was identified as a priority in nearby Balerno’s community planning exercise in 2017.

Our role included helping Balerno Village Trust engage with visitors to the Pentlands and coordinate communications with the numerous stakeholders with an interest in the building. This included anglers, Friends groups, walkers, mountain bikers and City of Edinburgh Council.

Working with landscape architects Urban Pioneers our work included developing a strategic brief for the project (RIBA Stage 0) and put together some indicative sketches (RIBA Stage 1) to illustrate the potential for the building to meet visitors’ needs.