What We Do

Our vision: Coigach will be a thriving community where the school roll is rising. We are building a more diverse, more sustainable economy.

Our mission: Our mission is to work with the community to deliver projects which benefit the community.

We have two community sources of funds from green energy production, from our 500kW wind turbine and from a profit-share in the 500kW Achvraie Burn hydro-electric scheme. The profits from these two schemes are gift aided to CCDC enabling us to undertake projects, provide money for our Community Fund grants available to local groups and individuals living in the area, and employ two part-time Development Officers.

A few examples of our achievements so far…

CCDC facilitated the Community Asset Transfer of Achiltibuie’s former Schoolhouse and, with the help of the Communities’ Housing Trust, converted the building into two affordable flats to rent. We also facilitated the community buyout of the former smokehouse building in Altandhu, which served for several years as the shore base for Scottish Sea Farms and has now been sold to help fund our new housing project at Achagarry. In 2024, we were very fortunate to acquire the Badentarbat Estate, thanks to the generosity of financier Ian Wace: this will provide long-lasting benefits for the community. As of spring 2026, we have secured planning permission for 10 homes in Achiltibuie and are well on the way to gathering the funding to build them. We are running a community garden on the site of the former Achiltibuie Garden and are running a pilot community gym project. 

The Community Fund has benefitted lots of local people and community groups in different ways, funding a wide range of projects such as driving lessons, e-bike conversion kits, school equipment and personal development courses. Our Covid Crisis Fund helped support a number of families during the pandemic. Since our Community Fund started in 2018 we have given £75,000 through it for the direct benefit of the Coigach community.

We have been actively involved as partners in a number of Coigach and Assynt Living Landscape Partnership programme (CALLP) projects including pathworks and arts’ projects.

Our challenges…

Rural depopulation is a very real problem here: Coigach is a desirable place to live and house prices are high. We need affordable housing and are working hard on this: affordable, sustainable housing will encourage our young people to stay, or to come back after training, and encourage new people to settle here and contribute to our future wellbeing.

We also need improved infrastructure: faster, more reliable broadband and more office and workshop space to help encourage the development of more skilled and varied livelihoods.

We have an aging population and we need to be mindful of people’s needs: we hope to see health provision improved for everyone.

At the heart of our vision is an awareness of the fragile environment in which we live and our need to protect this and to contribute further to reducing our carbon footprint. We are working with community members on a sustainable growing project which will benefit all age groups, teaching the young about our environment and contributing to the wellbeing of us all.