The National Trust for Scotland has set out proposals for a new visitor centre at The Hill House in Helensburgh, progressing its strategy to secure the long-term future of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's internationally significant home as conservation work moves towards removing the award-winning protective Box.

The initiative sits within Mackintosh Illuminated, the conservation charity's programme to conserve, celebrate and share the legacies of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. Made possible with support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the programme brings together major conservation activity with new visitor experiences, research, storytelling, learning, community engagement and digital innovation, centred on The Hill House and The Mackintosh Tearooms in Glasgow.

Later this month, Scottish-based specialist conservation architects LDN will lodge a planning application with Argyll and Bute Council for a purpose-built visitor centre at the site. The proposed building would include new engagement and interpretation spaces alongside a cafe and shop, improving access and the experience for the 32,000 visitors welcomed each year.

Completed in 2019, the acclaimed Hill House Box has shielded the property from the weather while allowing the structure to dry and enabling vital conservation research. As work advances towards its removal, the new centre would provide permanent visitor facilities set away from the house itself.

-- Advertisement --

The centre is earmarked for an area of low-grade land to the rear of the property that currently serves as a car park. The site has been assessed by the Trust's Head of Nature Conservation, with no significant trees expected to be displaced and any affected vegetation limited to scrub and brush.

The scheme is intended to improve how visitors arrive at and experience The Hill House, offering a fully accessible space and strengthening the property's contribution to Helensburgh's wider visitor offer.

The announcement follows the successful removal earlier this year of the house's original Portland cement roughcast after five and a half months of specialist work. The newly exposed walls are now being studied and tested to inform the next phase of conservation.

Liz Davidson, Project Director for Mackintosh Illuminated at the National Trust for Scotland, said: "The Hill House was designed as a complete work of architecture, where the building, interiors and landscape were conceived in relation to one another. Our long-term ambition is to conserve the house so that the Box can be removed, and Mackintosh's architecture can once again be understood in that setting.

"The proposed visitor centre is an important part of achieving that. By locating the facilities away from the house, we can provide what a modern visitor attraction needs and protect the architectural integrity and allowing The Hill House itself to once again define this part of the Helensburgh skyline."

Working with partners and communities, Mackintosh Illuminated will develop new opportunities for people locally and internationally to engage with the work and legacy of Mackintosh and Macdonald, including in the lead-up to the centenary of Mackintosh's death in 2028.

Mackintosh Illuminated is one of Scotland's most ambitious heritage conservation projects, with an overall cost of about £20 million. The National Lottery Heritage Fund, alongside support from individual donors and partners, is helping the Trust progress the programme, including an anonymous private donation of £625,000 announced in June.