Spotlight on the RICS Scotland Awards Project of the Year 2026: John O’Groats Mill

Heading into the RICS Scotland Awards 2026, the team behind the John O’Groats Mill revitalisation project held three nominations. The £4.9m refurbishment, completed in May 2025, had been recognised in the Heritage, Community Benefit and Refurbishment/Revitalisation categories.

By the end of the event, John O’Groats Mill had claimed the Project of the Year award, taken the top spot in the Refurbishment/Revitalisation category, and been named highly commended as a heritage project.

Refurbishment and revitalisation

John O'Groats Mill ceased operations in 2001, the last of the great Caithness grain mills to fall silent. For two decades it deteriorated: water ingress damaged roof timbers, and the cast-iron machinery corroded without maintenance. The site appeared on the Buildings at Risk register, and there it stayed for two decades. Without intervention, the building faced irreversible decline.

The major challenge in the mill’s refurbishment and revitalisation was to find a use compelling enough to sustain a Category B-listed building in one of Britain's most remote communities and to deliver that use in a way that preserved the building's heritage character. A vision for a working mill, heritage centre and community hub was set forward and developed by the community-owned John O’Groats Mill Trust.

In the years that followed, structural consolidation and full repair of the listed rubble shell, kiln, lade systems and historic machinery returned the building to working order. A single-storey extension sunk into the adjacent hillside with a sedum green roof provides modern visitor facilities. A platform lift and fire-rated glazed staircases deliver step-free access to all three floor levels.

Innovation through architectural uncoupling

The project's defining technical innovation was ‘architectural uncoupling’: rather than inserting modern functions into the historic mill and sacrificing parts of the historic building, accessible WCs, a plant room and a flexible community and education space were accommodated in a wholly separate extension, sunk into the landscape to the north. The extension absorbed modern demands, while the mill was largely undisturbed. The sedum roof merges visually with the hillside, and the mill's silhouette from the south remains unchanged. A new pedestrian bridge acts as the portico for visitors on the coastal path.

Brought back to life using professional, ethical, sustainable and collaborative practices, the project is now a well-used community and tourism landmark. Since opening, it has operated six days a week through its opening season, hosting milling demonstrations, exhibitions, music events, film screenings, author talks, agricultural heritage events, school programmes and community gatherings.

The team behind the success

Congratulations to all involved, in particular McGregor Bowes, lead consultant, architect and principal designer, responsible for submitting the Awards entry.

The project team also included Torrance Partnership LLP (quantity surveyors: Mark Stevenson MRICS; Graeme Lyon MRICS); Narro Associates (structural and civil engineers); Rybka (mechanical and electrical engineers); AOC Scotland (archaeological fabric surveys and significance assessment); O'Brien Construction Ltd (principal contractor, Caithness).