The Calanais Visitor Centre is now open for preview season ahead of their official opening, welcoming visitors back to one of Scotland's most remarkable and enduring landscapes.

The new visitor centre offers enhanced exhibition spaces and improved visitor facilities, while supporting the long-term stewardship of this internationally significant site. It's an exciting new chapter for a place that has inspired curiosity for thousands of years.

We're incredibly proud that several members of the SS+A Associate team were able to contribute to the project.

One vision. Many specialisms.

Creating a great visitor experience rarely comes down to one discipline. It happens when every touchpoint works together to support the visitor journey.

Across the project, our Associates brought together expertise in visitor experience, retail, operations and commercial planning to help shape different parts of that journey.

Carly Straughan advised on ticketing and EPOS systems, helping ensure that operational processes would support both visitors and staff.

Stephen Spencer and Lauren Groves worked on the café and reception layout alongside the design brief, considering how these spaces could create a warm welcome while supporting efficient visitor flow.

Mhairi Holland and Catrina Hicks advised the in-house team in developing the retail range plan and product selection, creating a retail offer designed to feel like a natural continuation of the Calanais story. They provided ongoing retail support throughout the development phase, helping ensure that the emerging retail experience aligns with the Calanais story.

Together, this work reflects one of the principles that sits at the heart of Ambience Architecture: visitors don't experience organisations in departments, they experience one joined-up journey.

Retail as part of the experience

For us, retail is never simply about products on shelves. It's another opportunity to deepen engagement with place.

Our approach focused on helping to create a balanced and commercially successful retail offer that reflected the character of Calanais, with product themes inspired by the site's unique landscape, heritage and audiences. The range was designed in collaboration with our client to offer accessible and aspirational price points, celebrate local makers wherever possible, and create meaningful mementoes that extend the visitor experience beyond the visit itself.

By considering range planning alongside visitor flow, ambience and commercial objectives from the outset, retail becomes part of the story rather than something visitors simply encounter at the end.

Achieving viability

Projects like Calanais demonstrate that long-term viability isn't created through a single intervention. It comes from many carefully considered decisions working together.

The new visitor centre is the result of an ambitious partnership between Historic Environment Scotland and Urras Nan Tursachan, supported by significant investment from national and regional partners, all with a shared ambition to strengthen both the visitor experience and the long-term economic and cultural future of the Outer Hebrides.

We're delighted to have played a small part in that journey and wish everyone involved every success as visitors return to discover this extraordinary place.

Congratulations to the entire Calanais team on a fantastic achievement.

Case Study - Calanais Visitor Centre: Supporting one of Scotland's most remarkable visitor experiences

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