Archaeolink one of three Millennium-era buildings on C20’s Risk List
Cullinan Studio’s pioneering energy-efficient visitor centre for the Archaeolink Prehistory Park in Aberdeenshire opened in 1997, but has been closed to the public since April 2011. It is now one of ten buildings on the Twentieth Century Society’s (C20) Risk List for 2025.
C20 (a national charity and guardians of Britain’s modern architecture design heritage) launched their Risk List 2025 this month to highlight outstanding 20th and 21st century buildings across the country that are at risk from demolition, dereliction, or neglect.
For the first time, the Risk List includes three Millennium-era buildings, including Archaeolink. C20 says in their campaign:
“Some 25 years after the turn of the new millennium and 30 years since the creation of the National Lottery, which provided funding for so many of these architecturally ambitious projects, their physical legacy is now increasingly vulnerable and bold new uses are required to ensure their continued survival.”
Archaeolink shortly after opening in 1997 (photo: David Churchill), and Archaeolink in 2019 (photo: Sean Begley).
After receiving £4 million of funding from Aberdeenshire Council, Grampian Enterprise and Scottish National Heritage, the Archaeolink Prehistory Park opened in 1997 with a vision to open up northeast Scotland’s ancient archaeological heritage to the public, by creating an educational tourist attraction.
We created a visitor centre of grass and glass, located in a beautiful and historically significant area boasting seven Iron Age forts set on conical hills, with a backdrop of the Bennachie Ridge whose silhouette was held in Pictish legend to be a sleeping giant.
Archaeolink shortly after its opening in 1997 (photo: David Churchill).
Archaeolink in 2019 (photo: Sean Begley).
The building melds seamlessly into its rural environment, set within incisions in the ground so that the landscape seemed to roll over it. A grass roof rising like one of the conical hills that surrounds the centre, and the land is ‘folded’ to form a sheltered courtyard and valley entrance. Pedestrian approaches to the site align with sacred landscape features and landmarks, an approach developed at our Fountains Abbey Visitor Centre project.
Archaeolink was a radically different kind of building: conceptually, visually, and in its innovative approach to energy conservation through its passive design. It required minimal heating in winter months, taking advantage of the large thermal mass of surrounding earth, while in the summer months the solar heat gain via the glass walls was regulated by automatically-controlled blue fabric shades.
In April 2011 the park shut its doors when Aberdeenshire Council withdrew funding, with low visitor numbers making it unviable as a visitor attraction. After more than a decade of abandonment, the Council sold the overgrown site to local developers in 2024. With a large part of the landscaped park earmarked for housing, the empty visitor centre building alone is now back on the market for just £150,000. If an entrepreneurial new owner or operator can be found, there’s ample opportunity to reinvent Archaeolink as a farm-shop, restaurant, café, or brewery.
Roddy Langmuir, who led Cullinan Studio’s design of the visitor centre, said:
“Woven into the rolling landscape, we designed and built Archaeolink in the late 90’s in concrete, grass, and glass, while sketching a similar earth sheltered visitor centre for Stonehenge. For many years it was used by local schools to bring alive the remarkable prehistory of their region. Now it needs to be reimagined once more, and I'm really hoping this campaign by the 20th Century society will lead to its creative reuse.”
C20 Direct Catherine Croft said:
“The three Millennial projects highlighted may feel very young to be recognised as heritage, but they’re now a quarter of century old and the product of an era where unprecedented public funding delivered some ambitious and extraordinary projects. They are simply too good to lose. Some of the businesses and organisations behind them may have failed, but we’re left with an architectural legacy capable of inspiring and energising new uses, that make our towns, cities and landscapes richer and more interesting places to live.”
The Risk List encourages members of the public to get involved, with specific actions to help save each building. More information on how to help with Archaeolink can be found on the Risk List web page.