We are delighted to share that ‘The Gatherings’ is available for bookings! Get in touch to secure your slot!

Please contact the committee on gatherings@nccbc.org.uk 

For many years, this building – then known as ‘Maybole Charity Shop’ – operated as an essential resource for local community groups to fundraise, with a different group taking the shop each week. Gradually, the building fell further and further into disrepair with flood damage from the flat above, and was at risk of collapse. After structural assessments the shop was forced to close until essential repairs were made. NCCBC saw an opportunity, and purchased the charity shop in 2021, securing funding to match the NCCBC contribution (Made possible by ScottishPower Renewables) via the Scottish Land Fund and the Regenerational Capital Grants Fund, through the Scottish Government. Thanks go to all of the subsequent funders, and Maybole Regeneration Project, who helped facilitate the complete refurbishment of the shop and the flat above, making it all safe for use again.

After a very long and slow start to the refurbishment of the building, NCCBC are pleased to say that the shop is now fully renovated and back into community use!

The former committee, now operating the shop in School Vennel, have decided to stay where they are, so NCCBC have established a new group to operate this shop in a complementary way!

Our survey told us that this should not operate solely as another charity shop, but as a flexible community space that’s useful for things like exhibitions and workshops as well as retail. Groups will be able to book the shop for a variety of purposes, including fundraising!

The new name, ‘the Gatherings’ is a nod to the buildings history as a haberdashery, and our aspirations that it will continue to be a place where both people and things gather together.

The shop is available to book at the rate of £115 per week, including a small discount/subsidy to ensure affordability for community groups; which was a condition of the shop’s funding.

Please contact gatherings@nccbc.org.uk with any enquiries and to have a booking form sent over to you!

Press Release from The Kings Foundation Building Arts Programme

May-bowled over by Dumfries House craft students’ high street shop transformation

It is best-known in industrial history as the home of tackety boots and textiles, but Maybole in Carrick, South Ayrshire – specifically, No.44 High Street – is now proud host to the latest “live build” project by talented students of a renowned craft training programme based at nearby Dumfries House.

Craftspeople from around the UK and as far afield as Japan enrolled in the Building Arts Programme this year, an eight-month course delivered through a collaboration between The King’s Foundation and QEST. They worked to transform a former community space by utilising skills in woodwork, glass-blowing, textiles, wallpaper production with natural pigment, cabinetmaking and tiling using the Nerikomi technique.

Claire Bryan is an Assistant Manager at North Carrick Community Benefit Company (NCCBC), who own the shop. They distribute community benefit funding from ScottishPower Renewables’ nearby Dersalloch Wind Farm, and manage all kinds of community development projects across the local area. Claire told us: “NCCBC has saved the shop from collapse and restored the building to a point where it formed a blank canvas for the students to turn into a flexible space for retail, exhibitions, workshops, and much more.

“The students have done an excellent job of incorporating the identity of the town into their designs. It will feel like more of a destination with these features and people excited to see them up close. Maybole has a strong sense of self and, with all the projects happening as part of the town’s regeneration, the history and social history of the area is important to people.

“I couldn’t be happier with what they’ve done – it’s all we could have dreamed of and more and there’s no element that I don’t like. I am so pleased that The King’s Foundation and QEST chose The Gatherings [the new name for the shop] as their project for this year. NCCBC would like to extend a huge thank you to all of the students for the fabulous work they have done here.”

Michael Goodger, built environment education manager at The King’s Foundation, said: “We saw an opportunity to create something tangible and lasting. The students have responded to the fabric of an existing building at the heart of the high street and in doing so have been able to showcase their craft skills to a wide audience, creating a special new space that will be well looked-after.

“I hope The Gatherings inspires people to see the potential of traditional craft skills, and evokes a sense of pride and nostalgia in the town.

“It’s part of a bigger regeneration project in Maybole, where a lot of money has been invested in the high street and the castle and it is a nice example of what you can do with the care and attention of craft skills to make a bespoke space.”

Student Duncan Tattersall, a textile designer and printer from Biggar in South Lanarkshire, used clay from Dumfries House estate to define a Maybole streetscape in a repeat-pattern wallpaper that adorns the upper walls between a picture rail and the shop’s ceiling. The bulk of his printmaking work took place in the studio at Coachford Cottage on the estate near Cumnock.

“I felt it would be nice to have a direct visual reference in the shop to the wider town,” explained Duncan, 32. “Because this shop is part of a wider drive to regenerate the high street, it made sense. It’s been good to work with a space that you know will have a valuable end use and it’s been nice to collaborate with other students, too, bringing a group vision together.”

Rachael Cocker, a 31-year-old pattern design, ceramics, and illustration specialist from Norfolk and graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, was responsible for two columns of interior tiles depicting local flora and fauna that flank the large shopfront windows. “I felt the course would give me space to learn and develop,” she said. “I love creating imagery and pattern, and I felt really excited about applying my designs to architectural space, working at scale and on projects like this that are more permanent. I feel we’ve created an uplifting space that will hopefully give people a sense of pride in their home town and its surrounding landscape. We’ve incorporated the town’s past in industry but also given a nod to the future and the importance of conserving the natural wildlife and landscape.”

Saki Maruyama, from Tokyo and based in London, enrolled on the course as an antidote to artificial intelligence emerging as a popular form of creation of digital installations. “I’ve loved working with lots of different materials when producing installations for museums and didn’t want to lose the tangible aspect of my practice.” She created leaded glass windows as an upper border to the shopfront, using textured glass to soften the light, and fashioning glass pulleys for blinds by blowing glass in the craft workshop at Dumfries House.

Textiles specialist Jess Gasson, 28, from London, currently studying a PhD in Historic Textiles at Courtauld, created two sunset-coloured blinds and patterned fabric to be incorporated into a counter.”