The Crannog at Drumpellier Country Park
The Heritage Lottery provided £4.5 million worth of funding to develop the Seven Lochs Wetland Park. As a result, Drumpellier Country Park was part of this plan to become a gateway to the Seven Lochs. The site was also part of the plans to become a hub for heritage conservation, learning and engagement.
Jupiter Play was awarded the design of the bespoke Crannog and supporting equipment for the Drumpellier Country Park development. Jupiter consulted CultureNL to create a strategy which provides a new destination site and enhanced play provision for Scotland.
The Crannog play design from Jupiter was developed as a result of vast research and a detailed brief from CultureNL into traditional styles of Crannogs throughout Scotland and in particular that of the Crannog discovered within Lochend Loch. Our findings from this research and our experience in creating bespoke play systems enabled us to create a truly stunning and historically fitting play system for Drumpellier Country Park.
The Design for Drumpellier Country Park
Many people have not had the opportunity to ‘get up close’ to a Crannog and learn about the historical significance, with the Jupiter Play Crannog design you can! Through the inclusion of creative landscape design, stunning views and interaction with recreated aesthetics users can engage with their local environment and immerse themselves into the fascinating history of their surroundings.
The design team maximised the play opportunities across the unit whilst maintaining the historic structure of a Crannog. The designers also had to consider how they would incorporate educational value. Children are now able to play, discover, experience risk and challenge whilst learning about the heritage of the site.
The Result for Drumpellier Country Park
With the combined expertise of Jupiter Play and Inclusive Play we have created a fully accessible play unit which has passed the PIPA assessment. Combining the Crannog design with the existing hard standing path networks ensure the entire unit can accommodate wheelchair usage. The main entrance walkway, platforms, inner ‘roundhouse’ and underneath the entire structure are also fully accessible.
The main entrance walkway is 1.52m wide x 8m long with 1m high side barriers. We have incorporated an impressive 4.4m high feature entrance archway for climber planting. Both the walkway and upper Crannog structure elevate in the air by 2.45m. Furthermore this leads into the main platform the upper deck; from here users can choose how to engage with the play on the upper deck experience. The finished result reaches 6.5m tall. As a result of the combined investment into public facilities at Drumpellier this will create a destination site for all.
