Moxon Architects has renovated Scotland’s first dedicated mountain rescue base in the Cairngorms National Park, extending and refurbishing the facility to create a robust operational hub that improves welfare, training and emergency response while respecting the character of its rural surroundings.

Braemar Mountain Rescue Centre and Team (photo: Ben Addy).

Photos
Ben Addy / Moxon Architects

Moxon Architects has completed the extension and comprehensive refurbishment of the Braemar Mountain Rescue Centre in the Cairngorms National Park. Occupying a secluded woodland site on the edge of Braemar village, the project modernises Scotland’s first purpose-built mountain rescue base, creating a facility shared by the Braemar Mountain Rescue Team and Police Scotland. The intervention unifies a traditional granite former fire station with adjacent outbuildings and a new upper-level extension, bringing together a collection of disparate structures as a single operational headquarters.

Established in 1965, the Braemar Mountain Rescue Team has supported rescues across the Cairngorms, Lochnagar, Glenshee and Deeside for more than six decades. Since relocating to the former fire station in 1973, the volunteer-led organisation has steadily outgrown a building originally designed around a small vehicle garage, storage space and basic overnight accommodation. The latest redevelopment responds to changing operational demands while recognising the increasingly close working relationship between the rescue team and Police Scotland, which now occupies the building as its permanent Braemar police office.

The design retains the existing granite buildings while introducing a new 1.5-storey extension wrapped in black corrugated galvanised steel. The simplified composition replaces a complex collection of roofs with a single shallow-pitched form that references the agricultural buildings common across rural Aberdeenshire. The restrained material palette allows the extension to sit comfortably alongside the original stone structures while helping the enlarged building recede into its woodland surroundings.

Designed to accommodate growing visitor numbers across the Highlands, the expanded centre provides significantly improved operational facilities. A reconfigured ground floor introduces a new entrance sequence, upgraded changing accommodation, an accessible WC and dedicated female shower and changing facilities, creating a more inclusive environment for volunteers. New storage areas improve access to specialist rescue equipment and vehicles, while enhanced training facilities include a double-height rope access space and flexible rooms capable of supporting meetings, instruction and operational planning.

On the upper floor, internal layouts have been reorganised to improve both efficiency and welfare. A larger control room now overlooks the central courtyard, with an expanded avalanche incident management room positioned to the rear. Volunteer accommodation has also been upgraded, providing more generous bunk spaces capable of supporting extended deployments during increasingly demanding rescue operations.

Practicality and resilience underpin every aspect of the scheme. A highly insulated building envelope improves thermal performance, while low-water sanitary fittings reduce operational water consumption. Biodiversity measures, including integrated bat roosting boxes, have also been incorporated, reflecting the building’s location within the sensitive landscape of the Cairngorms National Park.

Although conceived primarily as an emergency services facility, the centre continues to serve a wider public role. Alongside mountain rescue operations, the team regularly assists the NHS, supports searches for missing people and responds to severe weather incidents, including flooding and heavy snowfall. The redevelopment ensures the building can continue to support these varied responsibilities while providing improved facilities for the volunteers whose expertise underpins rescue operations throughout the region.

The project was shaped through close collaboration between Moxon Architects, the Braemar Mountain Rescue Association and Police Scotland. For founding director Ben Addy, himself a member of the rescue team, the design was informed by first-hand experience of the practical challenges volunteers face during emergency call-outs. The result is a building that strengthens operational readiness while improving comfort, inclusivity and long-term resilience, ensuring that one of Scotland’s most important mountain rescue facilities is equipped to serve future generations.

“Our ambition was to create a cost-effective, flexible and robust rescue centre that supports the team, improving welfare, inclusivity and the operational efficiency of rescue missions, in turn keeping people in the mountains safer,” said Ben Addy, founding director of Moxon Architects. “We worked closely with Police Scotland and the Braemar Mountain Rescue Team to deliver this, and being part of the team myself has allowed us to design in response to first-hand pressures that volunteers face when responding to callouts in challenging conditions.”

Malcolm MacIntyre, operations manager of Braemar Mountain Rescue Association, added: “Our primary aim in refurbishing the centre was to provide facilities that would support the team over the upcoming years as membership, training needs and the nature of call-outs changes. The Moxon team and their contractors have absolutely delivered on this and we now have premises that allow us to train for and respond to the wide range of incidents we are increasingly asked to respond to. The real strength of mountain rescue in Scotland is its volunteers who will unquestioningly turn out to help others in difficulty; and they do this against an increasingly complex and demanding world, balancing other aspects of their own lives and the need for up to date and professional training to keep themselves and others safe. The centre refurbishment allows them to continue the long and respected tradition of volunteer mountain rescue into whatever the future holds for them and those they rescue.”

Credits

More pictures