After nearly 5 years, since 16th April 2015, we finally have proper premises for the Banchory Men’s Shed.  It was all going to be so easy, but more on that another time.

Completion of the build on 7th February left us with a social area echoing to the sound of a concrete floor, but only 2 weeks later, on Monday 24th February, we had ourselves a carpet too, with walls all painted between-times by a bunch of Shedders.

We can now set about laying out the Workshop room as a workshop rather than for rather cramped dual purposes, and can look at what we need in the social area too. Whilst opening times will remain for the moment at 10:30-12:00 every Tuesday, it may not be long before we start opening up at other times.

A big event on the horizon is an Official Opening which will be on

Tuesday 19th May 2020 at 10:30 a.m.

Full details in due course.

At this point we would like to thank again everyone involved in bringing our Shed to fruition, with key external parties being Gerry and Adam Robb of Gerry Robb Architectural Services, Bruce McCombie and his crew, Duncans of Banchory, and of course Craig, Alastair and co. in the Banchory Legion, not forgetting Susie for the refreshments which kept us going!  Too many thanks to list Shed members, but you know who you are.

Our membership has been growing steadily since we opened the Phase 1 Workshop and now we have full premises we expect further growth.

In financial terms, we managed to bring in the Banchory Men’s Shed for a total of around £76,000 all-in (Phases 1 and 2), compared to a first estimate back in 2015 of upwards of £120,000 plus the VAT.  This is a creditable performance by all concerned.  Nevertheless, we did run into some issues, notably finding a granite formation protruding into where the floor needed to be, needing some significant rock-breaking by Bruce’s team, and hence we went over even our budget contingency.  We have consumed all grant monies and our bank reserves and are now of the order of £2,000 short once all invoices are in.  If you would like to help, please see our Funding page.  Many thanks.