Allotments planned for PoW camp

Cultybraggan housed up to 4,000 WWII prisoners of war

A former World War II prisoner of war camp in Perthshire could be transformed into a haven for gardeners.

Up to 4,000 people were held in Cultybraggan. Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess was there for a night after parachuting into Scotland in 1941.

The camp was purchased by Comrie locals last year in a community buy-out.

They have now revealed their plans for the site, including creating 30 allotments and turning the mess hall into a base for a local catering firm.

They also want to transform nine of the Nissen huts into workshop and storage areas for local businesses.

'Green fingers'

A planning application has been submitted to Perth and Kinross Council.

The Comrie Development Trust is also putting together funding applications for improving the drainage, electricity and water supplies.

And there are plans to develop a local history project and further partnerships with commercial developers.

Alan Caldwell from the trust said: "The opportunity of Cultybraggan is that predominantly all the land in our village goes as expensive housing, so as a result there's not really a lot of land available to do other things.

"Comrie has always had a bit of green fingers and we were actually quite taken aback by the level of interest there's been in the idea of developing the allotment.

"We've got an allotment society, the 30 allotments I understand are all gone, and there's scope to make that larger in the longer term.

"There's really been quite an interest, not only from private individuals but from local organisations - we've got Comrie in Colour who want to have a polytunnel and run training and educational courses with the local primary school and with our high schools."