A rural Moray community aims to use a grant from a wind farm to attract people back to the area.
Residents of Finderne, near Forres, feared their home was becoming a wilderness due to generations of children leaving the area.
Now locals have set up a development trust to fund projects to promote tourism in the region to support new jobs.
Brian Higgs, chairman of Finderne Community Council, revealed initiatives already under consideration are small business units, cycling facilities and bunk houses for walkers on the Dava Way to Grantown.
He said: “We really want to promote economic development. We are a rural area and there’s not a lot of employment going about.
“Kids tend to leave to go off to college and never come back because there’s no jobs for them here.
“If we can help create 10 or 20 jobs over the next few years then it will help to start to rebuild the community.”
The Finderne Development Trust will receive £138,000 per year from the Hill of Glaschyle wind farm, which has 12 turbines, for the next 25 years.
The community council, which covers Rafford, Logie and Dunphail, has already held a consultation exercise with residents in Edinkillie in order to shape projects that will be funded by the new group.
The trust is currently drawing up a plan for its five years in operation and intends to use the funding to lever more money from other sources.
Alec Laing, manager of Logie Estate, believes the scheme has “exciting” potential.
He said: “The aim is to create long-term legacy projects, some of which will be income generating and self-sustaining.
“The proceeds of these projects will then flow back into the trust to fund further development in the community.
“People living in Finderne will be key in the process of bringing forward projects and prioritising them.”
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