Sealladh Hiort St Kilda Viewpoint Strategic Development Plan, Outer Hebrides (2024-25)

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) commissioned Hall Aitken to prepare a Strategic Development Plan for Sealladh Hiort’s proposed St Kilda Viewpoint project on North Uist.

The community-led heritage and eco-tourism project formed part of the Destination Development strand of the Islands Growth Deal. Earlier appraisal and business planning had been overtaken by rising construction costs, with project costs increasing from £3.6 million to £5.6 million. Changing visitor markets, ferry disruption and a more challenging funding environment had created further uncertainty. The Board required an independent assessment of whether the operating model remained viable and what conditions would need to be met before further investment.

Hall Aitken combined strategic and business planning with options appraisal, financial modelling and risk assessment. The work considered the particular challenges of delivering a community-led visitor attraction in the Outer Hebrides, including transport connections, visitor demand, local capacity and the changing costs of development.

Approach

Evidence review and stakeholder engagement. The team reviewed the organisation’s objectives, external operating environment and the assumptions underpinning the previous plan. Evidence gathering focused on visitor demand, ferry connectivity, comparable attractions, income opportunities, operating costs, workforce capacity and funding conditions. Engagement with the Board helped the team understand its priorities and constraints.
Reflecting the local context. Island conditions shaped the analysis throughout. Ferry reliability, limited contractor availability and workforce constraints significantly affected project viability. The team therefore used conservative assumptions and recommended a phased approach aligned with local delivery capacity.
Strategic diagnosis. The team brought together the evidence to identify the key factors affecting the project’s long-term viability. This highlighted ferry reliability and achievable visitor demand as the principal drivers of success.
Options development. The team developed and tested alternative scenarios, modelling visitor numbers, pricing and income assumptions to assess financial sustainability under different operating conditions.
Facilitation and consensus building. Structured discussions with the Board helped challenge assumptions, test strategic choices and build consensus around the preferred direction.
Action planning. The final plan set out phased actions, key decision points, delivery conditions and a costed risk register, providing a practical roadmap for implementation.

Outcomes

The study found that financial viability could not yet be assured and identified the key conditions required before the project could progress, including greater confidence in demand, ferry capacity, funding and organisational capacity. It demonstrated the importance of independently challenging assumptions, treating external dependencies such as transport as core strategic risks, and linking phased investment decisions to clear evidence and milestones.