Community Hub
FINALLY OPEN!
In the Community, for the Community.
Community Hub Update
- March 2026
The Hub is finally open!
After a few unplanned delays...we are finally moved in and starting to increase our impact on the local community!
What better way to open the new facility than with ICT and Scotland legend, Ryan Christie, who once played on these very pitches at ICT hotshots many years ago!
It was a great day with so many young players getting to meet a Scottish internationalist and certainly a start of things to come!
Update - November 2025
Community Hub Update
- April 2025
The Drainage work is finished.
Building Application has been granted.
We are in the final push to raise the last monies required to complete phase 2 of the project having successfully fully funded phase 1.
Phase 2 of the project will restore existing toilet facilities and create a new building on the site which we have secured planning permission for. The building will provide changing rooms, teaching/learning space and office space. This would allow maximum usage of the site, ensuring it continues to be accessible to the proposed user groups long after the initial work and investment is completed.
New facilities will use sustainable materials and include provision such as solar panels, with additional battery provision and other environmentally friendly aspects wherever possible.
Community Hub Update – February 2024
The most ambitious project undertaken by the ICT Community Development Team is the proposed creation of a community sporting hub at Inverness Royal Academy Playing Fields.
We have been granted a 25-year lease of the 10-acre grassed site near Rollerbowl and Inverness Gaelic Primary and in the first phase of redevelopment we have attracted funding of £183,000 to carry out major drainage and groundworks to remove flooding which has significantly reduced its use in recent years.
Recently, we lodged a planning application with The Highland Council seeking permission to proceed with phase two of the project. Estimated to cost a further £750,000, the second phase would see toilets upgraded and new office and changing rooms provided. It is intended that my Community Development Team, who will manage the facility, will be based on-site moving from our current base at Caledonian Stadium.
The facility will also feature a seasonal grass athletics running track, long jump, shot putt and javelin area for use by Inverness Royal Academy pupils.
From the base, the team will support the ICT Football Memories Project and the Kick Off Your Career initiative. Breakfast and after-school clubs will support working parents at targeted schools.
There is also a commitment to support ICTFC Women and Girls section, who have 170 registered girls and women to play on a grass pitch.
Two additional staff will be employed to support the upkeep of the facility and work experience/vocational training in football coaching and grounds maintenance will be provided.
The project recognises the chronic lack of facilities in the city, with limited grass pitches available for use. Delivery will enable us to provide a wide range of benefits in one place and make a lasting difference in the community we serve, using football as the catalyst to inspire participation in activities both football and non-football related.
The site is big enough to house 4 full-size pitches opening up opportunities for a wide section of the community to access grass football and athletics areas.
The SFA have supported the first phase of the project with funding of £157,000 and we are hopeful they will also support our second phase. Sport Scotland have also committed £100,000 to the second phase.
We are busy identifying other sources of funding to ensure we can realise our goal of providing our city with a first class community asset.
Craig Masterton, Community Development Manager, ICT Community Trust
£1.5 million Community Hub Project under way at Inverness
Work is well underway to regenerate a disused playing field in the heart of Inverness to provide a wide range of community groups with a major grassed area for football and athletics.
Behind the project at the Inverness Royal Academy Playing Fields are Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Community Development Trust, who have secured a 25-year lease from The Highland Council and attracted funding of more than £1,500,000 for the creation of a Community Hub.
In a first phase of work, costing £230,000, the Trust has commissioned consultants, Greentech, to re-seed and drain the 10-acre facility, bringing it back into life after years of under-use due to poor drainage and consequent flooding.
In a second phase costing £1,280,000, IBI Joinery have been awarded a 20-week construction contract to build changing rooms, a classroom and offices, which will be the new home of the 16-strong ICT Community Development Team.
Work on both phases of work are underway and It is hoped that the facilities will be available for use by the end of this year. When operational, the Trust intend to engage another five staff, create volunteering opportunities for 50 folk and generate income of £220,000 per year from the hire of the facilities.
Among those groups who will be using the Hub will be the Trust’s Walking Footballers and Para Footballers along with young boys and girls who attend the Trust’s holiday programmes and the SFA/McDonald’s Saturday soccer festivals. Pupils of Inverness Royal Academy will have access to the facility for school sports activities.
Inverness Athletic and the ICT Women’s team are earmarked to play their home games on the proposed new Hub show pitch.
'A catalyst to inspire participation'
Our exciting new Community Hub project – ICT Community Trust’s primary objective is to promote and improve the physical and mental health of both young and old through activity. For the past 19 years we have been successfully delivering this through the provision of after-school and summer football clubs for girls and boys, para football, walking football and football memories sessions, however our plans for extending delivery are constrained by the lack of outdoor facilities and teaching space. We have been working with The Highland Council and Inverness Royal Academy for the past 18 months on an ambitious project to bring the playing fields adjacent to the school back into useable condition and to build new office facilities and changing rooms.
The overall project will renovate the grass area adjacent to Inverness Royal Academy, for which we have been awarded a 25 year lease, putting in a new comprehensive drainage system in the whole field to enable the whole area to be usable once more. The grass area, which measures just under 10 acres (8 acres with potential for sports pitches), is largely unusable due to historic flooding. Inverness has a chronic lack of facilities of this kind (and in this location) and this area is big enough to house 4 full size pitches allowing a wide section of the community to access a grass football and athletics areas. The project also aims to restore the toilet facilities and add a new modular building on the site that would host changing rooms and offices. The addition of a teaching space would allow maximum usage of the site ensuring it continues to be accessible to the proposed user groups long after the initial work and investment is completed, providing much-needed, longer-term facilities for local communities.
"Our project is unique in the local area and will be able to provide a wide range of benefits in one place where we can provide maximum impact for the area and make a lasting impact in the community we serve using football as the catalyst to inspire participation in activities both football and non-football related."
