trathpeffer Spa Pavilion opened in 1881 – a typically ambitious and eccentric product of Victorian opulence. Since when the status of events at this beautiful building have consistently dwarfed the tiny, picturesque village in which it stands. Lying 18 miles north of Inverness, Strathpeffer was an agricultural hamlet serving Castle Leod on the Cromartie Estate until, in the early 1800s, strong smelling sulphur springs were discovered in the underlying rocks.

The efficacy of the foul-smelling water met a ready recognition by the Victorian medical fraternity who were quick to recommend the effects of daily infusions and even total submersion on the health of those who were sick or simply wanted to be rejuvenated. By 1819 a pump room had been built, with a hospital and hotel following soon after. Strathpeffer began to transform itself. A confidante of Queen Victoria, The Countess of Cromartie did much to promulgate the benefits of her Highland spa business among the fashion-conscious classes of a fast-industrialising country. But how could her therapeutic centre compete with the social excitement that spas at Bath and Leamington were offering? By 1880 Ross-shire architect William Cumming Joass was commissioned by the Countess to design a building that would act as a social focus in the booming health resort. She insisted it should be based on the casino at Baden Baden, in Germany, which in turn has been influenced by the upper part of the Festspielhaus opera house in Bayreuth. To the wonder of the surrounding populace, still ploughing with horses and struggling on a largely subsistence income, the new pavilion, 154 feet long, offered a gargantuan hall, refreshment rooms and a billiard table in the gallery. It included a 10ft veranda around it for promenading during wet weather and a reading room with the latest daily and illustrated papers. It sat resplendent above a pleasure garden and the upper pump room, and cost a total of £2,769.

The pavilion blazed with activity day and night, with concerts, lectures and other special events. George Bernard Shaw performed there and lectures were given by Ernest Shackleton and Emily Pankhurst. A piper played in the grounds each morning and the close of the season was celebrated with a grand ball. By 1907 the pavilion had become a sufficiently valuable asset for the second Countess to sell the rights to the wells, baths, gardens and pavilion to the London-based Strathpeffer Spa Syndicate. Under a more entrepreneurial stewardship the gardens were fenced off and admission charges levied. Boarding houses in the by now grandiose villas were full every summer, and the village was enthusiastically planted with all manner of progressive tree species, particularly the monkey puzzles which so intrigued the Victorians. However, the gaiety of the pavilion, along with that whole British social period was extinguished forever with the onset of World War I.

The frivolity of the grand hall’s purpose was replaced by a new medical role as the pavilion became a makeshift hospital and casualties from the American Navy lay in serried ranks of beds. By the 1920s the pavilion had rallied its entertainment focus and all through World War II it remained open even as the surrounding Victorians villas were pressed into service for Forces’ accommodation. The austere years following 1945 provided little appetite for indulgent spa treatments, though, and the Lower Pump Room fell into disrepair. However in the 1950s an entrepreneur called Harry McGhee spotted the potential of Strathpeffer to become a holiday centre. He bought the pavilion, the gardens and upper pump room and the village’s two biggest hotels, the Ben Wyvis and the Highland, and began bussing tourists up from the south in great numbers. On April 1 1960, a refurbished pavilion was opened with bars, a tea room and ballroom. Through the 60s and 70s holiday-makers enjoyed its popular Highland cabaret nights through the week and on Friday and Saturdays dance-goers flocked to Strathpeffer in their hundreds to attend what had become the premier entertainment venue in the north.

The Bay City Rollers, the Fortunes, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, and the Tremeloes were among hosts of top names which routinely packed in over 1000 revellers a night. The highly polished wooden floors were once more tested to the limit as patrons jived and moshed across the hall and many a lasting marriage was forged from a first dance in the pavilion. But as entertainment trends shifted into the 70s the music and lights once again faded under the pavilion’s arching rafters. Consigned to a ‘pending’ tray, 25 years of dilapidation followed, with the splendid building ending the millennium a crippled shadow of its former glory. A peeling and splintered ruin to the eye, it represented much more to those who held its history dear.

For around 10 years the local community, backed by several public agencies, sought to have it restored, eventually winning more that £2m of heritage lottery funding to complete the job in 2004. With an indomitable, almost human spirit, the pavilion is back in action and, once more, able to draw international names to this extraordinary little village. The Proclaimers, Scottish Opera and, this summer, top rock band The Kaiser Chiefs have all played to a packed pavilion since its restoration, with Kenny Ball due to return this autumn – over 40 years since his debut there.

Now run by a charitable board with a committed staff and fielding a top class restaurant, the pavilion is alive again with conversation and music as concerts, weddings and conferences fill the programme. Board vice-chairman Kit Bowen explained: ‘Strathpeffer’s incredible history is still here for all to see. It’s a small village full of extraordinary Victorian architecture. The upper pump room is open for summer visitors to see exactly what Strathpeffer was like as a spa attraction over a century ago, and the gardens have been restored. ‘The celebrations and sadnesses of so many events and the footfall of so many thousands of people have given the pavilion a marvellous quality that money can’t buy and makes it a magical entertainment or conference venue. Vitally it remains a great asset to the community and to the heritage of the Highlands.’

For further information on Strathpeffer Spa Pavilion, log onto www.strathpefferpavilion.org