Room Hire

The Caravan Project

Operating since 1985, we are a social tourism charity that provides over 600 people every year living in Glasgow with access to affordable holidays and days out. For these families a holiday is not a luxury it is a much-needed break from the challenging circumstances they face at home – for many it will be their first ever holiday.

Our main services are:

Respite Holidays

We own four caravans situated at the Haven’s Craig Tara Holiday Park in Ayr and provide 1-week respite breaks to families living in Glasgow, living in poverty and facing challenging circumstances.

We provide everyone accessing our respite holidays with a range of additional initiatives to ensure their holiday is as affordable as possible including Free door-to-door transport, Free passes for every family member to the entertainment complex, A big bag of fruit and veg worth £10 and a discount card giving families 50% off all activities on site and 15% off all other purchases. These initiatives save our families approximately £200 each.

‘BIG DAY OUT’ Programme

We provide FREE family days out to a range of Glasgow visitor attractions for people facing challenging circumstances. This includes FREE Transport and packed lunches. This initiative is currently restricted to people living in Drumchapel, Anniesland, Knightswood and Scotstoun however we hope to roll this out over the city in 2018.

Our contact details are as follows:

Tel: 0141 258 4720

E-mail: office@caravanproject.co.uk

Twitter: @caravanproject

Facebook: @caravanproject

WEST OF SCOTLAND MINERAL AND LAPIDARY SOCIETY

The West of Scotland Mineral and Lapidary Society was formed in 1966 by a group of people who had a common interest in collecting, studying and in polishing semi-precious stones. A number had been members of the Scottish Mineral and Lapidary Club in Edinburgh who wanted to establish a similar facility in the west of Scotland.

Over the years the Society grew from the few who attended the inaugural meeting to a thriving club with a membership in the hundreds. Time had to be booked for the use of machinery, and a rigorous training regimen was in force – members were even rated on their skills and thereby accorded access to specialised equipment like the faceting machines. During these early years the club rented fairly extensive premises to house the equipment necessary for our work. Unfortunately, this meant that we had to move fairly frequently usually when the accommodation was redeveloped (or demolished) by our landlords.

In 1998 Glasgow City Council redeveloped the property we were renting and, as the membership had fallen considerably, was able to relocate us to Knightswood Community Centre. We have been very happy here for the past 25 years.

The primary aim of the Society is to foster an interest in natural minerals, Lapidary (the cutting and polishing of stones) and in the crafts related thereto. The equipment necessary is invariably expensive (a diamond saw blade for cutting stone can cost hundreds of pounds) so the club has equipment available which, as individuals, we could not afford to purchase or maintain. There is a small but comprehensive library available. The workroom, machinery and equipment are all maintained by the members.

Apart from the equipment for cutting, shaping and polishing stones, the clubroom has equipment which is used for faceting some of the more precious types of stone. Our workroom is also equipped for silversmithing for the production of settings for the finished stones (rings, brooches, pendants etc.) and in the past year for enamelling.

Anyone interested in joining should drop in to the workshop on a Tuesday afternoon for lapidary or a Wednesday afternoon for enamelling when members would be happy to welcome you.