PLANS for a new development at the former torpedo range on the west shore of Loch Long will go on show to the public at a consultation event in the village next month.

Members of the team behind the Ardnagal Estates proposals will be at the Three Villages Hall in Arrochar on Wednesday, April 5 from 4pm until 8pm.

The proposals for the site will be on display throughout and a Q&A session will take place at 6pm.

Teas and coffees will be provided at the event.

Early proposals for a development of 20 residential plots, 40 holiday lodges, 20 glamping pods, a ‘bunkhouse’ café/bar, marina and associated amenities were revealed in January 2022 when a ‘propsal of application notice’ was submitted to the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority by Paisley-based property development company Framed Estates.

Ardnagal Estates bought the site – which was operated as a Royal Navy torpedo testing range from 1912 until 1986, but has lain derelict ever since – after it was advertised for sale in April 2021.

The latest proposals come a decade after a bid to build a 130-bedroom hotel with 16 residential units and 36 apartments on the disused land along with a chandlery, helipad and marina.

Planning permission for that scheme lapsed in 2017.

According to the Helensburgh Heritage Trust website the abandoned Admiralty buildings, pier and slipway remained visible on the west shore of the loch until 2007, when the site was destroyed by fire and demolished.

The facility was built to support the manufacture and testing of torpedoes produced in Greenock and Alexandria, and in 1944, at the height of its activity, more than 12,500 torpedoes were test-fired down Loch Long – an average of 48 per day.

In 2018 Argyll and Bute Council officials said there was “significant need to make a concerted effort to try and stimulate the redevelopment potential of the site, with a longer term view to seeing the area improved and the wider economic growth potential boosted”.

The local authority’s then director of development and infrastructure services, Pippa Milne, said in a report at the time: “Discussions with the owner of the Ben Arthur development site and potential developers have taken place to consider ways of addressing the issues of dereliction, with a view to finding a productive economic function for the site given its prominent location on the A83."

The land was put on the market in 2021 without a specific asking price, though commercial property website Realla, which marketed the land, said there “remains strong support for the site to be redeveloped”.

Ardnagal Estates was incorporated in October 2021, with Ian Henderson and Peter Wylie listed as directors, while the Framed Estates portfolio includes work on the A-listed Thomas Coats Memorial Church, St Mirren Football Club’s stadium, and the creation of a cultural, heritage and events village in Greenock centred around the restoration of The Falls of Clyde ship.