A free village guide & digital platform built by the community, with every penny raised going back to the village
Arisaig Community Trust (ACT) has launched Discover Arisaig, a free digital guide to the village shaped by local people to benefit the community long after the summer visitors have gone home.
Discover Arisaig is free to use. Visit discoverarisaig.app, scan the QR codes across the village, or search Discover Arisaig on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
The guide is available instantly at discoverarisaig.app, or by scanning a QR code at locations across the village, with no download required. For people who want offline access, including beach guides and walking routes in areas with no mobile signal, the app is also available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Discover Arisaig gives visitors and locals alike quick access to live opening times for local cafés, restaurants and shops, events, ferry timetables, weather and tide information, walking routes, beach guides and more.
Every business featured in the guide has been included because of the essential role it plays in the Arisaig community. Arisaig Marine is among the local businesses listed, each with their own management profile allowing them to update their opening hours, description and website links directly. This means the information is always current, and always direct from the source. The marina can also issue real-time alerts through the platform, enabling ferry travellers to find out immediately if sailings to the Small Isles are cancelled due to weather. In a place where conditions can make or break plans, this kind of live, local information is worth more than a static guidebook. Users can also find information about community organisations like Ewen’s Room, as well as event listings from local festivals including Arisaig Americana Festival.
Donations made through the app are processed via the existing, trusted donation infrastructure and go directly to ACT. Critically, that income is unrestricted, meaning the Trust can consult the community and invest in whatever matters most to the people who live in Arisaig.
Anne Widdop, Chair of Arisaig Community Trust, said: “Discover Arisaig was made by local people who care about this place. When visitors use it and choose to donate, that money comes to ACT with no strings attached, which means we can go back to the community, ask what matters most, and spend it accordingly. That could be on more affordable housing, maintaining the toilets, the Land, Sea and Islands Centre, better shorefront parking, our playpark, improved spaces for nature to thrive, something else entirely… the community helps us decide.”
Discover Arisaig was built on a voluntary basis by Furbs Marketing, a local marketing consultant, whose contribution meant the project could be delivered without significant external funding. This meant the focus could be kept firmly on what the community needs rather than what a budget would allow.
The app also includes Operation Arisaig, an interactive walking tour drawing on the village’s remarkable Second World War history, when over 3,000 Special Operations Executive agents, including Czech and Slovak operatives commemorated in the village’s war grave memorial, trained in and around the village. Visitors follow clues and solve puzzles at stops across the village, spending more time in Arisaig and discovering more of what it has to offer along the way.
Throughout the app, visitors are guided to get the most from Arisaig while looking after it in return. Practical advice on responsible access – for example, respecting residents’ privacy, keeping dogs under control, leaving no litter and fastening gates – sits alongside the honest, specific local knowledge that helps people enjoy the landscape without damaging it.
ACT and Furbs Marketing developed the platform with other Highland communities in mind. Having piloted the model in Arisaig, the organisations are open to conversations with communities facing similar challenges: seasonal income, grant dependency, and the need to give visitors a reason to stay longer and give something back.
Discover Arisaig is free to use. Visit discoverarisaig.app, scan the QR codes across the village, or search Discover Arisaig on the Apple App Store or Google Play.