Penicuik’s shopping precinct is about the only decent location for skateboarders ....but that does not go down too well with shoppers or businesses in the precinct.

Midlothian Council held a consultation with young people in the area, which confirmed their desire to have a purpose built skatepark in Penicuik, which could be used by skateboarders, BMX bikers and in-line skaters.

This local interest was taken into consideration when the Council made its bid for lottery funding for new sports facilities in Midlothian in 2002. Part of the total award of £825,000 to the Council was earmarked for a skatepark.

By September 2004, open meetings were held with young people and a planning group set up to help with the design of the skatepark.

A site was identified near the centre of Penicuik in the Angle Park / Loanburn Park area. Visit the location page for details. Funding was then confirmed in early 2005 and planning permission granted. After soil tests were carried out at the site it was discovered that a high water table would prohibit building a sunken bowl style skatepark. This caused a delay in order to redesign the skatepark featuring ramps and obstacles built above ground level. Although this changed the nature of the skatepark features, much effort went into ensuring that the final design still reflected what the local skateboarders and BMXers had requested, providing a challenging and unique layout. Visit the design page to view details of the current skatepark design.

Construction companies were invited to tender for the job to build the skatepark with Clachan Construction winning the tender and being awarded the job in October 2006.

Clachan Construction are currently on site in the process of building the skatepark. Visit the build page to view photo updates of the skatepark as the build progresses.

The skatepark is set to be completed for 23rd March 2007.