A World War II Starfish Array bunker on Auchenreoch Muir above Dumbarton to the west of Glasgow. Starfish arrays were top-secret large-scale decoy sites in the countryside designed to simulate a burning city with the aim of diverting German bombers from their intended targets during bombing raids. Bunkers like this one, were included to protect the personnel who operated the site when it worked as intended.

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#glasgow #glasgowhistory #dumbarton #wwii #starfish

Campaign Launched to Save Dumbarton Studios for Creative Industries

A public crowdfunding campaign has been launched in a “race against time” to save the historic Dumbarton Studios from being sold for private property development and lost to the creative industries forever.

The site, which has been the production home for iconic Scottish shows like River City and Take the High Road, is being sold by the BBC. A community-led group is now seeking to enact a Community Right to Buy to preserve the facility as a working studio and creative hub.

While not a games-specific facility, the potential loss of these studios represents a significant threat to the entire creative ecosystem, including the games sector.

A ‘More Than Games’ Asset

The Dumbarton studios include sound stages, production offices, and workshops – critical infrastructure that is increasingly shared between the games, film, TV, and animation industries. As games move more into virtual production, motion capture, and high-fidelity audio, the availability of accessible, large-scale studio space is a vital component of the national ecosystem.

Losing this facility would shrink Scotland’s creative production capacity, impacting everyone from indie animation teams to game studios looking for space for ambitious projects.

The First Step: A £6,000 Goal

The group is not yet fundraising for the full purchase. The immediate goal of the £6,000 crowdfunding campaign is to fund the essential first step: a formal valuation survey and business plan. This report is a legal necessity to move forward with the Community Right to Buy process and prove a sustainable model for the studio’s future.

The campaign’s organisers warn that without this initial funding, the chance to secure the site will be lost, and it will almost certainly be sold to property developers and demolished for housing.

The vision is to retain the site as a working studio while also opening parts of it as a film and TV heritage centre, creating a multi-use creative and cultural asset.

How to Help

This is a critical moment to protect a vital piece of Scotland’s creative infrastructure. The Scottish Games Network encourages studios, developers, and anyone passionate about the health of our wider creative economy to support the campaign.

To learn more and contribute to the Save Dumbarton Studios fund, please visit the official Crowdfunder page.

#Crowdfunding #Dumbarton #games #SaveDumbartonStudios #scotland #screen