The community body behind the ambitious development is aiming to put the construction contract out to tender in the spring.

The proposal got a major shot in the arm soon after it was launched two years ago with a £1,280,000 pledge from retired executive Andrew Sinclair.

Mr Sinclair grew up in Halkirk as the son of a village bobby before going on to found his own highly successful pharmaceutical firm in the south of England.

He and his wife Edith make occasional trips from their home in Flintshire to visit son David, a chemist at Dounreay, and to spectate at the Halkirk Highland Games.

Halkirk Community Sports Foundation (HCSF) has kept a low public profile since launching its plans but members of its board and management committee have been beavering away behind the scenes.

Having secured planning consent, detailed drawings are being prepared by Thurso-based architects Pentarq.

The site earmarked is known as Morrison Park, the field next to Recreation Park – the venue for the annual Highland Games and home to Halkirk United FC and Halkirk FC.

The centrepiece of the venture is to be a covered 60m by 40m hall with an artificial grass playing surface and associated changing rooms. Modelled on the facility at Ross County's Victoria Park, it is intended to operate in conjunction with the Highland Football Academy.

The centre is also to provide fitness rooms, a sauna, a sports injury clinic, a conference centre and a crèche, as well as a field sports area and an outdoor floodlit football pitch.

HCSF envisages this as the first in a series of phases to create a recreational hub which can attract people from throughout Caithness and Sutherland. Future plans include a heritage centre and motor museum; bowling and rifle-shooting facilities; and an ice rink.

HCSF chairman Billy Manson said the funding is to come from Mr Sinclair's endowment; public-sector grants; and local fundraising.

HIE Caithness and Sutherland and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority have funded an updated business plan which was undertaken by Kinlochleven-based The Ice Factor.

Mr Manson said: "The revised business plan has provided new impetus in making formal applications for grant aid and we're expecting decisions on these early in the new year."

Contributions are being sought from HIE, the NDA, the Highland Council, SportScotland and the Big Lottery Fund as well as the community benefit fund from Causewaymire wind farm.

The community company is to contact firms in the Far North, inviting them to chip in towards the scheme. It is also putting together a programme of fundraising events to run over the course of next year.

Mr Manson, one of HCSF's five directors, is confident the current projected shortfall of £489,000 will be met soon.

He said: "The facility will be the only one of its kind north of Dingwall and it is regarded by many as urgently needed. That is especially true in the context of the need to recruit new employers into Caithness to counteract the effect of the rundown of Dounreay."

Mr Manson pointed out that a large-scale sports facility is one of the key elements of social infrastructure that is missing in the Far North.

Previous proposals to locate sports centres at one of the giant wartime hangars at Wick Airport and at Thurso's Millbank Playing Fields failed to materialise as result of funding problems.

Mr Manson is confident the Halkirk scheme will not suffer the same fate, with the current schedule envisaging it opening in the summer of 2009.

One of the Pentarq drawings showing the front of the proposed Halkirk sports centre.

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