Ambitious plans to convert a Cold War bunker into a museum have received a £725,000 boost.

The bunker in Gairloch, Wester Ross, served as an anti-aircraft operations centre during the Cold War before being converted into a council roads depot.

Gairloch Heritage Museum (GHM) intends to move out of its current home in a former farm steading and into the depot by 2019.

The museum believes its plan will cost almost £2m in total, £725,600 of which will be paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

GHM chairman Roy Macintyre: "Roy Macintyre, Chairman of GHM said "Our project is a very ambitious one for a community of our size, but is the only way to make the museum sustainable and keep it open, preserving our heritage for the future.

"The investment by Heritage Lottery Fund is a vital part of the total funding package for the project and we are now very hopeful of raising the remaining funds to start building a fabulous new educational and heritage resource for our community in the New Year."

Highland Council has agreed to sell the old road depot, which closed in 2011, for £1.

The bunker is one of only four of its kind in Scotland and the only one in a repairable condition.

Lucy Casot, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, added: "Gairloch Heritage Museum is bursting with stories and pictures which give us clues to what life was like in Wester Ross over the past 2000 years and how it has shaped the region.

"Thanks to players of the National Lottery, the community can come together to preserve and share this precious collection."