25 YEARS AGO
(November 21st, 1986)
A proposal by Bettyhill, Strathnaver and Altnaharra Community Council to refurbish the monument beside Strathnaver Village Hall, commemorating the raising of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, has been welcomed by the district council.
Golspie primary schoolchildren are being denied the chance of seeing the pantomime at Eden Court as part of an organised school outing this Christmas, because of the teachers' dispute. Parents were informed by note this week that, due to industrial action associated with the teachers' dispute, the proposed trip had been cancelled.
Given the choice of helicopter cover or a lifeboat base, fishermen in the North Minch would like to have both. This message was made clear by members of the North Rescue Association, formed at Kinlochbervie shortly after the loss of the Banff fishing boat Bon Ami last December with all six hands, to a high-powered group from the RNLI who visited them last Friday.
A Manpower Services' scheme has just started at Dunrobin Castle museum at Golspie. The scheme aims to renovate and refurbish the museum and re-open it to the public. The museum is of considerable interest and along with the castle, is a valuable tourist attraction for the East Coast of Sutherland.
The Government has plans to spend £45 million on A9 trunk road improvements from the Cromarty Firth to Wick in the next few years. Lord Glenarthur, Minister of State at the Scottish Office, said this when he officially opened the £3.6 million Alness bypass on Monday.
Seventy per cent of forests in Sutherland are owned by people whose addresses are in London or the Home Counties. This was claimed by Mr Jim Williams of the North of Scotland College of Agriculture at a Crofters' Union meeting in Inverness recently. His point was reinforced by revelations on Channel 4 TV and in the Daily Telegraph last week that chat-show host Terry Wogan; snooker star Alex "Hurricane" Higgins and Lady Porter, leader of Westminster Council, have all bought vast areas of the flow country in Sutherland and Caithness from Fountain Forestry.
On the day that Aberdeen FC manager Alex Ferguson moved to take over the hot seat at Manchester United, another football club manager was also preparing for a transfer. He is former Brora Rangers' boss Bobby Duffy, Sutherland's sheriff clerk based at Dornoch for the past six years, who last week returned to his native Dumbarton to take over as sheriff clerk there.
50 YEARS AGO
(November 24, 1961)
Mr Robert Pate, headmaster of Tongue Primary School, is going to another appointment in Lanarkshire - at Auldside, East Kilbride - after the New Year. Mr Pate, who is a native of Lanarkshire, went to Tongue in 1958, and since then has taken an active interest in the life of the community.
In the county of Sutherland the present strength of the Civil Defence Corps stands at 225. Many more recruits would be required in the event of an emergency. Corps office Mr Ian Macleod said that it was now intended to extend civil defence training to every community in the county. Membership is voluntary and members are free to resign at any time.
SIR - In spite of all the good the Hydro-Electric Board has done for the parish of Assynt, it has left one of the most deserving parts still in utter darkness. This concerns all the shepherds' and crofters' houses between Brackloch and Kylesku. They have been surrounded with power lines for about the last 10 years, but their needs are ignored.
They are an industrious, hardworking community. They make a very substantial contribution to the nation's economy each year in sheep, wool and cattle. They deserve better treatment.
Living conditions in the winter can be arduous, when snow-blocked roads disrupt communications with neighbouring quarters. It is then that electricity would be of incalculable value. But life was always tolerable until now that we see the rest of the community living in electric luxury.
Have the powers-that-be decided that television and the other marvels of electricity shall be for such areas only a pipe dream? Would the Hydro Electric Board please state their reasons for not carrying out their mandate - John Macrae, Little Assynt.
When the new schools at Brora, Golspie and Dornoch are opened, there will be full official ceremonies in all cases. That was decided by the education committee at Lairg last week, when they were told that it was hoped that Brora's new junior secondary school would be ready in January, and Golspie's new senior secondary school towards the end of March. Dornoch's new senior secondary school might be opened at the end of next year.
75 YEARS AGO
(November 26th, 1936)
Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bart., MP for Sutherland and Caithness, received the undernoted letter from the Minister of Transport: -
In my letter to you of the 9th October, I promised to write again concerning the unfortunate accident which happened to an omnibus on the road between Tongue and Melness.
My divisional engineer has reported that the width of the road at the site of the accident is only seven feet three inches, and that the road is bordered by grass verges each a foot in width.
It seems that one of the front wheels of the bus got on to the grass verge and that owing to the softness of the turf, the driver was unable to get his vehicle back again to the metal carriageway. The bus continued its forward movement and the outer wheels gradually moved down the embankment until it fell on to its side. The distance from the point where the outer wheels left the carriageway to the position at which the bus finally came to rest was about 25 yards.
As I told you in my former letter, the county council is preparing a scheme for the reconstruction of this road which will have a minimum width of 10ft, flanked by ample verges and provided with parking places at frequent intervals - Yours sincerely, Leslie Hore-Belisha.
H. M. Inspector of Physical Education, Mr George Cruickshank, submitted a report to Sutherland Education Committee at its meeting in Lairg recently. He said the general impression he had gathered as a result of visits to 23 schools in the county was that standards in physical training left much to be desired.
He said: "In particular, although physique is, on the average, good, carriage of the body and speed of physical reaction are poor.
"The interaction between body and mind are such that these physical faults are bound to affect the other work in the school."
Never in the history of Lairg Estate has there been such spontaneity of enthusiasm as permeated the gathering which was entertained to dinner by Sr Edgar Horne, Bart., the proprietor, in the Sutherland Arms Hotel, Lairg, on Saturday night. The spirit of friendship and thankfulness was everywhere in evidence; the setting was tasteful and effective; and the high standard of excellence connected with this hotel was never more pronounced. In addition to dealing with his tenants and staff in such a lavish manner, Sir Edgar announced that he was prepared to give a rebate of a half year's rent to all crofters on the estate who were prepared to spend up to that amount on lime or other suitable manure for their land. This generous and helpful offer was greeted with prolonged and wholehearted applause by the company.
100 YEARS AGO
(November 23rd, 1911)
Those of us who watched Mr Heath and his men busy at the gold digging tests in Kildonan Strath recently, came to the conclusion that there is not gold in Kildonan in paying quantities. This view is confirmed by the interesting report sent by Mr Heath to His Grace the Duke of Sutherland. The prospecting operations were of the most exhaustive nature. Every likely spot in Suisgill Burn, the Gold Burn and the Helmsdale River was carefully examined, and the result in every instance was the same - insufficient gold to pay half the working expenses. An enterprising and successful Caithness farmer told us the other day that he worked at the diggings in 1869 for a considerable time, for fully ten hours a day, with the most approved appliances then available, and failed to earn a labourer's wages out of the venture. His experience was similar to that of hundreds of others who took part in the search for gold. As pointed out by Mr Heath, one heard of the few who were successful, but very little notice was taken of the vast majority of diggers who were disappointed with their earnings and left the district poorer than they came. One satisfactory feature of the test this year is that 16 men from the parishes of Kildonan and Loth were provided with remunerative employment by the Duke of Sutherland for several months, and were comfortably housed and adequately fed at the camp at Suisgill.
Mr Murdo MacLeod, Stornoway, has been appointed Inspector of Poor for the parish of Creich and Kincardine, rendered vacant through the resignation of Mr Donald A Ross, who is going abroad. There were over 20 applicants for the post. Mr Macleod, who is 28 years of age, received his early training in the office of Mr J T Macfarlane, Inspector of Poor, Stornoway, who also acts as collector of rates, registrar, clerk to the Poorhouse and secretary and treasurer of the Gas Company.
