Crowdfunding bid for Cape Wrath plot
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
IT will be one of the most unusual crowdfunding appeals ever.
The public are being asked to become "cape crusaders" and help buy the last bit of land the MoD does not own inside the country’s biggest bombing range at Cape Wrath.
At the centre of the unusual community buyout is just 111 acres around Cape Wrath Lighthouse.
Getting to the lighthouse, near the 900-feet highest vertical cliffs on mainland UK, is not easy.
It involves a seasonal ferry journey across the narrow Kyle of Durness and a 11 mile trip up a bumpy road. The only other route an to walk from near Kinlochbervie over rough, unmarked, but stunning, terrain.
Thousands of walkers and tourists head to the cape each year.
Two years ago the MoD was halted in its £58,000 purchase of the land from the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), which would have added to the 25,000 acres it already owns in the area.
The then First Minister Alex Salmond claimed it marked a step towards the Scottish government’s new target of a million acres of land in community control by 2020.
Mr Salmond added: "If the community is able to go ahead and successfully purchase the land, it will secure a stronger local economy for the people of Durness and preserve one of Scotland’s iconic landscapes for generations to come.
"Put bluntly, we would see more benefits for the local area rather than more land for bombing – the principal use the rest of the cape is put to by the MoD."
The MoD had faced a strong campaign – a petition opposing the sale attracted thousands of signatures – and was backed by mountaineer Cameron McNeish among others.
Scottish Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse approved an application by Durness Development Group (DDG) to register a community interest in the site.
It means that the community have to be given first option to buy if the NLB goes ahead with plans to sell the land.
Then in May, DDG said it received an email "out of the blue" from the NLB asking what the group’s intention was over the land It has subsequently received other communications.
"The NLB’s intention is to sell and trigger the right-to-buy, which effectively gives us a few more months to raise the money," said Neil Fuller, local development officer with DDG.
"They want to sell and we would like to buy and have asked the NLB not to trigger the right-to-buy, give us the valuation of the land and see if we can raise it.
"Because of the cycle of Scottish Land Fund we will not be able to make an application until April, so we are planning to launch a crowdfunding appeal in the New Year. We hope to tap into the power of social media and the worldwide love for Cape Wrath.
"We want to work with the MoD - perhaps look at leasing them a piece of land they want for mortars and artillery etc.
"But Cape Wrath is vital to the local economy and we want to safeguard public access and as a first step put public toilets there."
The area is closed for war games 120 days a year.
Because of the community’s interest, the MoD announced last year that it had decided "not to proceed" with the purchase of land around the 400-feet high light, built in 1828 by Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather Robert.
But it is understood to remain interested.
A development plan by consultants commissioned by DDG said Wrath Cape Wrath currently attracts around 6000 visitors each year and could manageably be increased to 10,000. The lighthouse could even be opened up to the public.
The cape is estimated to be worth more than £600,000 to the Durness economy.
A spokeswoman for the NLB said: "The board owns and operates an important marine aid to navigation (lighthouse) at Cape Wrath and this will continue.
"However we do own surrounding land and buildings at Cape Wrath which are not required for our operational purposes. The local community have previously indicated their interest in this property through the Community Right to Buy Scheme. At this stage this property is not on the market and we continue to review our requirements."
Cape Wrath’s only permanent residents are John and Kay Ure who run the cafe near the lighthouse.
There was once a full-time community of around 35 people living on the cape in the 1930s. Today it just the couple, who shot to worldwide fame when Kay was separated from husband for four weeks by the weather at Christmas in 2009 when she went to buy a turkey.
