From the Northern Times 25, 50 and 100 years ago
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25 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of September 25, 1998
The Highland Council escaped lightly in court this week after pleading guilty to polluting a loch next to their roads and transport depot in Bettyhill. The authority was fined £500 for the offence, which carries a maximum penalty of £20,000. Over 1000 litres of diesel fuel drained into the loch.
Only months after its embarrassing failure to operate at its launch, the Screen Machine mobile cinema suffered mechanical failure again last week. The high-tech machine, still on a test tour of the Highlands, was due to show, prophetically, Armageddon in Durness. However a bearing in the opening mechanism failed and the screen could not be opened up.
A £17,000 community action grant has been awarded by the local enterprise company towards the £95,000 upgrading of Kildonan Village Hall. Work on installing a new kitchen, toilets and refacing the exterior of the 100-year-old building, situated at Kildonan, is due to start next month. Several organisations have provided funding.
50 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of September 21, 1973
Two local schoolboys last Wednesday saved a 33-year-old man from possible drowning after he had fallen into the water at Helmsdale harbour and was hanging onto his lobster boat which was beginning to drift out to sea. The boys were Gordon and Kevin Innes, sons of Mr and Mrs William John Innes, 73 Dunrobin Street, and the man, Mr John Macdonald, 10 Rock View Place. Mr Macdonald had been collecting lobsters and slipped on the steel ladder at the harbour. Gordon picked up a grappling iron, boarded the lobster boat via a seine-netter anchored there and hooked onto Mr Macdonald's waterproofs. The two boys hauled him up and got him onto the seine-netter.
The feasibility of financing and building a boating marina on the Dornoch foreshore to the north of the beach was discussed recently by interested parties. The meeting had been called by Mr Harry Smith of the Trentham Hotel, and Mr Eoin Mackay, of Dornoch, with the object of forming a steering committee to progress the project.
100 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of September 20, 1923
When the Brora fishermen went to sea on Thursday morning they had rather an exciting experience. On reaching their fishing ground, off Loth Point, they were surprised to find a trawler working within the prohibited area. Its number was covered. Determined to punish the trawler for using a seine net a mile from shore, the fishermen took its net and ropes on board their boats. The matter has been reported to the proper authorities but the fishermen are to make a strong protest to the Fishery Board. Police should also be seen more often in the Firth, otherwise if trawlers are allowed to poach on prohibited waters, the fishermen will have no alternative but to give up their calling. this is the second seine net that has been taken by local fishermen in a year.
Captain Warre, Gledfield House, with his usual generosity, has presented the inmates of the Sutherland Combination Poorhouse with gifts of game. This annual kindness on the part of the donor is highly appreciated by the poor.
