Monthly Archives: January 2009

Argyll to benefit from prioritising of better dental facilities

Posted on by

NHS Scotland plans to spend £82million from the Scottish Government’s allocation in dental services across Scotland. This has been made the top priority.creating and upgrading

In Argyll & Bute the NHS Highland Board is proposing to provide an NHS Dental Centre in Oban and surgery facilities in Campbeltown.

Argyll’s MSP, Jim Mather, comments that: ‘Scotland has historic problems with good dental health, partly due to water supply and to diet. Improvement and awareness of good practice and regular maintenance is important for sound dental and hygiene reasons. Moreover, it is recognised  that regular dental attendance and treatment also helps to improve general medical heath and identify other heath problems early on’.

Mr Mather says that NHS Highland’s specific allocation is £5.64million which, in addition to the new facilitites for Oban and Campbeltown, it it will use to improve NHS dental surgery facilities in Thurso, Dingwall and Inverness.

The planned development of dental surgery facilities in Campbeltown will be associated with a practice already in place there.

In welcoming the plans for Argyll, Mr Mather went on to say: ‘In our present tough financial climate, capital projects are a vital way that government can help to stimulate the local economy by providing good, soundly based, local employment opportunities. It also provides a helping hand for the construction industry.

‘When this can be combined with the provision of badly needed health facilities where a clear shortfall has been identified this represents not only sound financial sense but links to reversing a serious decline in dental services seen under previous administrations.

‘Since the advent of the current Scottish Government in 2007, NHS Dentistry has been a top priority. These projects are evidence of progress.

‘There has already been a dramatic increase in both adult and child registration with NHS dentists and the opening of a third Scottish Dental Training School in Aberdeen last October will ensure that increased numbers of trainee dentists enter the NHS’.

Head for the Snowdrop Festival at Arduaine

Posted on by

Things are looking up. From 1st February until 16th March the National Trust for Scotland’s lovely Arduaine Gardens, near Loch Melfort south of Oban, are taking part in VisitScotland’s Snowdrop Festival.

Snowdrop Galathus Nivalis Wikipedia CommonsArduaine, open all year-round, is famed for its collection of exotic plants but many hold the snowdrop, which Arduaine has in abundance, the most beautiful of all. The garden’s west coast location gives it the benefit of a warmer climate that can produce the early snowdrop sightings that lift the spirits at this time of year.

To contact the gardens direct, phone 0844 493 2216.

The photograph – of the snowdrop, or Galanthus Nivalis – is licensed under Wikipedia Commons and this is considered one of its finest images.

Oz and James at Bruichladdich – the back story

Posted on by

James May & Oz Clark in Bruichladdich RadicalFresh from the neck of the bottle comes an interesting and poignant narrative on events surrounding the filming of last night’s BBC2 television programme Oz and James Drink Britain.

This was the best in the series so far but editing means we never get to know the half of it. Bruichladdich’s Managing Director, Mark Reynier, however, saw it all, so he takes up the story:

‘We had a lot of fun. To end the programme, the two of them were going to set off in a rowing boat, seemingly pissed,  as if to row to Ireland into the setting sun etc.  But the BBC’s Health & Safety, insurance, risk assessments and PC brigade made it impossible. Instead we had a jolly good dinner at my place. Without drinking much at all, May was rather  ‘tired and emotional’. I don’t think he can handle much. (Yes, Mark, but we saw him down a lot of X4 so let’s be fair – and Oz lost his voice on the same dram.)

‘The whole day had  started off disastrously. We had the use of the runway for the car but when the filming started – the car wouldn’t. It just smouldered. Embarrassingly, there was a wiring problem, a short circuit. Not, though,  as short as the circuit we had to perform to repair it – and our honour.

‘In its journey up from Radical on a trailer, the car’s bodywork had chafed through a starting engine wire. Abandoning the airport, we came  to the distillery where in true Hebridean tradition, the high-tech racing car was repaired in our distillery workshop by our engineer Douglas, saving the day.

‘The Police then kindly shut down the road for a few hours and the  filming took place. Then it rained.

‘However, for me two sad things  are inextricably associated with this  event.

‘One, a local miseryguts ranted in the local paper accusing us of being too macho, not being serious enough,  disrupting the locals, and having ‘too much fun’.

‘And secondly,  with us in the crowd watching the event was a farmer,  Dugald Mactaggart and his 11 year son. Four months later they would be dead, killed on the same stretch of road in a head-on collision with a cow and a lorry’.

Dougie MacLean concert, Easdale Island Community Hall

Posted on by

On 4th July at 7.30pm, Easdale Island Community Hall hosts a concert by singer-songwriter and musician, Dougie MacLean whose song Caledonia is everywere this year, as the theme for Homecoming Scotland 2009.

More information, including online booking is available from the Events Calendar on the hall’s website. The event starts at 20.00 with doors open at 19.15. Admission is £16, Concessions 14.

Double bill with John Renbourn and Robin Williamson, Easdale Island Community Hall

Posted on by

On 11th April at 7.30pm Easdale Island Community Hall hosts a double bill of acoustic guitar and folk legend, John Renbourn and Robin Williamson founder of The Incredible String Band – and storyteller.

More information, including online booking is available from the Events Calendar on the hall’s website. All events start at 20.00 with doors for major events, (such as these three), open at 19.15. Admission is £12, Concessions £10.

Make for the rhythm at Easdale

Posted on by

Easdale Pier Richard Knights CCSteve Brown and his team on Easdale Island’s arts programme – finalists in the ForArgyll Awards 2008 -  have put together what they say is their most ambitious ever programme for the 2009-2010 season. They can’t advertise it yet because they have still to get funding confirmation from the Scottish Arts Council, but standby for the details.

While – like us – you’re waiting for the news, there are two events coming up at Easdale over the next few months that are sponsored by Adrian Laycock Ltd, Consulting Engineers – and both these events are immediate musts for the diary. The performance dates in the For Argyll Events Diary so there will be a reminder as the gigs approach.

But in terms of getting the juices running – look forward to:

  • a double bill of John Renbourn and Robin Williamson on 11th April
  • Dougie MacLean on American Independence Day, 4th July (has Easdale got separatist ambitions?)

John Renbourn CCJohn Renbourn – the legendary acoustic guitariist has had a long solo career but may be best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch and for his work with folk group Pentangle. For Argyll has noticed that the agent who books his summer guitar workshops at Cubertou near Cahors lives in Argyle Road in London. Obviously a sound connection.

While Renbourn is often thought of as a folk musician, his musical tastes and interests are pretty wide ranging from medieval music, classical music and blues to world music.

Dougie MacLean from Steve EasdaleRobin Williamson is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, songwriter and storyteller, who first made his name as a founder member of The Incredible String Band. He also founded The Merry Band and has been driving the storytelling revival in Europe and America since the 1980s.

Dougie MacLean‘s (pictured) career started with a traditional band, The Tannahill Weavers, in 1976 before he went on to a solo career in 1981. A multi-talented musician, he plays guitar, violin, mandola, viola, bouzouki, banjo and bass as well as being a singer-songwriter and composer. By the end of 2009′s Homecoming Scotland, he may well wish never to hear its theme and his song, Caledonia, again.

Now, there is another date to pencil in. It can’t be confirmed yet because the funding decision will not be known until March – but Karine Polwart had inked 1st August in her Diary for a gig at Easdale Island’s Community Hall.

Karine Polwart Band Creative Commons

Karine Polwart leads her own band and used to be lead singer with Scots-Irish quintet Malinky. She was also in the Battlefield Band and in the duo MacAlias.

Voted ‘Best Scots Singer’ at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2003, she went on to  collect Best Album (Faultlines) , Best Original Song (The Sun’s Comin’ Over the Hill) and the Horizon Award at the 2005 Folk on 2 Awards.

Makes you wish you lived on Easdale to have all this literally on your doorstep – and have you seen the Easdale Island’s award-winning Community Hall?

More info on each gig, including online booking is available from the Events Calendar on the hall’s website. All events start at 20.00 and for major events (such as these three), doors open at 19.15. Admission for the confirmed events is: John Renbourn / Robin Williamson £12, Concessions £10;  and Dougie MacLean is £16, Concessions £14.

All photographs are licensed under Creative Commons. The top photographs shows the old pier at Easdale Island.

God’s Island seeks Business Manager & Property Officer

Posted on by

Gigha Ogham stoneThe Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust (IGHT) is looking for a new Business Manager and a Property Officer to work alongside the trust and the local community to continue the exciting development work on the island.

Six years ago, the community of Gigha – aka God’s Island, lying a 20minute ferry-ride off the Kintyre peninsula, bought out their island – well, not quite. For some inexplicable reason, in the deal financed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise through the Scottish Land Fund, the owner Derek Holt was allowed to retain the most profitable elements of the island’s assets – the main farm and the fish farm.

However,setting aside the vagaries of the relationships between private profit and public money, six years on the island is thriving.

Many of those who had left the island have returned and, together with residents and a lively spectrum of newcomers, they have raised the population beyond 150. This reverses a decline that was damaging the community’s sustainability. The island’s primary school roll has also jumped from 6 to 23 pupils.

Argyll & Bute Council Leader, Dick Walsh says: ‘The position of business manager lies at the heart of the ongoing success of the community and is a fantastic opportunity for someone looking to make a real difference. It also has the added benefit of being based in one of the most scenic parts of the country.

‘The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust has done an incredible job since the community buy out in 2002 and has come on leaps on bounds since then, creating employment on the island, new businesses and , with the help of external funders, their very own wind farm. The Trust has also contributed to more affordable housing being built on the island after selling land to Fyne Homes.

‘I wish the islanders and the trust every success in filling these two important job vacancies and look forward to hearing of further development in the future’.

The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust paid just over £4 million to purchase the island from the laird in 2002. This was made up of a grant from the Scottish Land Fund of £3.5m and a Highlands and Islands Enterprise grant of £500,000.

Both grants were the biggest ever awarded at that time for such a venture and £1 million of the money had to be paid back by the Trust to the Scottish Land Fund as a condition of the grant.

This was achieved in 2004 through the hard work and determination of the community, by selling Achamore House and by setting up a number of other money making ventures, including Gigha Whisky and Gigha Tartan.

The beautiful little island with the famous Achamore Gardens Gigha had been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times. It is said to have played an important role during the Gaelic Kingdom of Dalriada and is the ancestral home of Clan MacNeill. It fell under the control of the Norsemen and the Lords of the Isles and later was incorporated into modern Scotland, seeing a variety of conflicts during the medieval period.

It has a lively history with landowners. It’s main development from which it still benefits – as with the gardens -  largely comes from the benevolent paternalism  of the Horlick family (and yes, it is the drinkable Horlicks we’re talking about).

It then saw a period under Malcolm Potier, a businessman who had made his money in Glasgow’s construction industry and spent a lot of it in buying and developing Gigha. His financial and personal life then imploded. This led to the sale of the island to Derek Holt and produced a sequence of bizarre circumstances some of which led to Potier’s jailing in Australia where he remains incarcerated.

The island runs an imaginative series of events for the community and for a wider audience. The lucky eventual appointees to these posts will have plenty of support for the developments their respective responsibilities require.

The photograph above is licensed under Creative Commons and shows the Ogham Stone on Gigha, looking across the sound towards Kintyre.

Scottish Water to repair damaged ramp at Ardrishaig

Posted on by

Scottish Water installed a ramp at Ardrishaig last summer(2008) at the request of the local community to give access to the foreshore. This followed the installation of the storm overflow during the company’s upgrade of the local waste water network.

Sunday’s storm conditions damaged this ramp and railings attached to the ramp, which is located near the Brae Road storm overflow in the village.

Scottish Water is now to investigate how the ramp was damaged, apologises for any resulting inconvenience to residents of Ardrishaig and will repair the damage.

Mrs Jane McKenzie, Scottish Water’s Regional Community Manager, says: ‘We will carry out engineering investigations as soon as possible to establish why the ramp was damaged and did not withstand the stormy weather at the weekend. When this has been investigated, appropriate repairs will be carried out to try to ensure that the ramp does withstand such weather conditions in the future.’

It is fair to note that the incidence of imperfect installations by Scottish Water – or by its various sub-contractors – is unacceptably high. This suggests that there may be quality control issues to be addressed by the company as a matter of urgency.

Proposal to refurbish Helensburgh’s Community Education Centre to go to Council in March

Posted on by

In testing all available options for the future of Helensburgh’s Community Education Centre building, Argyll & Bute Council had put it on the open market. Three proposals were submitted but none met the defined terms.

Following this outcome, on 20th January Helensburgh and Lomond Area Committee endorsed a decision that the business case for the refurbishment of the building should be brought before the Area Committee and Argyll & Bute Council’s Executive in March.

Councillor James Robb, Chairman of the Area Committee, says: ‘This is a building valued by the community. Securing its future is a key priority within the Area Plan which was also agreed by members today. Members noting the absence of an acceptable offer to purchase it have backed the development of the business case for its refurbishment as part of a Council civic facility’.