(Updated 02.20) Weather. Roads.  Ferries. Information sources.

WEATHER

Tonight: Cloudy with patchy rain. Misty on high ground with some fog on highest routes. Light winds. Min temp night: 2 C.

Tomorrow – 12th February: Cloudy with patchy light rain. Very light winds. Max temp 7 C.

ROADS

Deer Warning: A83 between Dundaramh and Strone Point – deer have being seen on this section of road, in numbers, nightly, for the past fortnight.

A85 30th January – 10th February 2012: Transport Scotland are notifying roadworks for the A85 between Taynuilt and Connel. This is a carriageway resurfacing job with temporary traffic signals and single lane traffic convoyed through in each direction.

• A83 at Rest and Be Thankful: Open.  Latest information on A83 from Transport Scotland here. Warnings of increased risk of landslide remain in force.

Transport Scotland  – on 11th January 2012 –   opened this webpage specifically for the A83 at Rest and Be Thankful. It is reviewed weekly and will be updated in the event of any new landslip.

FERRIES

• Western Ferries, Hunter’s Quay (Dunoon)-McInroy’s Point (Gourock): Sailing as schedule.
• Argyll Ferries, Dunoon-Gourock (passenger only): Sailing as schedule.
• Seabus, Helensburgh-Kilcreggan-Gourock (passenger only): Sailing as schedule.
• CalMac, (West coast ferry operator): Sailing as schedule, except for notifications below.

CalMac service notifications for 11th February

• Colintraive-Rhubodach: a With smaller vessel on this route for the moment delays may be possible. Extra sailings will be carried out when required.

CalMac has issued advance warning of service changes for the Islay service from 12th-15th February inclusive. In order to complete the company’s overhaul programme in time for the summer season, it has been necessary to deploy one of the vessels from the Islay service to another route. An amended timetable for these four days will be operating as below on the Islay Service. Normal service is hoped to resume on 16th February.

• Sunday 12th February:  Depart Kennacraig 13:00 & 18:00. Depart Port Askaig 09:45, 15:30 & 20:15.
• 13th, 14th and 15th February: Depart Kennacraig 07:00, 13:00 & 18:00. Depart Port Askaig 09:45, 15:30 & 20:15.

CalMac has issued advance warning of timetable changes for the Tayinloan-Gigha route – for a prolonged period, 6th February to 29th March inclusive – except for 14th, 15th and 16th March,  applying during slipway works at Tayinloan. The timetable for this period will  be as follows:

ALL Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays

• Depart Tayinloan – 08.00; 09.00; 10.00; 11.00; 12.00; 16.35; 17.35.
• Depart Gigha – 07.35; 08.30; 09.30; 10.30; 11.30hrs; 15.30; 17.05.

Tuesday and Sunday(s) normal scheduled timetable service will be operating.

TRAVEL INFORMATION SOURCES

Online Information

• BBC Travel News (best up to date)
• Traffic Scotland – Current incidents  (not reliably up to date)
• Argyll Ferries – Service status
• CalMac Ferries – Service Status
• Western Ferries (note on service status at foot of home page)
• West Coast Motors – Service Updates
• Scottish Citylink Coaches
• ScotRail
• Glasgow Airport – Flight Information

Phone information only

• Hebridean Air Services: 0845 805 7465 (Flights between Oban and Tiree, Coll and Colonsay)
• Seabus: (Helensburgh-Kilcreggan-Gourock passenger ferry) 01475 721281 (Clyde Marine)
• Isle of Kerrera-Gallanach ferry: 01631 563665
• Isle of Easdale-Ellenabeich ferry: 01852 300559 (ferry shed) or 01631 562125 (Argyll and Bute Council)
• Isle of Lismore-Port Appin ferry: (passenger ferry) 01631 562125 (Argyll and Bute Council)
• Isle of Luing (Cuan)-Seil ferry: 01631 569160 or 01631 562125 (Argyll and Bute Council)
• Port Askaig (Islay)-Feolin (Jura) ferry: 01496 840681 (ASP Ship Management)
• Corran Ferry: (Ardgour and the Ardnamurchan Peninsula) 01855 841243 (Highland Council)

Speaking on the matter of the Council conducting covert surveillance, Ms Baillie says:

‘I am absolutely appalled that Argyll and Bute Council appear to have been engaging in spying on outspoken critics.

‘This raises extremely serious ethical questions that must be addressed.

‘Whilst we might expect behaviour such as this from some of the former Eastern European block countries during the Cold War, we certainly wouldn’t expect it to take place in Argyll and Bute Council in 21st century Scotland.

‘To suggest that if you criticise the Council, you will be subjected to covert surveillance, is particularly worrying for democracy.

‘It is important that we establish if this was simply one member of staff, or if this activity was condoned by more senior officers in the Council.

‘I will be writing to Derek Mackay the Minister for Local Government to request that a full investigation is carried out, either by Audit Scotland or some other independent organisation, as I do not believe that the Council should be left to investigate this matter on their own.’

We can only hope that the council is aware of the gravity of the situation and makes no attempt to hold an internal investigation.

In the circumstances which have culminated in this situation, an internal investigation could have no public credibility.

‘This matter was brought to my attention late yesterday afternoon.

‘Arrangements are being put in place for a full investigation.

‘The Council does not, nor would ever, advocate the use of covert accounts.’

‘The chief executive of the Council must make an immediate statement regarding the article published in today’s Herald.

‘We are in the process  of seeking clarity and asking for a full explanation regarding this issue.

‘If it is true that Council officers and administration Councillors  are Spying on Constituents and opposition Councillors heads must roll.

‘Argyll First fully support the calls for an independent inquiry.’

The group has also already written to the CEO, Mrs Sally Loudon, copying in the position statement above and requiring her to ‘respond to our request as detailed’.

Dear Sally

I am on the boat to Mull and have just read the Herald.  I cannot remember being as angry .  The thought that my constituents have been “spied on” by a senior member of your staff is truely outrageous. And when I consider the likelihood that I was one of these people, then words almost fail me.

If the article is not true I am sure you will tell me that immediately.  If it is true then not only must disciplinary action be immediate but I will also be calling for a full independent external inquiry.

There are  significant issues under the data protection and standards legislation that will require consideration.  In addition I also understand that the activities undertaken by staff may  have included posting comments about opposition political figures on websites so there will need to be a full and open account given of all these “spying” activities and information produced as to where the “product” of this spying ended up.  Who saw it or was told of it?  Did senior officials and administration councillors have access to it?  All these matters demand rigorous investigation with no delay.

Finally all this must be undertaken with total transparency and to that end I am releasing this to the media.

Yours sincerely
Michael

This covert surveillance includes the private Facebook activities of campaign groups.

These will certainly have included school campaigners and their umbrella organisation, the Argyll Rural Schools Network – and indeed the school closures campaign was mentioned by Ms Smith at the conference in question. The Castle Toward Sale Facebook campaigners are another possible target as are the current Dunoon school closure campaigners, whose Facebook area is seductively password protected and who are in the troubled Council Leader’s constituency.

The Herald article shows that Council Communications Manager, Jo Smith, revealed the practice – introduced under her regime -  in her presentation at a PR conference.

The event was ‘Epic social media for public services Scotland’ and was held in Glasgow’s Thistle Hotel on 28th September 2011. Ms Smith was one of the presenters in the morning, using a powerpoint backup which we located at the online conference report and downloaded – in the nick of time as the page was (coincidentally?)  suspended – and remains so, shortly after Ms Smith learned that The Herald was running this story.

In her presentation,we understand that Ms Smith not only revealed the council practice of using ‘Spy Accounts’ but advocated its use by her fellow public service professionals.

To the credit of that profession, whose reputation is substantially damaged by the use of such practices, the Herald article records that many in the audience were shocked and recoiled instinctively from the unethical nature of such practices.

Ms Smith was also taking an afternoon workshop at the event, on managing negatives, during which she was, according to Mr Naysmith’s piece, questioned on the ethics of what she was doing. Ethical practice, on this evidence, has hardly been a prime value of Ms Smith’s but the question will have alerted her to the alarms of others – and the necessary backtracking appears to have followed.

In this Ms Smith talked of dummy accounts in Facebook groups. But the deliberate use of the chosen term ‘Spy Accounts’ implies very much more – the invisible presence on the forums of such groups being entry level activity.

The critical fact is that the use of ‘Spy Accounts’ – and we emphasise that this is the council’s own terminology as promulgated by Ms Smith – is and has been in practice for some time. It has been enthusiastically adopted. It is being touted as the way forward. Signally, it has established both the appetite for and the practice of covert surveillance in Argyll and Bute Council, even to the level of spying on local critics and campaigners.

In the light of this genuinely horrifying revelation, it is unlikely that this is by any means the only area in which this council administration will have been employing covert surveillance. It has long been paranoid about opposition councillors – and internal trust of administration members themselves is not universal.

There is further cause for alarm in the recent plan to expand the council’s press department extensively and expensively. We now know what work these new staffers will be doing – information harvested by covert surveillance takes a lot of time to review.

The big question is the use to which such information has been put and by whom?

Unlawful as well as unethical

The use of surveillance of all kinds by local authorities is recognised not to be well governed but it is statutorily governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000. This is the transfer to Scottish law of the Westminster enacted Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

In the terms of the conduct covered by the Act, Ms Smith’s gung-ho activities undertaken by her own account at the conference,  in the council’s name, is ‘directed surveillance’.

Ms Smith was speaking at the Glasgow event as Communications Manager at Argyll and Bute Council. Her entire presentation was about council communications and the ‘Spy Accounts’ activity was presented by her as current council practice. Rightly or wrongly the council is now hard wired into complicity in this ongoing practice.

Local authorities are required to have authorisation for surveillance activity. This can be given by magistrates and local authorities can also have internal staff permitted to issue such authorisations.

Permitted surveillance by local authorities centres on issues like counter-terrorism, benefit fraud and fly-tipping. There has, however, been increasing concern about local authority abuse of covert surveillance activity – and its application to internet activity is recognised as the hardest to defend.

Questions to be asked

• Does Argyll and Bute Council have specific authorisation for these covert activities?
• How many internal officers are able to authorise such activity?
• How many internal requests for authorisation have been received over the past two years?
• What percentage of authorisations was granted in relation to requests received?

We are asking the Chief executive to confirm whether the ‘Spy Account’ activities trumpeted by Ms Smith at this formal public event were authorised and if so, by whom and under what terms of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act?

We are asking for precise information on what was done with the information gathered by such means – and by whom.

We are asking, if these covert surveillance activities were not authorised, what is the council’s attitude to an employee who conducts such activities personally, in the council’s name and gives a public audience of professionals to understand that this is now council policy?

A sacking issue

If these activities were not authorised, there is a straightforward sacking imperative since this practice has destroyed the council’s reputation for ethical conduct in its communications operation.

It has left the leader of the council’s communications team in a position beyond public trust and therefore leaves all public communications from the council suffering a profound credibility deficit. This position cannot be recovered under Ms Smith.

We are calling on all Argyll media to make their own position on this matter, whatever it is, unequivocal at the earliest opportunity. Their readers and listeners have a right to know their values on such issues, not least since many of them, particularly through the widespread activities on school closure campaigns, will have been unknowingly subject to such covert surveillance.

For Argyll unhesitatingly finds such practices, in any form and at any level, completely unacceptable in ethical practice. This is a road no honest person or organisation should even contemplate starting to travel.

If Ms Smith’s activities were authorised, the council will find it difficult to account for the endorsement of such conduct.

The Herald article notes a council response it received last night:

‘Argyll and Bute Council does not use and does not condone the use of covert social media accounts’.

Did this statement come from the Council’s official spokesperson, its Communications Manager, Ms Smith?

This impossibility makes clear the fact that her position is untenable. She has, as is now known to be the removal trigger, become the story.

Her inevitable departure will not, however, be an end to the matter. There are now other issues to be investigated, such as the possible covert surveillance of elected members.

If Ms Smith’s covert surveillance adventures were not authorised, it paints a picture of a council out of control, where no one knows or cares what anyone else is doing. It is inconceivable that in a well managed council administration, an officer at senior level would go solo and so spectacularly off piste in so sensitive a matter.

Ms Smith may have been an enthusiastically unprincipled participant in covert surveillance practices but there is an underlying corporate culture at Argyll and Bute Council which breeds such activities and values and which is overdue root and branch revision.

Note: Here is Ms Smith’s back up powerpoint presentation for her appearance at the ‘Epic Social Media for Public Services Scotland’ conference in Glasgow on 28th September 2011, (josmith). Readers will note, as we did with some amusement, that Slide 6 is devoted solely to uncredited material from For Argyll under the heading ‘It shouldn’t happen to a Council’. No examples of negative media coverage from any other source are given. We take it as confirmation of our good judgment that we are of such singular concern to an administration and an officer whose reputations for probity of practice are now beyond recall.

Update Note 16.47 10th February: : The Herald story is now available online here.

This fall back route would be the back up for traffic  in the event of any further landslips closing this stretch of the A83.

This is a solution that Argyll and Bute’s MSP has been been campaigning for over the last few months.

He says: ‘I am delighted that Alex Neil and John Swinney have  responded so positively to my request, as the constituency MSP,  for funding to allow the haul road to be used as an emergency alternative route for the A83 at the Rest and be Thankful in the event of any future land slips.

‘I am also very pleased that the Forestry Commission has been able to source some additional and immediate money which will mean that the project can be brought forward quickly.

‘I have been working on this with Forestry and other interests  for some time and whilst there is still work to be done on the surveying and detailed examination of the forestry road in Glen Croe, the tremendous support that has come from the Timber Transport Group, Forestry Contractors, the Commission, the local Police, Argyll & Bute Council, Transport Scotland, Scotland Transerv and now the Government has meant that we have  achieved funding and a commitment to go ahead in a very short period of time.

‘This will be a huge boon to all those who have been badly affected by the issue.

‘The £100,000 study announced by Keith Brown (Ed: Transport Minister) two weeks ago will also help take forward the long term, permanent solution to the problems at the Rest but a short term, fall back road for all traffic, in convoy, will save time and money and increase safety if there are any more incidents.’

With forestry haul roads built to take large and heavily loaded vehicles, this is the ideal temporary back up to this section of the A83, capable of carrying all of the traffic that uses this vital arterial road into and out of Argyll.

Responses

From Jamie McGrigor, MSP

Commenting on this announcement, Highlands & Islands Conservative MSP Jamie McGrigor, who has consistently lobbied the Scottish Government  on this issue, working closely with South Kintyre Councillor Donald Kelly of Argyll First, says:

‘I am delighted that the Scottish Government has taken up the idea promoted by myself and Donald Kelly to upgrade the forestry track in Glen Croe as an alternative route should the A83 be blocked.

‘It is good to see common sense come into play as the A83 is such an important lifeline to Argyll, especially Campbeltown and Kintyre. This will be money well spent if it can keep open this vital route which has been plagued by so many blockages of late. The economy of Argyll is greatly dependent on the route and I hope that work goes ahead on this upgrading project as soon as possible.’

The competition is from Cockburnspath in Berwickshire and Kirkmichael in Perthshire.

This appears to be  the only category in the awards with an Argyll finalist.

Jude and Bruce Barton, owners of the Ardfern shop, with their long serving assistant, Julie MacLean, are at Holyrood today.

The Community in Ardfern and its surrounding area are delighted with this recognition for their local shop and will be ecstatic if it wins.

Update 9th February: the result

Well – Ardfern Village Store didn’t win – except that as one of the three village shops across Scotland shortlisted as a finalist, it had won already.

Jude and Bruce Barton hugely enjoyed the reception they were given at Holyrood and were delighted at the opportunity to see the Scottish Parliament at first hand and as insiders for the event.

The worthy winner was the village shop from Kirkmichael in Perthshire, a remote rural village whose shop was closing. This would have left the village in a real pickle, so it went for a community buy out, has made a real success or it and no longer has to worry about such a loss to its sustainability.

Highlands and Islands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, has today tabled a parliamentary motion, congratulating the winners and runners up in the Countryside Alliance awards:. The text of the motion is as follows:

‘Short Title: Congratulations to Scottish Countryside Alliance Awards 2011
‘S4M-01994 Jamie McGrigor () (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): That the Parliament congratulates the winners of the Scottish Countryside Alliance Awards 2011; notes that the winners were Cairn O’Mohr Fruit Wines, for the best local food, Kirkmichael Village Shop, for the best village shop/post office, Charles MacLeod Ltd of Stornoway, for best butcher, and Cairnie Fruit Farm, for best rural enterprise; further notes that the awards were presented at a ceremony held in the Parliament on 8 February 2012; believes that Charles MacLeod Ltd’s award is a further deserved recognition for the company, which is a producer of what it considers to be the world-famous Stornoway black pudding; also commends all the finalists, including Ardfern Village Store; praises the Scottish Countryside Alliance for organising what are seen as the annual Rural Oscars; considers that the awards are an excellent way of showcasing some of the best of Scotland’s diverse and world-class rural businesses, and wishes every success to all the finalists who will now go on to represent Scotland in a competition against other finalists from England, Wales and Ireland at the Countryside Alliance Awards, which will take place in March.’

Auchindrain, the preserved highland farm township in mid-Argyll, has the great good fortune to have a Conservation Surveyor – an RICS-qualified Building Surveyor with an accredited specialisation in historic buildings – living in its locality and has retained him as its consultant.

John Gleeson and Gleeson Historic Building Consultants work out of the lovely old township of Kenmore on the shores of Loch Fyne, down the road from Auchindrain.

Auchindrain these days, under Development Manager, Bob Clark, is not standing still in any way.  Walls and a barn have been rebuilt by the West of Scotland Dry Stone Walling Association, some as part of training sessions. And on the negative side, the buildings themselves have been on the move of late,with those in the east township showing deep cracks and bulges in their walls.

In both of these developments, John Gleeson has been central to what Auchindrain has been able to do.

With the rebuilding and re-roofing of ‘the Munro barn, ‘or ‘Martin’s barn’, it was the Conservation Surveyor whose expertise laid the foundations, so to speak, for what was done. John Gleeson did all the design work and calculations, worked out how to build the roof, and navigated Auchindrain through the complexities of Historic Scotland and planning.  He also did the costings and managed the contractors.

The barn is immediately visible in the centre of the historic township, on a height with its new roof, sitting just east of the 1960s timber cottage, the Colt house, which is a listed building in its own right.

Recently, when the deep cracks in the east township structures were the subject of concern, it was John Gleeson who worked out what was actually happening to the buildings. They were, as we recently reported in our feature on the cutting of new drains at Auchindrain, actually moving. The water running off their roofs onto the ground below has soaked deep into the clay soil.

In the last two unusually hard winters, and particularly in the 2010-11 winter with its almost unprecedentedly low temperatures, that sodden clay froze hard – and expanded, lifting the buildings. Then the thaw saw the retraction of the clay, dropping the structures back down again.

This process has inevitably led to the bulging of some walls and deep cracking in the stonework of many others.

Once the Conservation Surveyor had done the detective work, the next job was to resolve what should be done about it.

John Gleeson then evolved the concept of digging and installing new land drains around the buildings so that, as the water runs off the roof, it falls onto these drains and is conducted away where it cannot again permeate the clay and freeze.

After creating the concept, the Conservation Surveyor and the Development Manager then took the approach to Historic Scotland for their comment and advice, with Mr Gleeson consequently doing the detailed designs and the costings.

Historic Scotland have funded the operation.

The team at Auchindrain is a very capable one, with people dedicated to the value of this unusual place and a national collection. The ability to have a consultant Conservation Surveyor to hand is a piece of luck – but one which Bob Clark has been quick to capitalise upon.

Councillor Alison Hay, an  active and engaged Chair of the Trust that oversees Auchindrain, is very appreciative of the skills now available to the development of the township.

When Easter visitors arrive, the township may still show the scars of the new drainage patterns but it will be spick and span and the ground underfoot should be less soggy for walkers than it has traditionally been.

‘Careful monitoring continues and the recent spell of dry weather has helped to stabilise the hillside.   As a result of this development the Wig Wag signs have been returned to normal operation.  Other safety measures such as the traffic management, the tilt meters and instigating patrols of the hillside in the event of a deterioration of the forecast weather conditions, remains in place.

‘Additionally, Graham Edmond, Head of Road Maintenance at Transport Scotland says:

‘ “Transport Scotland fully understands the impact landslides can have on communities and we continue to plan for and manage the risk associated with them across Scotland.

‘ “Around the Rest and be thankful in particular, we are looking at protective netting, shelters and the potential for planting on the hillside. The improvement and strengthening of the nearby forestry road, as an emergency alternative, is also being investigated as discussed at previous meetings.” ‘

Further information is available on the Transport Scotland’s Rest and be Thankful website page.

At the ceilidh on 3rd March, the musicians in Ceol an Aire will be:

• Malcolm Clark-Vocals
• Mairi Voinot-Fiddle
• Ruairidh Morrison-Accordion
• Angus MacColl Jnr.-Bagpipes
• Ewan Macdonald-Keyboard and guitar.

The programme will be a mixture of traditional ceilidh dances, with Scottish, Irish and Gaelic songs.

There will be a buffet – and the Craignish buffets are celebrated in their own right – and there will be a bar and a prize draw.

The evening is a fund-raiasing event for the Netherlorn Churches.

Details are:

• Craignish Village Hall
• Saturday 3rd March, 7.00pm till midnight.
• Tickets £8.00 (adult), £20.00 (family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children)
• Tickets available from Ardfern Village Shop; or from  Ishbel on 01852 500277; or from Chris on 01852 500674.

The detail of the briefing made it very clear just how influential Argyll First’s Sign for the A83 campaign has been. every point they have made has been accepted and is being investigated already.

The Argyll First councillors – Donald Kelly, John McAlpine and Dougie Philand say that they: ‘…are delighted that the Scottish Government have recognised all the issues raised in our ongoing petition, Sign for the A83.

‘This news should encourage any member of the public who has not yet signed the petition to do so now. (Sign for the A83)

‘We expect to present the petition to the Scottish Government in March. In the meantime we would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to sign the petition.’

Transport Scotland’s Network Manager North’s email to Councillor Philand

Sent: 03 February 2012 14:02
To: Philand, Dougie

Subject: A83 Rest and Be Thankful -

Dougie

The full brief has not been finalised as yet. I will provide a copy when it has. We are looking at a procurement lead in time of 2-3 months followed by 3 -4 months for the consultants to undertake the study, so we would be looking towards the end of the summer to have the report available to us.

As I say the brief is in the process of being finalised but it is likely that it will require the consulting engineer to examine the following issues:-

• Feasibility of providing an engineering solution at Rest and Be Thankful eg shelter (roof) protection that would allow landslide to flow over road or raise level of road on box culvert that would allow flow under the road/
• Feasibility of a new parallel alignment at RaBT
• Feasibility of a new alignment exploring possibility of an alternative route eg following a different valley altogether
• Review of safety of the A83 including pedestrian crossing facilities at Ardrishaig and Tarbert
• Feasibility of removing various pinch points eg Inveraray Bridge, Erines and Barmore Road, Tarbert
• Mention was made at Wednesday’s meeting regarding the diversion route should the road be closed south of Inverneil. The report will also examine the suitability of existing diversion routes including the feasibility of introducing new diversion routes similar to the RaBT forestry track diversion route that we’re currently investigating

Other issues will be considered separately and may if appropriate feed into the final report.

• The issue regarding trunking the A83 from Kennacraig to Campbelltown is a strategic issue and will be considered internally by Transport Scotland
• Upgrading of the Forestry Commission Track at RaBT to provide an Emergency Diversion Route will be progressed by Transport Scotland and our Operating Companty, Scotland TranServ.
• Long term plans to introduce vegetation to stabilise slope will be progressed with our Geotechnical expert, Mike Winter and other experts including the Forestry Commission. The conclusions of this will feed into the above report
• Installation of additional  geotechnical instrumentation at the site of the most recent landslide and Debris Flow Netting will be progressed by Scotland TranServ

As part of the above exercise it is envisaged that the consulting Engineer will also carry out a consultation exercise with local communities.

Regards
Andy

Andy Anderson
Network Manager North
Trunk Road and Bus Operations

Auchindrain, Scotland’s last preserved Highland farm township, is in the middle of a piece of pronounced practical conservation work.

The east village – the major cluster of extant buildings at the Inveraray end of the township looks as if it’s been beamed down on to a deeply furrowed field – but it’s a massive drainage scheme to protect the buildings, which suffered significantly in last winter’s deep freeze.

Temperatures then were so low that the ground froze to some depth – and everyone in Argyll knows that our prevalent clay holds water.

Rain runs off the traditionally unguttered roofs in the township and, yes, it does, in freezing conditions do damage to the walls it runs down. But the main damage done in last winter’s profound cold was much more serious.

The rain running off the roofs on to the ground around the cottages soaked into the clay and was retained by it, with no warmth in the air to let it evaporate.

Then came the freeze up.

When the water-soaked clay froze deep down, it expanded significantly, rising and lifting the buildings. Then, when the thaw came, it sank again. the impact on these old stone walls of this lift-and-drop experience has left bellied walls, cracks and doors that no longer work.

It is obvious that a few repetitions of this experience in a succession of cold winters would be too much for many of the buildings s0 a solution had to be found. Which is where ‘Och, it’s drains’ comes in to it.

Land drains – to collect and conduct roof water away from the buildings – are now being cut close to the side walls of the cottages in the east township. Proof of the need for them came  in the speed with which water drained in to them from the clay sides and started running almost at once. And then there were the springs.

The drains will have perforated piping, backfilled with gravel and topped with soil. By the time the first visitors arrive, it will all be in perfect order and the ground beneath their feet will be less ‘welcoming’ than it has been.

The current condition of the door on Stoner’s barn is a graphic illustration of what has happened to the buildings.

The framing timbers that carry the doors are fixed to timber wedges hammered into the stone walls in the depth of the doorway.

These wedges also froze, sodden with the water that had permeated them as it fell from the roof. When the wedges expanded, with stone behind them, they pushed forwards against the softer framing timbers for the door. The frames were pushed clear of the side walls, leaving insufficient room between them for the door to operate.

The wedges at the top, closer under the roof overhang, had got less wet, so expanded less significantly, leaving the top door frames more or less in their usual position and the tops of the doors would be or less operational except that below they are folded across each other by the projecting lower wedges and frames.

The work is being funded by Historic Scotland, through an Ancient Monuments Grant. This does not, in fact ,have to be limited to strictly ancient monuments. It can be used to support the addressing of factors that compromise the stability of buildings – as here at Auchindrain.

The grant his been given for physical conservation, to support the creation of a consequent management plan for the buildings. It also helps Historic Scotland itself to understand better how the site at Auchindrain behaves.

A spokesperson for Historic scotland says: ‘Auchindrain is significant as a very rare survival of a once common settlement type which survived widespread 18th and 19th century improvements.

‘Although the agricultural practices were improved, joint tenancy survived, and with it the older layout and many of the buildings.  Its rarity was recognised as early as the 1870s,  when the Duke of Argyll brought Queen Victoria to see the township.   It’s significance is reflected in it being A-listed for its national importance.

‘We have provided a grant of £5,000 to the Auchindrain Museum Trust for drainage works and repairs to the cartshed and £5,000 towards creating a conservation plan that will support the management and understanding of the site.

‘The drainage is particularly important as the accumulation of water around these historic buildings can cause damage.  This problem has become more acute during the recent severe winters and we recognised that resolving this as soon as possible was a priority.’

Archaeologist Roddy Regan from Kilmartin (left above)  has been commissioned to work with Auchindrain’s endlessly active Development Manager, Bob Clark (right), in making the plan for the position of the drains to ensure that they do not impact on sensitive areas of the site.

While they have previously excavated middens at Auchindrain and found plenty of pottery shards, Roddy Regan has been a little surprised that no pottery at all has been found in all of the drain excavations that have been going on in this project.  He mentioned finding no fewer than 22 teapots in an excavation at High Morlaggan, on Loch Long, south of Arrochar.

While Mike Campbell from Arduaine carefully cuts the drains in the east township, there is proof of other recent restoration work at Auchindrain, on the edge of this cluster of buildings and almost marking its western boundary.

The Munro Barn – or Martin’s barn – had previously been no more than foundations and heaps of boulders that had once formed its walls.

The West of Scotland Dry Stone Walling Association has patiently rebuilt the barn over the past 12 months or so, as an association project. It has since been roofed and now stands proudly on its height, commanding the east township and flanked to the west by the historically newest structure on the site, the wooden ‘Colt’ house, built in the early 1960′s for the last folk to live in Auchindrain – and a listed building in its own right.

Together, these two structures have long and new tales to tell.

Note: To correct our mischievous misuse of its name, Auchindrain is pronounced ‘Ach an dryan’ and means the field of the thorn tree.

Current position

‘A conference call was held yesterday afternoon (26th January) between Transport Scotland including our specialist geotechnical consultant, Mike Winter and Scotland TranServ’s (STS) geotechnical engineers to discuss the way ahead at the Rest and Be Thankful.

‘The current position is that the road immediately below the location of the landslide and the areas that were identified as potential areas for further movement is restricted to one lane controlled by traffic signals with a concrete barrier to provide a level of protection should further slippage occur.

‘Movement of the soil on the hillside has reduced considerably which has given us the comfort to scale down 24/7 monitoring, reverting to observation when landslip patrols have been triggered by a severe weather warning.

‘Landslip patrols will also be extended during the hours of darkness to observe the tilt meters.

‘Scotland’s Transerv’s geotechnical Engineer visits the site on a weekly basis and makes detailed observations including viewing the hillside from the opposite side of the valley, taking photographs which are compared with previous ones taken to identify trends and whether further movement is occurring.

‘Delays at the traffic signals remain negligible.

‘The issue of when would be the most appropriate time to fully reopen the road to 2 way traffic and remove the signals and barrier was also discussed.

‘Concerns remain that a further landslip could occur at this location. The space created by closing off the lane closest to the bottom of the slip and the protection provided by the barrier is still considered to be worthwhile protection. The presence of traffic signals also slows vehicles and has the benefit of making drivers more vigilant as they pass through, particularly at night when flood lights are used to illuminate the road.

‘For these reasons, and given that the delays at present are minimal, 1 to 2 minutes at the most, it was agreed to keep the barrier in place until more robust protection such as debris flow netting and more sophisticated remote monitoring geotechnical instrumentation can be installed. Scotland Transerv met with the debris flow netting contractor last week and the contractor will be submitting proposals and detailed costs shortly.’

Use of the forestry haul route

‘Regarding the use of the Forestry Haul Route: Scotland TranServ met with the Forestry Commission on site last week and are currently preparing a report identifying what works will be required to upgrade the forestry track to a suitable standard, including estimated costs plus giving consideration to operational practicalities of convoy working along the diversion route.

‘I expect to receive this report shortly and in advance of the follow up meeting with Michael Russell MSP, The Forestry Commission Scotland and the Argyll and Bute Timber Transport Association which is taking place Monday 30 Jan.

‘We are also in discussions with our legal colleagues to clarify use of such a road.’

Community engagement

‘We have started the process of engaging with local community about Rest and Be Thankful and other issues on the A83 and the following meetings have already taken place:

• 18 Jan Tarbert – Meet with Bob Chicken of Tarbert & Skipness Community Council
• 24 Jan Arrochar – Meet Jim Smith Head of Roads Argyll & Bute Council

‘Going forward, the following meetings have also been arranged:

• 30 Jan – Ardgarten – meeting with Michael Russell and the Forestry Commission and Argyll and Bute Timber Transport Association
• 1 Feb – Lochgilphead – Meet Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islands Area Committee followed by MAKI Community Planning
• 9 Feb – Tarbert – Meet with Tarbert & Skipness Community Council
• 21 Feb – Lochgoilhead – engage with local community at Lochgoilhead Village Hall
• 24 Feb – Campbeltown – Meet with Kintyre Initiative Working Group’

‘A number of mitigation measures have been implemented following the slippage, including Traffic Management remaining onsite, erecting Floodlights in the landslip area, installing tilt meters to observe the hillside above the roadside and instigating patrols of the hillside in the event of a deterioration in the forecast weather conditions whilst ensuring a heightened level of monitoring remains.

‘Further to these actions work continues to identify further measures to mitigate against the impact of landslides wherever they occur on our network. The landslide at the Rest and be Thankful has come under particular scrutiny and information is available on the Transport Scotland’s Rest and be Thankful website page.

Graham Edmond, Head of Road Maintenance at Transport Scotland says: ‘Transport Scotland fully understands the impact landslides can have on communities and we continue to plan for and manage the risk associated with them across Scotland.

‘Around the Rest and be thankful in particular, we are looking at protective netting, shelters and the potential for planting on the hillside. The improvement and strengthening of the nearby forestry road, as an emergency alternative, is also being investigated as discussed at previous meetings.’

As a major bus company operating across a wide area of the west of Scotland, it has good reason to be concerned about the state of this cruciual road.

The company is pleased that The Sign for the A83 campaign is being supported strongly by businesses and the community within Argyll and fully supports the campaign and its aim of achieving significant improvements to the A83.

Colin Craig, Managing Director of West Coast Motors, says: ‘The Sign for the A83 campaign is proving to be successful in gaining support – but what we really want now is agreement from those responsible for making decisions at senior government level to take the actions that are urgently required.

‘For local people the major benefits of the recommended improvements would be less disruption of our services due to adverse weather conditions or road closures caused by landslides as well as the potential for a reduction in journey times.

‘For visitors, the possible benefits would be reduced journey times and improved accessibility.  These factors along with the £8 million Southworth development in Kintyre and our efforts, via the  Kintyre Express, to open up Kintyre as a destination from Ireland would result in a significant boost to our local economy through increased numbers of visitors.

‘As a long established local business which uses the A83 frequently, the increased costs caused by service disruption and road closures every winter can be extensive and poor road quality obviously has an impact on our vehicles, in which we invest a huge amount every year.  The poor road quality issue can, in large part, be addressed by the A83 between Kennacraig and Campbeltown being designated a trunk road and Transport Scotland taking ownership of its maintenance whilst the road closure issue may prove more difficult to resolve but every effort should be made to do so urgently.’

West Coast Motors has already provided written support to the campaign and pledges to do everything it can to help the campaign achieve its aims.

Crippling our best businesses

This is not just one of Argyll’s major businesses, it is one of the most enterprising and innovative, with a commitment to aligning what it does with economic development for Argyll.

It has made a major investment, along with Scottish Citylink, in seven supercoaches to run an increased frequency service between Glasgow and Campbeltown and to serve the Glasgow to Oban route.

It has also invested in Kintyre Express,  a new fast passenger ferry service from Campbeltown to Ballycastle on the  north coast of Ireland, with two RedBay Stormforce boats about to be joined by the third in the fleet, a eyar after the second was launched and entered service.  Passengers fro the Ballycastle end are coming familiarity with good roads. Then they land in Campbeltown and meet – the hard way – the consequences of sustained neglect of infrastructural responsibilties.

How can Scotland hope to stimulate economic development when an example of the very business energies it badly needs is finding its operation and ambition undermined on a daily basis by a wholly inadequate roads infrastructure?

This must feel like what Geofrey Howe, in his famous ministerial resignation speech in the Thatcher days, described as: ‘like going in to bat only to find that the captain has broken the bats’.

Scotland needs to give its best business bats decent equipment and a good crease.

Sign for the A83

Non-progress note:  Argyll First have, as yet, had no response of any kind to their request to meet with the Transport Minister, Keith Brown to discuss the A83. This news is an ironic accompaniment to Colin Craig’s call, above, for government action on the A83.

The lights dim. Sharp light picks out a single piper – and the bagpipes sing as few of us have heard them sing. The place stills. As the pipes soar, other fragments of sound come from the darkness on the other side of the stage – stray yelps from a saxophone, chords, challenging the fluency and sweetness of the pipes and adding a strange  dramatic counterpoint.

The mood for the event was set.

Chris Coates, a young piper from Lochgilphead now playing with the Lomond and Clyde Pipe Band, can make this instrument perform in a way that is mesmeric – and he was one of many fabulously talented musicians on stage. Fraser Fifield on the saxophone, guitar virtuoso John Goldie, Travis drummer Neil Primrose, a team of pipers, drummers and a young vocalist all from Argyll – and Musical Director, John Saich, a former member of Scots Gaelic band, Capercaille, now director of Wild Biscuit, from Argyll, which produced the show.

Saich (above, in the shadows, with the vocalist) has done the musical arrangement which, as signalled by the stunning opening piece, is full of invention and surprise. He plays bass and, clearly with a picture-perfect grasp of every footfall and note in this complex and fast-paced show, he keeps it on track from a discreet  strategic position, right of the drums.

With the musicians are the members of Random Aspekts, a breakdance crew who perform together, in small groups and with the tenor drummers who could be described as MOVE’s inhouse dance team, with Edinburgh based choreographer Tony Mills.

MOVE’s pipers and drummers are, in a fusion show, wearing fusion dress. It looks like traditional Scottish dress, with kilts of a sort – but these have white, seamed-edged panels making the team a compellingly mysterious cross between cyber warriors and familiar members of a pipe band.

In this show, everything is familiar – but estranged; what you think you know is taken from you, changed and given back – with new allegiances and confidence.

You have to trust your own responses to connect with what you’re seeing – and if you do, you suddenly realise that the breakdancers are skilfully paying tribute to ballet and then joyfully taking ownership of highland dancing – in both cases a fusion of dance forms that is quite breathtaking and wonderfully fluidly performed.

These guys are almost never off the stage and almost never still, with energy galvanisung their bodies, airborne, floorborne.  They love to dance, they want to dance, they probably insist on dancing all the time. You can’t imagine them ever being immobile. Making a meal at home can hardly be a mundane event.  Their feet are irresistible, endlessly pouncing,  quick, light, barely touching the floor and somehow like white pom-poms. The feet are a show all of their own.

They perform everything they dance – it’s full of narrative, discussion, debate, challenge, cheek. Absolutely glorious and enviably celebrating being alive. This makes you begin to contemplate reincarnation and doing it differently next time.

The faces of the entire ensemble – the musicians, the haunting Gaelic singer, the breakdancers – are all enlivened and all actively enjoying each other’s performance skills. Smiles break out in internal appreciation.

The tenor drummers – arguably the most performative drum -  dance and drum. The pipers let their sound command the stage while staying physically at the side – very well judged direction.The professional musicians weave their magic modestly, never seeking the limelight and blending seamlessly with their colleagues from the other disciplines.

This show could not be better named, MOVE, with an hour long set that never stops, just keeps morphing into something else – much of it beyond anticipation. It celebrates extraordinary skills with a throwaway ease that belies the absolute professionalism at the heart of the event.

There were nine new compositions in the show, all written by members of the core team. One – a combination of two piece, by tenor drummer, Sally Hall – Fraser’s Flight and Ace of Clubs – commemorates a heart stopping sequence of events that took place not long before Christmas 2011. Their newly born grandson, Fraser, had to be airlifted form Lorn and the isles General Hospital in Oban to Glasgow, in a helicopter whose crews’  nickname for it is  Ace of Clubs.

And the set ended with the MOVE take on Scotland the Brave.

This show is hugely exciting, amusing, life enhancing – and it has been made in Argyll. If you get a chance to see it, thank your lucky stars.

Note: This show was produced by Wild Biscuit for the 2012 Celtic Connections Festival, with a programme running until Sunday 5th February.

This Argyll connection could not be closer, on two counts: DNA and current activity.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s grandson, Falcon Scott, lives with his family at Craobh Haven on the west coast in Mid Argyll – and is currently in the Antarctic after setting out on 27th December 2011 to follow his grandfather to Cape Evans.

He arrived at the base on 31st December, having applied for a job as a conservation carpenter to work on the renovation of his grandfather’s hut, which he is determined to help to save.

During  his seven-week trip – from which, weather permitting, he should return on 4rth February, Mr Scott will be working for the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust who are repairing the hut.

After arriving, he is reported as saying: ‘When I first walked in it was quite emotional for me. It was my first visit to the hut. There’s quite a feeling of presence of the man. It’s very much like being transported back in time.’

With 2012 the centenary of the Scott expedition’s arrival at the south pole – a photograph taken of the team on the spot at the time shows their universal dejection at being beaten to it by Amundsen – the 17th January saw the event commemorated at Scott Base with a ceremonial dinner for the scientific community working there.

In another and highly personal link with his legendary grandfather, Falcon and Jane Scott’s first son was christened in the wardroom of RRS Discovery (Royal Research Ship), wit the use of an inherited right.

Discovery, built in Dundee, was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in Britain. After essential restoration carried out by the Maritime Trust in the early 1980s, she became the property of Dundee Heritage Trust in 1985.

Delivered from the Thames to Dundee aboard the MV Happy Mariner cargo ship  she made her homecoming on the River Tay on 3rd April 1986 to a wildly enthusiastic welcome. Now the heart of the Discovery Point visitor attraction in Dundee, she sits in a purpose-built dock, set up as closely as possible to the way she’d have looked in 1924 when she was refitted at Vospers in Portsmouth.

Listed in the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection, she embraced the ceremonial naming in Dundee of the great-grandson whose forebear she left that city to carry to the Antarctic, right at the start of the last century; and whose own father, Captain Scott’s grandson, is, at this moment, back where the main chapter of this story came to its conclusion.

The man, the action and the hut

Who doesn’t know of the two Antarctic expeditions led by Captain Robert Scott? There was the 1901-04 expedition, known as the Discovery Expedition, after the ship that got them there and became embedded in sea ice at McMurdo Sound. This expedition – to an almost virgin continent, was focused on scientific research and geographical exploration.

Scott was an ambitious officer in the Royal Navy with an eye on the potential impact on his career of volunteering to command the expedition. In the end, his two Antarctic expeditions may not have propelled him up the ladder in the naval rankings but, more enduringly, they indelibly bound his name in the history of exploring, ‘Scott of the Antarctic’ made him synonomous with the place.

His second expedition, th2 1910-1913 Terra Nova (his then supply ship) – or British Antarctic Expedition, was a race between his team and that of Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen to reach the geographical South Pole. , Scott was pipped to the pole by 33-34 days by Amundsen. Scott got there on 17th January 1912. He and his whole team died on the way back from starvation, hypothermia and exhaustion, beset by blizzards and most probably by scurvy. Their bodies were found by searchers eight months later.

In the first, Discovery Expedition, Scott had built a hut at McMurdo Sound – Hut Point  near Discovery. In the second Terra Nova Expedition -the race to the pole – he built a substantial wooden hut 20 kms north of there at Cape Evans. Part of his thinking was to try avoid the imprisonment in sea ice that Discovery had experienced further to the south ten years earlier. The other reason was the  very basic one that the first hut was too cold to live in.

Scott and his team had discovered the cape on the 1901-04 expedition and when they made this place the base for their second one, they named it for the second in command of the expedition,  Lieutenant Edward RGR Evans.

To avoid confusion – where both huts are ‘Scott’s Hut’ – the first one is known as Discovery Hut and the second as Scott’s Hut.

It’s about 50′ x 25′, prefabricated in England and erected on site by Scott’s team. And they did know about insulating a hundred year ago, but not quite as we know it. They used a quilt filled with seaweed in the cavity between outer and inner walls of double planking. Having had a deeply cold time of it in the Discovery Expedition, the team was focused n making the hut as warm as possible,. The roof had three layers of a ply made of timber planking and rubber, with more seaweed quilting between the layers.

Inside, the team adopted devices to retain heat from the flues of their cooker and coal stove. We cannot find reference to how they dealt with the floor but it is inconceivable that this was not heavily insulated against the ice below. Anyway, the initiatives were so successful that the team found it almost uncomfortably warm.

Two other elements were added to this core structure , a 50′ x 16′ stable on the north wall and a 40′ x 12′ utility room on the south west.

The 25-strong Terra Nova team lived in this hut for the winter of 2011. with some remaining on station when Scott and the others left for the pole. After the expeditionary team failed to return, these men stayed on in the hut for th 1912 winter so that they could search for the bodies in the Spring.

Few expeditions, even today as is seen littered over Everest, seem to clear up after themselves and take everything  they arrive with home again.

When the residue of the Terra Nova expedition left Cape Evans in 1913, they left behind them not only the usual abandoned kit and bits and pieces, but supplied with stores of food, oil, and leftover coal.

Two years later, in 1915, this came in very handy when some of Shackleton;s men were marooned on the ice when their boat, the Aurora was torn form her berth and taken north in the ice. Thanks to the insulated hut and the stores the Terra Nova exhibition had left, they survived a comfortable enough period until 2017 when Shackleton rescued them.

The hut was then tidied up, locked and abandoned  i 1956, an American expedition dug it out of the snow and found ,the hut with its contents – a blend of the Scott 1911 expedition and the Shackleton habitation – surprisingly well preserved.

However, while the constantly dry freezing conditions have preserved the food, the seal meal, not unreasonably, stinks. Bacterial decay defies freezing and there is concern that Scott’s Hut and the earlier Discovery Hut are both suffering from fungal decay.

Scott’s Hut is on the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. Funding has been raised and is ongoing but the conservation work has begun at Scott’s Hut for the centenary year – an appropriate tribute to a man and a team whose adventures and whose end have stirred all of our imaginations.

Whatever historical revisionism may be attempted, it remains extraordinary and inspirational that a man facing his certain end can assert his lack of regret for the adventure that has brought him to this point; and can find the objective largeness of spirit to rise to the magnificence of humanity in the shape of the conduct of the heroic members of his team.

Scott wrote, just before his end: ‘Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.’

This note and these sentiments reverberate ironically in the context where the world has seen th4e captain of a cruise liner abandon his ship and thee lives of nhose for whom he was responsible.

And Scott’s confidence that their nation woulld look after the descendants of the expedition members sits against the reality of a national failure to honour the military covenant and to wish to reward the veterans of the Arctic Convoys with the medal they have always deserved. These veterans and Scott would have a shared understanding of the conditions they had both to confront day after day  – but Scott was not constantly facing the reality of U-boat attack and Luftwaffe strafing and bombing mission.

The photograph at the top shows the inside of Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans. It is by Kuno Lechner and is reproduced here under the GNU Free Documentation licence.

NOTE: Donations to the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, leading the conservation work at Cape Evans and the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, which has also been invovled in fund raising, can be made online through the links here to their names.

Scottish Highland Bagpipes and Breakdance may not seem the most likely of combinations even in the mash-up world of 2012. Neither might you expect to see a multi-platinum selling and twice Brit award winning drummer on stage with west coast pipers and drummers,.

However, Argyll-based production company, Wild Biscuit, has spent the last eighteen months bringing together exactly that.

Now,MOVE, a dynamic and energetic fusion of funk-tinged Pipe music, samples, beats, urban break dance and a five star live band can be seen at the 02 ABC in Glasgow, on Sunday 22nd January, as part of Celtic Connections Festival 2012.

Get it in the diary now – hand on heart, this really is an event not to miss. It is utterly unique, hugely enjoyable, mould breakiing – and it’s made in Argyll:  7.30pmin the 02 ABC Sauchiehall Street, in a double bill with Shooglenifty and Plan B.

The cast features multi instrumentalist, Fraser Fifield, guitar virtuoso John Goldie, Travis drummer Neil Primrose and a team of pipers and drummers and young vocalist from Argyll. Edinburgh based choreographer Tony Mills and Breakdance crew, Random Aspekts complete the east-west collaboration. Musical direction  – no straightforward business here but a cracking challenge, comes courtesy of bass player and arranger, John Saich, a former member of Scots Gaelic band Capercaillie and now Wild Biscuit Director.

The Wild Biscuit Pipers and Drummers, all hailing from Argyll, have worked with John over the past several months in a series of workshops and rehearsals to create new compositions and routines for MOVE.

The fifty minute show, supported by Creative Scotland through a Quality Arts investment programme, now contains many Argyll originals bringing a special sense of place to this unique and exiting production. Some captivating signature dance sections have also been created involving many members of the cast, again showcasing the outstanding talent abundant within the team and their exceptional capability of embracing the techniques and professional performance direction.

The strength of collaboration between artists has been exceptional, as has the hard work and determination of the Argyll based cast members in such demanding roles.  Professional commitmemnt, precision and  and discipline are Wild Biscuit’s hallmark, with hugely developmental results for everyone.

Pipers and drummers taking to the stage on 22nd January 2012 are from Ardrishaig, Crinan, Lochgilphead, Furnace, Slockavullin and Helensburgh, with the new compositions written by Thomas McCulloch, David Provan, Chris Coates and Sally Hall. Each has its own individual style, originality and personal significance and takes the sum of original compositions from the area in the set list to a staggering nine.

John Saich says: ‘It’s a pleasure to be able to provide an outlet for these compositions and fitting additions to the set list and to see the imaginative choreography of Tony Mills and the Random Aspekts Crew taking shape around them.’

Simon Thoumire of the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards says: ‘MOVE embodies modern Scotland – vibrant, inclusive and not scared to take chances’.

The full Argyll cast line up is:  Bill Halliday, David Provan, George Hall, Bethan Phillips, Orla Ward, Chris Coates, Sally Hall, Ashley Kilgour, James Dunkley, Maddy Ward, Thomas McCulloch, Colin Brown and Kim Carnie.

• Find out more about MOVE here. Or phone:  +44 (0)1546 810394.
• Tickets are available on line here at Celtic Connections.