Pagers at 2.59 pm this afternoon (22 June 2011) saw the Oban lifeboat Continue reading
Tag Archives: Appin
Justice Department to consider case for clearing name of James of the Glen
Argyll’s infamous 1752 murder case – known as the Appin Murder Continue reading
Mather on the case as Council takes leave of its senses on business signage
Today’s Oban Times great lead story homed in on a bout of madness Continue reading
Oban Lifeboat launch to yacht aground – the famous Quest II
This afternoon (21st September) the Oban RNLI lifeboat launched Continue reading
Accident on A828 in north Argyll
Yesterday afternoon, 13th March, a car left the road south of Appin, near Creagan in North Argyll. No other vehicles were involved.
The road was closed in both directions and the Police arranged diversions.
A man was airlifted to hospital and it is understood that there were no further casualties.
New additions to Appin of Yesteryear website
Appin of Yesteryear, Joint Winner of the Best Heritage Website Award in the ForArgyll Awards 2008 has some new features and material.
Stuart Carmichael has added a Forum for the website, its up and running and, although it’s early days there are already some contributions to it.
Up to now, Stuart has answered a number of queries direct by email, he’s hoping to receive and respond to queries through the Forum – a process which allows others to contribute information, helping to build a bigger picture.
He has also done some research into the history of Appin School and added this to the Archive section. Stuart describes this work as ‘quite satisfying and enjoyable to do, especially as far as I am aware, this has not been done before. The fact that the Mistress of the Junior department resigned in the late 1800’s as she was having a relationship with the Headmaster, all adds to interesting research!’
Please now form an orderly queue in the rush to the Appin of Yesteryear site.
The photograph on the left is one on which Stuart is currently working. It’s of the 1920 Appin School cohort. If you recognise anyone, contact Stuart through the Appin of Yesteryear website. He’ll be glad either to have confirmation or new information.
Appin Forest provides larch for a boat to be built by GalGael in Govan
The GalGael Trust based in Glasgow’s Govan, formed in the 1990s, is a charitable community project that lays out a route back to work for people with addictions or who have not worked for a long time. They learn to build and sail wooden boats.
One of the problems the project faces is getting supplies of the right timber to build the boats. Last week they had two lorry loads of timber delivered, courtesy of Appin Forest in north Argyll.
How did this come about? Well, the Galgael people have learned not to be backward about coming forward. They asked former Environment Minister, Michael Russell, if he could help them get timber supplies and, as Tam McGarvey from GalGael puts it, Mr Russell ‘came good’. He put them in touch with the Appin Forest people, leading to the 50 tonnes of timber just delivered.
Amongst the delivery were a dozen fully mature and good quality larch trees – ideal for boatbulding and described by GalGael’s Tim Norman as: ‘…the kind that every traditional boat builder in Scotland is after. And there was some oak for the keel and some Sitka Spruce for oars and the like. You could build anything from a boat to a house with this amount of wood’.
The GalGael trainees will now get to grips with the entire timber processing sequence from the forest to the workshop to the Clyde.
This is an inspirational project in so many ways. Michael Russell and Appin Forest will be remembered as the bow of the boat to come cleaves the waters of Scotland’s west coast.
Appin Burns Supper moves to Pierhouse Restaurant at Port Appin
Ticket holders for Appin’s Burns Supper can be reassured that the event will go ahead, although the venue for the 24th January will now be The Pierhouse Restaurant at Port Appin.
The planned venue at Appin’s recently refurbished Creagan Inn restaurant has been temporarily closed, threatening the Burns Supper which has now found its new berth at Port Appin. All tickets have been sold.
Winners in ForArgyll Awards 2008
Let’s start with recognising remarkably galvanic energies in a range of Argyll communities Continue reading
Appin and North Connell men get together to track down unknown World War II dead
The historic parishes of Appin and North Appin believed that no one from the area had died during Word War II. This meant that their War Memorial carried only the names of those who had perished in the first World War.
Appin church elder, Stuart Carmichael, couldn’t accept the probability of this. He talked to Hamish Emslie of North Connell who could remember those who had gone to fight in the second World War and, after further research, discovered that two local men had died in action in that conflict.
Mr Carmichael discovered that the first to be killed – on 8th June 1940, at the age of twenty-five – was Corporal John McGeachy (1915 – 1940) of the 8th Battalion of the Argylls, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. . He was born in Campbeltown but was later sent to be fostered by the Leslie family at Portnacroish in Appin.
The second Appin man to die was Flight Lieutenant Ian Maitland (1905 – 1942) from Fasnacloich, of the RAF Volunteer Reserve. He flew with the 408 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. This was the second Canadian bomber squadron formed overseas – in 1941, disbanded in 1945. It won two hundred decorations and 11 battle honours for its wartime operations
Flight lieutenant Maitland died, on 28th August 1942, as he was returning from a successful bombing raid on the important coal-mining area of Saarbrucken NE of Metz on the Franco-German border. His personal story is profoundly sad. His eight month old daughter died from TB in 1929 and his wife fell victim to the same disease in 1936. HIs younger brother, Alistair, died from pneumonia in 1917, at the age of 13 months. All three are buried in Appin.
Stuart Carmichael has set up a website, oldappin.com, recording the history of the area.That site carries information on the involvement in both World Wars of people from Appin and Port Appin. It also carries details of how to donate to the fund villagers have set up to commission a memorial plaque to the two men whose lives given in service to the nation in World War II have now been recognised.
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