TEN YEARS AGO
Thursday November 21, 2013
Munro quits Balla after double
Ballachulish are on the hunt for a new boss after double cup-winning manager Craig
Munro stepped down.
Munro guided the Marine Harvest South Division Two club to Considine Sutherland Cup and Bullough Cup glory in 2013, but the former Lovat and Strathglass player will not continue as the manager next season citing work commitments as the reason
behind his decision.
Balla came close to making it a treble this year, but lost out by a 3-1 margin against
Kyles Athletic in a league play-off decider.
Despite finishing as runners-up, Balla have taken up the option to compete in South
Division One next season.
who was the most improved player this season, and Donald Wilson (centre) with a presentation from his teammates to mark his retirement for playing.
TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO
Saturday November 21, 1998
Abbey to close
Fort August Abbey is to close it was announced late yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon.
An Abbey press statement said the community of 10 Benedictine monks will disperse
to other monasteries and other work.
The announcement will come as a shock to the Loch Ness-side village which for a century viewed the monastery as one of the fixtures and fittings of the community.
The Reverend Francis Davidson, Prior Administrator of the monastery said: ‘This is a sad day for all of us, both that we are leaving our home for so many years and also that we are not going to be involved in the life of Fort Augustus and the Highlands.
‘We are pleased, however, to have made a useful contribution over the last hundred
years to the Highland community and to the Catholic Church in the Highlands.’
The lands and buildings will revert to Lovat Estates, which leased them to the monks
at a peppercorn rent. It is widely believed the site will be a prime target for business
development in the popular tourist village.
The community made the decision on November 17 and 18 with the monks stressing
numbers have declined over the years. The Abbey said that present numbers make it
very difficult to maintain the ‘full round of monastic life’ and the buildings are ‘too
large for the current community and too expensive to maintain’.
For most of its existence the monastic community at Fort Augustus ran a boarding
school for boys but this closed in 1993 through lack of demand for boarding school
education so far from the centres of population in Scotland.
The monks started a heritage and tourist centre when the school shut and operated a
business called Fort Augustus Abbey Enterprises, which will stop trading on Sunday,
November 29.
Benedictines first came to Fort Augustus in 1876 when the building was given to them by the 15th Lord Lovat and this year it was estimated that 120,000 tourists visited the site.
Fort Augustus Abbey Enterprises Ltd, which employs 50 workers, estimated that
a substantial sum was needed to ensure the future of the buildings alone, as the roof of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel was in a bad state of disrepair.
SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
Saturday November 20, 1948
Kyle-Kyleakin ferry – Protest from Broadford
A letter of protest against the Kyle-Kyleakin ferry service has been sent to the British
Railways by the Broadford and District Development Council.
The letter which was despatched following the annual meeting on November 10, states: ‘The inadequacy of this service has been matter of public concern for years, and it is but reasonable that a really efficient service should now be provided.
The ferry boats at present in operation are of an obsolete type.
‘The existing passenger boat does not give even the minimum of comfort to passengers, and when, as often happens, this boat is out of service, passengers are of necessity ferried in the car ferry where they are exposed to all the elements.
‘There have been frequent instances of passengers landing at Kyle jetty soaked with brine and rain, with half-a-mile to walk to the rail-head, and having to complete their
rail journey under these miserable and deplorable conditions.
‘There is no adequate relief ferry service, and much inconvenience and delay is therefore caused to both passengers and commercial traffic. ‘The consensus of opinion is that the time is now ripe for the complete replacement of the entire ferry service and revision of time-tables; also the provision of a bus-ferry service to the railhead.’
Copies of the letter have been sent to Members of Parliament for Inverness-shire Ross-shire, the Scottish Tourist Board and the Highlands and Islands Advisory Panel.
Dakota Air Service to the Isles
Benbecula is now benefitting from the BEA Dakota service from Glasgow, Inverness and Stornoway.
As from beginning of this week the plane, which travels to Benbecula via Tiree and
Barra will stop at Barra.
The Dakota will fly Benbecula after calling at Stornoway and will make a second call at Stornoway on the return journey to Inverness.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
Saturday November 17, 1923
Retiral of Mr A Gillanders, Headmaster of Portree Secondary School
News of the projected retiral of Mr Gillanders at the close of this year has been received with much regret.
Mr Gillanders has been headmaster of the Portree School for the long period of over forty years. He was for a time assistant teacher at Kingussie, and was appointed headmaster of the Portree School in 1882.
He came to Portree as a very young, energetic teacher, and has had the honour of seeing the school grow into the large institution it now is with a staff of fourteen assistants from a school with a headmaster and one assistant at the time when he was first appointed.
Mr Gillanders commanded in a high degree the respect of his present and former pupils, and many of these latter hold positions of high office in various parts of the
world.
As headmaster of such a school he played an important part in the education of the Western Isles.
To fill such a position worthily demands administrative ability of a high order as well as tact and firmness, and these Mr Gillanders brought to bear on the task allotted to him.
Much useful public work outside his school was done by Mr Gillanders. He was honorary secretary and treasurer for many years of the Skye branch of the EIS and a valued elder of the United Free Church, where he has been leader of praise for over
forty years as well as congregational treasurer and session clerk.
He is also a Justice of Peace for the County and an Honorary Sheriff-Substitute for the Skye district.
The departure of Mr Gillanders from Portree will create a great blank and the public
wish him in his retirement many years of happiness and prosperity, while congratulating him that he is still so hale and hearty and fit to enjoy his freedom from
school life.
Gaelic Broadcasting
Many will be interested to learn that on Saturday evening of last week Miss May Smyllie, M.A., the popular Gaelic vocalist, sang at the Rex House, Bath Street, on the
invitation of the British Broadcasting Company.
Miss Smyllie’s outstanding qualities of song interpretation have early marked her out
for judicious selection by the selecting body of this organisation.
A wireless audience from the point of view of numbers is a vaster thing than a St Andrew’s Hall audience, but we learn from all sources that Miss Smyllie with her usual verve delighted her far-flung audience of listeners-in.
She is possessed of a voice at once incisive and musical, and we learn from a critic that it has an ideal transmitting power for broadcasting purposes.
Those who have had the pleasure of listening in to Miss Smyllie when rendering Mairi Bhan and Mo Shuil ad Dheigh will look forward with anticipation to a further feast of broadcast Gaelic song by so eminent an exponent as Miss Smyllie undoubtedly is.
Featured image: 1998: Five members of Lochaber Air Training Corps who have become staff cadetsafter passing two examinations. Left to right: Sgt Elaine Smith, Cdt Carolann Smith,Sgt Heather Welsh, Cpl Lyndsay Welsh, Cpl Michael Weir. The staff cadets can nowassist in training the squadron. Picture: Anthony MacMillan. NO_F46_FromOurFiles_23 02