TEN YEARS AGO
Friday December 27 2013
Police release bird of prey
Police officers recently released a bird of prey which had been under lock and key for more than three weeks.
Lewis Thorpe and lain MacVicar helped to release a buzzard in Kilmartin after their colleagues rescued the bird when it had been hit by a car.
Police Constables Ben Rursden and Stewart Charnock came across the bird lying in the road after it had been struck by a car four weeks ago. The men drove the concussed bird to Inveraray, where it was collected by Andy Christie from the Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue Centre in Ayr.
Andy said: ‘It was pretty badly concussed and bruised. It was on painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs and was hand-fed for the first 10 days in our hospital. After that it went to the aviary to build its muscles so it could fly again.’
PC Thorpe had the honour of releasing the buzzard in the grounds of Car-nasserie Castle, where it immediately flew off over the glen.
Preparing for a community dig at Tarbert Castle
Archaeological experts will come together to help prepare a plan for a community dig at Tarbert Castle, which will take place next year.
Tarbert Castle Trust will sit with experts who specialise in a range of pottery and wood to decide what area should be the focus of the dig.
Four potential sites have been identified for excavation by Kilmartin Museum’s archaeologist Roddy Regan, who carried out a survey with local volunteers on the castle earlier this year.
The areas that have been identified as potential tial dig sites are: the old Royal Burgh that sits just outside the castle grounds; a section of the outer and inner walls; the well/cistern area and the kitchen area of the single storey tower.
Robert McPhail, a director of the trust, said it was an exciting time for the Explore Tarbert Castle project which began in 2005.
He said: We hope to meet with the experts early in the New Year and hope to get the rubber stamp from Historic Scotland, which will be at the meeting. The exact time frame for the dig will depend on funding as it is estimated one dig will cost £25.000. I will be looking at various funding avenues for it.’
Robert said there was a strong sense in the community that any findings should remain on view to the public after the dig has been completed.
‘Some dig areas are often filled back in again after the study is complete, but the feeling is that finds should be left on public view in some way,’ he said.
‘If suitable areas were exposed measures to consolidate or protect these would need to be implemented, but this would be part of the project planning.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
Friday December 26 2003
Campbeltown boys the next big thing
The Campbell Brothers from Kilmichael could be the next big thing in the world of motocross.
Douglas has just completed a successful season at club level, taking many third and fourth places across Scotland in the six-to-eight-year-old age group. Next season he will be able to compete at national level in England, Ireland and Wales.
Younger brother Lewis will begin competing at club level halfway through the season, when he turns six in May 2004.
Youngest brother Harris, who practises on a quad rather than a two-wheeled bike like his older brothers, is only two, so he has a few years to go before he can start competing. The boys from Acnashelloch Farm practise on their track in Kilmichael every weekend they can.
FORTY YEARS AGO
Friday December 30 1983
Christmas play at Kilmartin School
Kilmartin School pupils performed their Christmas play in Kilmartin Church last Thursday evening.
The musical items were linked by narrator Duncan McNair, who told the story of the first Christmas.
P 1-3 sang a carol ‘The Census’ followed by ‘Little Donkey’ then the whole school sang ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and ‘Entre le Boeuf et l Âne Gris’ in French.
Next the recorder group conducted by music-teacher, Mrs Gillian Eade, played ‘Watched’ followed by ‘Come See This Little Stranger’, sung by all the pupils and ‘Stille Nacht’ in German.
The brass quintet, Sandy McNair, trombone; Paul Smith and Ian Warmerdam, trumpets, Namasté McLardy and John Walker, French horns, played ‘Blow the Trumpet and Bang the Drum’ conducted by Mr Steven Eade.
Two former pupils who now play in the High School Wind Orchestra have reported very favourably on their performance. The children’s final item was singing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’.
SIXTY YEARS AGO
Tuesday December 31 1963
Village anxious about bridge
Close on the heels of representations from villagers in Ardrishaig over a housing scheme scheduled to provide accommodation for 38 families, comes the news that the recently formed Ardrishaig Ratepayers’ Association may lodge further representations with Argyll County Council over a 100-year-old bridge.
For they claim that the narrow, wooden-decked bridge which carries the bulk of the traffic from the village over the Crinan Canal, leading past the manse of the parish church, is too old and light for present day traffic requirements.
Concerned with the prospect ever-increasing population within the next two years on the upper reaches of the town, the Ratepayers Association is seriously concerned at what is described as an inadequate road system serving the area.
And they claim that the completion of Glenfyne Park housing scheme will boost the population to the west of the canal, already over 400, by a further 125.
Consequently, led by their chairman Rev J J Stanley Whyte, they believe that the bridge, for which a two ton weight restriction order is enforced by the British Transport Waterways, cannot hope to withstand the ravages likely to be wrought by increasing motor traffic. Mr Whyte, whose manse occupies a site overlooking the old bridge, said at the weekend that he was concerned not only with the bridge, but with the outdated road system on the upper reaches of the village.
He said that motorists had to be extremely cautious negotiating the back roads for they had little warning should young children dart out of roadside gates.
Ice-breaker in action
The recent frosty weather brought out the ice-breaker on the Crinan Canal for the first time this winter.
Although some of the bigger puffers can perform the task of breaking the ice as well as the canal ice-breaker, they had to form up astern of the icebreaker as it ploughed through the ice.
Unlike most other places, the canal which runs from Ardrishaig to Crinan, will be open over the New Year holiday although canal employees no doubt hope that traffic will be negligible.
Concert cancelled by mumps
While pupils of Inveraray Grammar School were pleased when teachers called lessons to a halt on December 20 for the welcome Christmas holidays, some of them were disappointed.
For owing to an outbreak of mumps and whooping cough in the town, many of the younger children being affected, the annual carol concert had to be cancelled. The school reopens on January 7.
CAPTIONS:
2013: Andy Christie from Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue with police constables Lewis Thorpe and lain MacVicar before the buzzard was released. 01
2003: Lewis, Douglas and Harris Campbell at their track in Kilmichael with Douglas’s many trophies. 02
1983: It was almost a case of Kilmartin-by-the-Sea following the heavy rain of Monday night and Tuesday. 03