TEN YEARS AGO
Friday October 25 2013
On top of the world
A Tayvallich teenager has followed in the footsteps of Cheryl Cole and Gary Barlow by climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity.
Lorna Unkles, who was joined on the trek by her dad Hans, climbed the 5,896 metres to the summit in eight days to raise cash for Breast Cancer Awareness.
The 15-year-old was inspired to take on Africa’s highest mountain after a close family member was diagnosed with breast cancer and so far she has raised £3,695.
Lorna, who decided to tackle the mountain after she watched celebrities complete the challenge for Comic Relief, said it was her greatest achievement.
‘We are absolutely delighted to have finished and to have raised so much money for the charity,’ she said. ‘The community has been a huge support. Thank you to everyone who has made a donation and helped fund the trip.’
The Lochgilphead High School pupil, who returned from Africa on Monday, said the hardest part of the challenge was not the actual climb.
‘What was difficult was camping and a lack of sleep. I was lucky and didn’t get altitude sickness, but my dad did,’ she said.
‘We each lost one and half stone and at night the temperature dropped to minus 15, but I think the Argyll weather prepared us for that.’
Lorna and Hans were part of a group of 100 that were led to the summit by experienced guides, who helped Cheryl Cole and her celebrity friends to the top.
Lorna added: ‘We left enough money with the head porter so that he could send his child to school for a year and we donated our clothes and equipment to the porters.”
Speaking about his daughter’s achievement, Hans said: ‘It is a brilliant thing to have done, but it is great to be back in the comfort of our own home and have a decent night’s sleep.’
TWENTY YEARS AGO
Friday October 24 2003
Royal visitor for Lochgilphead
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester GCVO visited the award-winning £4.2 million Fyne Homes development at Ross Crescent, Lochgilphead, last Friday.
The scheme won the prestigious Chartered Institute of Housing ‘Envirobuild’ award for its environmentally friendly biomass heating system.
The 51-house development is unique as it is heated by a system fuelled by waste wood from Argyll forests that as well as being environmentally friendly offers tenants a saving on their energy costs of on average 20 per cent.
The development also includes a specially-designed house, Fyne View, which will offer people with learning and physical disabilities, mental health problems or older people, a short break in a homely environment.
This allows their families and carers to also enjoy a short break in the knowledge that the cared for person is having a positive experience, supported by trained staff.
The Duchess was shown around Ross Crescent and Fyne View by Robert Reid, chairman of Fyne Homes.
Mr Reid said: “Ross Crescent and Fyne View are valuable additions to the housing resources in Mid Argyll and are a superb example of what can be achieved through partnership working.
“Voluntary groups, the design team, contractor M and K MacLeod, the private and public sectors worked together and it is this co-operation which has given us something that is unique in so many ways, from this excellent resource in Fyne View, which will assist so many families, to the environmentally-friendly heating system.’
Whilst at Fyne View, the Duchess met members of the Fyne Homes committee and staff and Lochgilphead Resource Centre Carers Group together with some of the people who will use the house.
Carers and service users from all over Argyll and Bute will be involved in the management group that will run Fyne View in partnership with Argyll and Bute Council and health representatives.
Cathy Robertson, deputy manager of Lochgilphead Adult Resource Centre, demonstrated some of the special equipment in the house.
To mark the occasion of her visit, the Duchess planted a flowering cherry tree in the front garden of Fyne View. Tina Harkness of Lochgilphead presented her with yellow roses on behalf of Fyne Homes and the Resource Centre Carers Group.
The Duchess then visited Fyne Homes tenants David and Margaret Bell who proudly showed her around their new home. She then had an informal walkabout at Ross Crescent.
The development was built for Fyne Homes by contractors M and K MacLeod of Lochgilphead. The heating system was provided and is run by Torren Energy of Fort William which won the best innovation award at this year’s Scottish Green Energy awards.
FORTY YEARS AGO
Friday October 28 1983
Cinema to close
Next month marks the end of an era in Mid Argyll, with the closure of the Empire Cinema in Lochgilphead, a major feature of the town and the surrounding area for more than 40 years.
The cinema owner, Mrs Christine Watson, told the Advertiser this week that the curtain would be coming down for the last time on November 2.
She said that, over the past few years, she had made a determined effort to bring the best films to the town, but that this had proved expensive. This cost, added to the continually rising cost of overheads, had made it uneconomical to continue operating, forcing her into her decision to close.
Over the past 44 years, thousands of people have enjoyed the Empire which, when it opened in 1939, boasted the most up-to-date equipment and furnishings in the country.
The cinema was built and equipped during the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow in 1938 and its joint owners, Lochgilphead former Provost John Brodie and his partner Mr Archie McCulloch, were responsible for bringing examples of some of the highlights of that exhibition to Mid Argyll.
Mrs Watson, the present owner, is the daughter of the late Provost Brodie, and has spent a lifetime involved with the cinema. This week she recalled some of the highlights of the Empire heyday.
At that time, the Empire Cinema not only provided the latest film entertainment for the people of Lochgilphead and the surrounding area but, thanks to their travelling film unit run from the town, they showed films in Ardrishaig and Inveraray and even as far afield as Tobermory.
Because of its design, the cinema assumed other roles and prior to the building of Lochgilphead High School, it was frequently used for end-of-term school concerts.
One of the most fitting uses to which the building was put was in 1950 when Provost Brodie was made the burgh’s first Freeman, the ceremony being aptly staged in the Empire Cinema.
Although now in days of television and video, when the Empire was first built cinemas had a mass audience and during the war years Mrs Watson can recall that patrons had to book their seats well in advance, party due to the increased demand caused by the wartime influx of servicemen.
Mrs Watson was also warmly appreciative of the many loyal and faithful staff who, over the years, made her family’s provision of a good cinema service possible.
The last performance at the Empire Cinema will be on November 2 when the film on view will be The Return of the Jedi.
SIXTY YEARS AGO
Tuesday October 23 1963
Council will not OK B&Bs
Lochgilphead Town Council is to turn a ‘Nelsonian eye’ towards those of its tenants who take in bed-and breakfast visitors.
For last week the council, while admitting that some tenants engaged in this summer trade, agreed to take no action regarding Dean of Guild Alexander MacKellar’s inquiry whether permission would be granted and, if so, on what conditions.
Earlier, however, members had no objection to the local tourist association compiling a list of bed and breakfast accommodation in the town which could be made available at the institute.
When Provost Dugald MacBrayne opened the discussion, Councillor Duncan Cameron said that if official sanction was obtained, the council should levy a charge of £5 on the tenant, as practised by Inveraray Town Council.
But Councillor William McCricken, himself a property-owner, considered a £5 charge an ‘unfair imposition’ on the tenant.
‘I think we can depend on the tenants only taking in people who suit them,’ said Councillor McCracken, who added that when the council tenants were ‘helping out’ it was nothing less than an imposition having to levy a charge.
He was supported by Councillor David Wilson who suggested the status quo be preserved and that the council take no action.
‘And most of the bed-and-breakfast visitors are sleepers from the hotels,’ added Councillor W H E Gillebertus.
But support for Councillor Cameron’s proposal of a levy came from Dean of Guild Alexander MacKellar.
‘I think the charge should be for one bedroom only,’ adding that if tenants had more rooms to offer, it was time they were in smaller houses and vacated them to those who required the house.
‘It should be remembered they are living in council houses which are not self-supporting and, what is more important, they were given to the tenants to live in themselves.
‘If they offer bed and breakfast accommodation, these tenants are only defeating the council’s object in trying to house as many people as possible.’
Bailie Philip A Lear agreed, adding that as the houses were subsidised, tenants offering accommodation ought to be in smaller houses.
‘But I don’t think we should approve in this instance,’ he said, adding that the tourist association could easily compile a suitable list from persons owning their homes or from those living in rented houses outwith the council’s control.”
It was agreed no official action would be taken.
CAPTIONS:
2013: Lorna Unkles, 15, and her father Hans climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness.
2003: HRH The Duchess of Gloucester, centre, with Ross Crescent tenants Margaret and David Bell.
1963: Kildalton Junior Gaelic Choir, with their conductor Barbara Penman, at Perth where they competed at the National Mod.