Crannog-Winter-2006

Winter 2006 Read it first online at www.kirkhillandbunchrew.org.uk

Crannog Winter 2006 1

CrannogCrannogLentranKirktonClunesReeligInchberryKirkhillInchmoreEnglishton Muir

DrumchardineAltnacardichNewtonhillKnockbainBunchrewCabrich

Community CouncillorsIan Weir, Groam Farm, Kirkhill 831750Chris Heaton-Armstrong, Kirkhill PO 831779 Ally MacNeill, Tigh Cala, 4 Newtonhill 831339 Fred Geddes, Newtonhill 831324 Cameron Kemp, West Altnaceardaich, Lentran 831552 Fiona Stoddart, 8 Fingask Drive, Kirkhill Karen Young, Glen Rowan, Bunchrew 234128 Iain Urquhart, 58 Newton Park, Kirkhill 831278 Raymond Khan, Blaven, BunchrewJanet Peterson, Blaven, BunchrewSecretaryJim Ogilvie, 22 Newton Park, Kirkhill 831316

Why do we have a community council?Community Councils were established as a result of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. They do not have statutory duties or powers, and are essentially voluntary bodies established within a statutory framework.

The key roles of Community Councils are:■ To represent the views of the community to The Highland Council and other public bodies operating in their area ■ To act to further the interests of their communities ■ To be consulted on planning applications within their area (The Town & Country Planning (General Development Proce-dure) (Scotland) Amendment Order 1996) ■ To consider exercising their powers to object to the grant-ing, renewal or transfer of liquor licences. (The Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976).

Crannog is published four times a year by Kirkhill & Bunchrew Community Council. The date of the next meeting of the community council is 19 December 2006. All meetings of the community council are usually held in Kirkhill Primary School on a Tuesday evening at 7.30pm and are open to members of the public. If you have any concerns you would like raised please come along or alternatively speak to one of the councillors.

Save Kirkhill Post Office - lobby NOW!There are 7,854 rural post office branches in the UK. Since November 2000, Post Office Limited has had a formal requirement to maintain the rural network, and to prevent avoidable closures. However, the policy to prevent avoidable closures has now ended and the threat to rural post offices is real. If you want to keep our post office in Kirkhill you must USE IT or LOSE IT.

TV licensing has recently been transferred to Paypoint and the current contract for Post Office Card Accounts runs out in 2010. The government has so far made no commitment to renew this service. If it does go, many post offices will no longer be viable. As profibility continues to decrease for those running post offices, many are leaving the business altogether. Chris and Karen at Kirkhill have pledged to keep the post office running as long as they can. But they need your help.

Kirkhill & Bunchrew Community Council wants residents to contact Danny Alexander MP to show our support for our local post office.You can contact Danny by email or phone, or fill in your name and address and make your feelings known by sending this coupon to: 1a Montague Row, Inverness IV3 5DX

Tel: 01463 711280Fax: 01463 714380email: [email protected]

I use Kirkhill Post Office and want it to stay open.signed...................................name............................................address.................................................................................................

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2 Crannog Winter 2006

kirkhill post office tel 01463 831779Greeting Cards

Stationery Local NewspapersInternet CafeCold DrinksNEW Photocopying 5p

Opening hoursMon, Tue, Thur & Fri9am - 1pm2pm - 5.30pmWed 9am - 1pmSaturday 9am - 12.30pm

Also second hand books(50p) and videos (£1) for sale in aid of Kirkhill Church of Scotland

Conon Bank Farm (Kirkhill)Organic Free Range Eggs

Call us & we deliver (no delivery charge) tel 01463 831251

Kirkhill Parish Church Christ is the reason for the seasonThere are very many wonderful and beautiful things in this world. The beauty and symmetry of snowflakes that fall in winter. The rising and setting of the sun each day. There are many other wonderful and beautiful things in this world. How-ever, the most wonderful and beautiful thing is a baby. The gift of new life: a life that has a soul, and a conscience, which is the voice of the soul. In addition, and not forgetting, a superb pair of lungs that they exercise to the limit! What is a baby? It is, as someone wrote:

The Woodcraft Folk in Kirkhill Elfins and PioneersThis exciting youth group has been meeting at Kirkhill Com-munity Centre each Thursday evening 6 - 7.30pm. The mixed elfins and pioneer group has been enjoying many autumn activities this term and is doing well with about 18 children involved.

This term’s programme includes/d: co-operative games; bramble picking, with pudding making (and eating!) and quiz; team building in Reelig woods; environmental games and scavenger hunts; squirrel talk, video and games; storytelling in shelters at Reelig (in the dark!); Halloween cat activities; peace activities for Remembrance Day such as role-play and white- poppy making; bird feeding activities; circus skills; felt-making (to make a group symbol); bulb planting; midwinter party/concert.

There is such an age gap between the elfins and pioneers which can be quite difficult in organising activities so the pio-neers don’t get bored. We’d like to start a separate pioneer group in the New Year.

The Woodcraft Folk is a voluntary, national youth educa-tional movement which holds equality, friendship, peace and democracy at it’s heart. The group is run collectively by parents and adults interested in progressive education Elfins are 6-9 years and Pioneers 10-12 years If you’d like to get involved contact:Marie 831356 or [email protected]

A bald red head,A puckered face,Hands blindly wand’ringInto space;A wee faint smile,A stalwart squall,And yards of clothesTo hide it all;Yes, that’s a baby.

A bunch of sweetnessFull of bliss,A thing to cry aboutAnd kiss;A blessing sentStraight from above,A pound of care,A ton of love;Now that’s a baby.

Christmas is approaching when we think of the most wonder-ful baby ever born, Jesus, the Christ. Born in a stable to Mary as Luke tells us: “She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 2:7 NIV).

Love came down at Christmas,Love all lovely, Love Divine;Love was born at Christmas.Christina Rossetti (1830-94)

On the morning of Christmas Eve - which falls on a Sunday this year - at 10.30 am there is a service of readings and carols for all ages, so why not come along and sing some well loved carols? The Christmas Eve Watchnight Service is at 11.30 pm. With every good wish for this Christmas and may 2007 be a year of many rich blessings. Your friend and minister,Fraser K Turner, 831662

Span the world with friendship


Tree Surgery Parks, Gardens, Site ClearancePhone: Hugh on 07845 [email protected]

Stock/Timber FencingPhone: Hamish on 07841 [email protected]

01463 713245Free Quotations

Operators trained and insured

www.h-h-browncontractors.com

H & H Brown

Rural Alternatives ProjectAn extraordinary spring without any late frosts provided good pollination of many shrub and fruit trees in the Kirkhill area. This as given an abundance of summer and autumn fruits for use in the Rap Project co-ordinated by Les Bates in that area. Equally exciting as been the abundance of fungi this year both edible and inedible.

There have been workshops in wine making, Meadowsweet, Elderflower, Gooseberry, Wild Cherry, Rowan berry and Elder-berry. The abundance of fruit as given plenty of harvest for further workshops creating jellies, jams, chutneys and pick-les. Crab apples, rowan berries, elderberries have all been made good use of with interesting workshops attended by local people enjoying the crack and homely workshop space at Croft7.

Dr Alison Dyke carried out a Survey for NTFP’s in local wood-land at Newtonhill along with several Kirkhill and Bunchrew community participants. The training gained from this exer-cise can be taken and used in Reelig Glen Wood to carry out surveys in the next spring onwards with members of the Kirkhill and Bunchrew community.

Winter workshops will be held in edible fungi growing on logs, willow and hedgerow basketry crafts, papermaking, green woodworking and working up project ideas towards a bee-keeping course and Fern Propagation Nursery and perhaps a community ‘Fernery’ sculptural project for 2007. Anyone with internet access might like to take a look at the website www.reforstingscotland.org which will also give links to a national Forest Harvest website.Les Bates 831220RAP Project, Reforesting Scotland

Kirkhill & Bunchrew Community TrustKirkhill Community Park GroupAt last, we have reached the grand total of £58,000 in our fundraising efforts, and the new play equipment has been ordered.

Thank you to everyone who helped at and supported the recent Coffee Morning, and to Lindsey for her sponsored walk.

Weather permitting, installation should start before the end of the year but if not, it should all be finished by early February 2007. Apologies for any inconvenience caused during instal-lation, but we hope you will agree it’s worth it!Caroline Crawford 831503

Shoe BizP4 and P5s at Kirkhill Pri-mary School are collecting shoes for the latest Blue Peter appeal to help poor children in Malawi, many of whom are orphans.

If you have any pairs of shoes in good condition, please hand them in to the school, tied together with elastic bands in pairs.

Shoes will be exchanged for first aid kits, bicycles for community care workers and weigh-ing scales for babies, assisting families with AIDS HIV etc.Kirkhill Primary School 831543

Core Path Network - ConsultationWalkers, cyclists and horse-riders …On Saturday 2 December Stewart Eastaugh, Highland Coun-cil’s Access Officer, hosted a ‘drop-in’ session at Kirkhill Com-munity Centre between 10am and 4pm.

Stewart is interested to speaking to local walkers, cyclists and horse riders about the paths and routes they currently enjoy using and also about paths, routes or links which they would like to see developed in the future. This is great opportunity for us to draw up a ‘wish list’ of routes and have some real input into the development of Highland Council’s Core Paths Plan. The more people who come along, the more likely it is that our favourite routes will make it into the Plan and that consideration given to the development of new ones!

If you couldn’t come along on Decem-ber 2, you can contact Stewart direct with your views and ideas:

Stewart EastaughPlanning and Development ServiceThe Highland CouncilNorth TowerInverness Castle Inverness IV2 3EG

Tel 01463 702 186e-mail [email protected]

More information and a chance to comment are also avail-able on the Highland Council’s website on www.highland.gov.uk/leisure/countryside/countrysideac-cess/corepathplans.htmAileen Armstrong 831558


CROFT 7Nursery, Gallery, Garden

Original textiles & photographs

Opening hours:Sunday, Monday & Wednesday 10am-4pm

Les & Sheila Bates7 KnockbainKirkhillInvernessIV5 7PLtel 01463 831320

[email protected]

Kirkhill KrewWe meet every Wednesday evening in term time, 7 - 9pm, in Kirkhill Primary School, and we’re open to S1 - S4 Charleston pupils who live in the Kirkhill area. We play games, badmin-ton, do football training, arts and crafts, play music and lots of other fun stuff.

We recently made a guy for the Inverness Fireworks and Bon-fire Night, and had a Halloween night. A trip to Edinburgh has been arranged to watch Scotland v Australia at Murrayfield, and we’re going to be fundraising at the Christmas Fayre on 2nd December.

Breaking news!... our very own drama group is starting soon - come along to next session to find out more!

Our last session of 2006 is 13 December - don’t miss it! We’ll be back on 10 January.Caroline Crawford 831503

Kirkhill Primary School – Cris Ford’s update Christmas is just around the corner and don’t we know it at school!

The ‘C’ word has been ‘banned’ until December 1st but you can hear the whispers everywhere……….

This is an exhausting time of year for everyone but especially so for Primary teachers who often reach the end of the winter term feeling so drained of Christmas cheer that it is nearly impossible to go home and start their own preparations.

Having said that, it is without doubt a magical time too for all who work in schools as the children’s excitement is catch-

ing! We hope you can join us for some of our celebrations. Dates for Christmas events that might be of interest to the community:

•Sunday 10 Dec - P6/7 Carol singing at Made in Beauly – early afternoon.•Tuesday 12 P6/7 Carol singing in the Eastgate Centre between 1pm and 2 pm in aid of Caring for Children with Cancer.•Sunday 17 Dec - School Carol Service in Wardlaw Church -6.30-7.30pm•Thursday 21 December – end of term Carol Service and Nativity Story in school at 2pm

Plans are afoot for parties, carol singing, decorations etc and of course the Christmas Fayre which was held on Sat 2 December between 11am and 3pm. Thank you to everyone in the whole area who support us and come along for lunch, the carol singing, the auction and to visit the stalls.

Our Parents Association work so hard to make this event a success and without the funds raised by them our school would not be able to offer the range of experiences to our children that are currently available during the school year. Writing in the Crannog is a wonderful opportunity to thank them all for their time, hard work and continual support.

During the normal course of a term the children are involved in so many events that it is nearly impossible to describe them all properly so I will simply describe a few.

Expressive ArtsWe have had visiting tutors from Feis Rois, a vocal tutor in to work with P4 , a drumming tutor working with P7 and children in the upper school had a full day developing dancing routines for show called Movie Mania that they then presented to par-ents and other pupils. All this plus specialist music teachers for all classes once a week; so we are expecting impressive Carol singing!

SportP1, 2 and 3 have enjoyed Soccersize sessions with Ross County which involved them in both exercise and health edu-cation. We have had a team visiting Grangemouth for a Cross Country Event, a team joining in a Kwik Cricket Tournament and another in a Tag Rugby event.

We have held Citizenship and Star Assemblies for pupils recently, been inspected by a Quality Development Education Officer who came into school to watch lessons being taught and talk to pupils and we have had lots of student visitors to observe lessons or on work experience.

Finally, because this school year has been our 10th Anniver-sary we have chosen to mark it in a number of ways.

We adopted a local dolphin named ‘Lightning’ as a School Birthday present and if you have been into school lately you may have noticed the absence of the clock face which is away being repaired and will hopefully be returned soon so that we can all enjoy using the clock again. We have been trying to get it repaired for ages and now with the support of local business man Mr Donnie Maclean it is happening. We have also got a colourful name plaque showing children at play and the school name. This was made by last year’s Primary One children with help from a local artist. It is mounted near the main entrance to welcome visitors.

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and a healthy 2007 from the pupils and staff at Kirkhill Primary School.


The Inverness Light Up a Life Service will take place at Highland Hospice, Ness House, 1 Bishop’s Road on Monday 4 December at 6pm

Sponsor a light on the Xmas tree for someone who is special to you, it may be someone who has passed away but equally it may be some-one who is still very much with us. We also invite you to make a dedica-tion which will be typed and included in our Light Up a Life Dedication Book. For more information please call 01463 227906 oremail [email protected].

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Christmas street lightsHave you got any ideas how we can improve the commu-nity spirit during next year’s festive season using lights?

If you have any bright schemes in mind, the community council would like to hear them.

Send your designs and illuminating thoughts to secretary: Jim Ogilvie, 22 Newton Park, Kirkhill 831316.

Highland HospiceHighland Hospice is gearing up to celebrate its 20th anniver-sary throughout 2007, truly a milestone in palliative care in the Highlands.

In order to cement the foundations and therefore future exist-ence for many more patients coping with the trauma of termi-nal illness, the fundraising team will be appealing to everyone to lend support where possible and help make the most of that special time.

There are many ways to get involved from volunteering, sup-porting a hospice event or generously forwarding a donation. One of the most beneficial ways to help the hospice is to organise a community fundraising event.

Through the gift of your heart you bring fun and frivolity to your neighbours, at the same time as raising awareness of the key role the hospice plays in the provision of specialist palliative care, at no charge, to many in need throughout our beloved Highlands.

Palliative care is the care of a patient where there’s no pos-sibility of cure. Hospice care is not about dying, it’s about making the most of what life remains - with the support of the multi-disciplinary team patients feel better, cope better and realise even in the face of serious illness there’s still time to smell the roses. www.highlandhospice.org Linda MacDonald 243132 [email protected]

Kirkhill Beaver Scouts looking for leaderKirkhill Beaver Scouts are looking for a Beaver Leader. This is to help run the Beaver Scouts on a Tuesday evening from 5.15 to 6.15pm during school term times.

If you have an hour to spare each week and would like to work with girls and boys aged 6 to 8 years, then please call Debbie Hamilton 831585

Community council donates £80 to scout groupThe community council has donated £80 to the Muirtown Explorer Scouts who are looking for funds for new equipment. The sea scout group has over 130 members, including many children from the council area.

Panto 2006/7 - Canteen ProductionsJust a note to say that there is a hope that we’ll be able to put on a show in March 2007 depending on whether we have a script!! Various subjects for the next production have been put forward, from a Shakespeare story, to the Scarlet Pimper-nel or possibly something featuring Romans, Picts, Scots and Brits, but if it happens it’s more likely to be a traditional tale this time(because of the short time-scale). In the event we’ll be in touch with all the usual suspects well before Christmas if it looks like we’ll be going ahead and anyone reading this, who is interested in taking part this year or in the future, could leave their name and a contact number or email address with Karen or Chris at the Post Office, or with Cris Ford at the school. In the initial stages we’d be looking for adults and older teenagers.

Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and Good New Year from Canteen Productions.


Thanks for reading CrannogThe next issue - Spring 2007 will be out in early March - deadline for contribu-tions 23 February. If you have any news, views or adverts (only £10 for a quarter page or £35 for four issues!) please get in touch with the Crannog Editor:Alison Hay1 Groam CourtKirkhillIV5 7NWtel 831042email [email protected] our community continues to expand, we are always on the lookout for more volunteers to deliver Crannog. If you can help contact Ken MacColl 831617

Flowers For All Occasions

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Best wishes for the festive season & a happy &

prosperous new year from all at Kirkhill & Bunchrew

Community Council &Crannog

SWRIOur 2006/07 session started on Thursday 7 September when or local photographer, Phil Downie, came to advise and assist the membership master (!) the digital camera. As you can well imagine he had lots of questions to answer.

The coffee morning help on Saturday 20 September in aid of the senior citizens’ Christmas party yet again exceeded last year’s “best ever” with over £800 raised. Many thanks to eve-ryone who supported either in person and by donation – it is greatly appreciated.

For our October meeting we travelled to Tomatin to participate in a group rally entering various competitions and again we did a best and returned home with a rose bowl for achieving the most points overall.

November, our talk was on foot care, given by Bill Turnbull, chiropodist. If we heed the good advice received we will al have dancing feet!

December meeting, we have a “hands on” with Sue Blaney presenting hand made “sweeties” and using recycled pack-aging. Sounds and hopefully tastes good to me. Sales table proceeds to start our “Fund a Farm” project which is a national objective from our HQ.

On Saturday 18 November, a bus load of us headed to the fisherman’s hall at Buckie to compete and support in the finals of SWRI’s “variations on a theme” competition. There were eleven teams competing and from the adjudicator’s comments we were convinced we were convinced we were going to receive another piece of silver. Alas, not to be, Bal-later and Tobermory were the recipients. However we will not be deterred and hopefully try again in 2008 heading across the Pentland Firth to Orkney.

The syllabus has lots of interesting subjects for the New Year. To find out more please feel free to contact myself or any member of committee. You will certainly be given a warm SWRI welcome.Joan McKay, President 831578

Seasonal workshopCroft7 will be holding a seasonal wreath workshop at the Kirkhill Primary School on Saturday 9 December, 2pm-5 pm, cost £5 to include refreshments.

The materials used for the wreaths will have a strong local woodland background as part of the Rural Alternatives, Non-Timber Forest Products. The workshop will be run by Lar Mac-Gregor who has had several years floristry experience. Croft7 will also be running other workshops at other sites during the winter months: •Basket Making From Hedgerow Materials\willow\hazel•Papermaking•Feltmaking•Willow Growing and Using•Green Woodworking: •Pole Lathe Construction and Use •Shaving Horse Construction and Use For more information contact:Les Bates at Croft7 831320 or email [email protected]

See you in 2007!

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Crannog-Winter-2006