Archive for July, 2009

Playing in the Ceilidh Tent, the band were delighted with the enthusiasm in which they were received. Accordion player Daniel Gillespie told An Tirisdeach “ It was really exciting to play at Scotland’s biggest festival. It was a fantastic crowd and the atmosphere was amazing.” The band also played some of their own compositions from… »

A public meeting on the Draft Crofting Reform Bill scheduled for June, finally took place on the evening of Monday 13th July at Tiree’s Rural Centre. The meeting was lively and reasonably well attended. Unavoidable reasons meant Chairman A. Innes and Vice Chair P. Boyd of the Scottish Crofting Foundation were unable to attend. However,… »

Aileen McDonald came in and spoke with passion and enthusiasm to An Tirisdeach regarding her position as Operations Director for Atlantic Edge Hotels which now runs the Scarinish and Lodge hotels. Aileen has recently joined the team with a lifetime of professional experience behind her and has embraced this new challenge wholeheartedly. Aileen is not… »

Water is one of life’s essentials which we tend to take for granted. It always comes as a shock when we turn on the tap and find the pipe is empty. The recent disruption in the supply to 75 houses on Tiree showed that Scottish Water’s procedures for coping with a fault in the island’s… »

As a community retailer it is appropriate that we involve the community Tiree High School pupils take on star status to perform the ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the revamped Co-op store on Tiree. The children, from left, Frazer MacNeill, Kara Rennie, Michael MacDonald, Lewis MacDowall and Rory Kavanagh, were presented with a donation… »

I will be continuing Iain MacKinnon’s good work of the last year, dealing with the access and conservation issues that affect Tiree. Overnight Camping Sites Part of my remit is to identify suitable overnight camping sites around the island to cope with the increase in campers and campervans. I am interested in hearing from anyone… »

Staff from two acclaimed eateries on Tiree were the recipients recently of One Hundred Thousands (100k) Welcomes, a customer service training programme delivered by Argyll College. The Elephant’s End restaurant in Kirkapol and the Cobbled Cow tearoom in Crossapol are both renowned for a warm welcome and quality fare, and customers can continue to be… »

The 1872 Education Act took control of schools from the churches and set up new School Boards. On Tiree there were two Parish schools, in Heylipol and Kirkapol, and six others scattered around the island. In 1873, the headmaster of Heylipol School reported that the new Board was at loggerheads: “Very unfortunately for those who… »