LOCAL NEWS 26 MAY 2023

Elgol fisherman blames holiday homes for local exodus

An Elgol fisherman who is leaving his home village to move to the Western Isles has blamed an increase in holiday homes for an exodus of  young people from the area.

Craig Wilson, who is originally from Durinish has worked as fisherman in Elgol for 15 years and live in the area for more than a decade.

Despite loving the area and running his own fishing boat for the last five years, Craig told Radio Skye he was left with little choice but to move because of the soaring house prices impacted by an increase in holiday homes.

Exhibition celebrates 100 years of Minginish

The Minginish Centenary Project team.

An exhibition and series of events is underway at Minginish Community Hall to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the resettlement of people to the Skye.

100 years ago families from Harris, Lewis and some areas of Skye began arriving as part of he planned repopulation of the Minginish peninsula – an area largely ‘cleared’ during the 1800s. These families took possession of crofting tenancies on 68 new holdings created through the Land Resettlement Act (Scotland) 1919.

Speaking to Radio Skye, project coordinator, Elizabeth Morrison gave a lowdown of some the events taking place to mark the centenary.

Portree Primary School show support for life-saving charity

Portree Primary School held a fundraiser today to raise money and awareness for Skye-based charity Lucky2BHere.

The pupils organised a community café which include home baking, while the youngster served tea and coffee after honing their service skills thanks to Tongadale.

The funds will go towards Lucky2BHere which was set up by islander Ross Cowie and has placed more than 700 defibrillators across Scotland and beyond.

Speaking to Radio Skye, Richard Hillies from Lucky2BHere praised the work of the pupils.

“Anything that can highlight the likes of Lucky2BHere and promote health in Skye or anywhere else is a good thing it really is, he said.

“An awful lot of what we do is, especially with the children, is instilling the sense of looking out for danger and any problems to keep yourself save.

“We have been going into the schools doing the training for years now. In fact, Portree Primary was school in Britain to do the CPR training with a defibrillator.

“It is important that we keeping it going, though. The whole ethos of Lucky2BHere is that it’s for long haul.

“The longer it goes on, the more lives we will save. Not everyone will be saved, but at least the families will have the reassurance that something was done.

“We say to the kids if the least you do is run and get an adult, then good on you.”

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