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9th June 2006

School Trip

Last Tuesday, leaving at 6.15 am classes primary 7 from Durness and tongue made a day trip to Orkney. Acting head teacher for the temporary cluster of Durness and Tongue primary schools Graham Bruce and Class room assistant Sally Edwards took the 7 children to the Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall where they met up with pupils from several other schools from Caithness and Orkney. The day was an informal mix of events with boy bands, conventional musical trio, drama from Glasgow but all spelling out an anti drugs message. The event Choices for Life was firmly focused on conveying an anti drugs message to young people. There was a live link to the SSEC in Glasgow where Sandi Thom sang - I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)

The north Sutherland contingent returned via John o Groasts Brunswick passenger ferry and was home after a long but enjoyable day by 7.30pm.

Young Roots

As part of the year long youth project that has been taking place involving young people from around Mackay Country a ceramic art session was held last week at the new workshop of Lotte Glob. During the 2005 Archaeological dig at Boralie some clay was removed from the site and this was used to produce ceramic book pages where the young people had an opportunity to write messages from the present to be returned to the archaeological site for future discovery. Impressions from today included drawings and text of current    sayings and words. This aspect is part of the heritage interpretation and display scheme that has involved several artists working in residency with the youths interpreting heritage sites into digital media. This has involved visual, photography animation and video. The project has been funded through the Heritage Lotteries and Durness Development Group with a partnership between Scotland Against Drugs and Durness Youth Club. A result of all the parts that make up the project will be displayed in Durness Village hall from the 19- 24 June. Local posters will display opening times.

Community Council

A number of households in the village have reported problems with deer. 

Andrew Marsham reported that several attempts have been made by himself to scare the deer from the village in a number of ways, however to date this has proven ineffective.  Mr Marsham has now spoken with the Deer Commission in order to look for a suitable solution to this problem.  A number of points have arisen. The Deer Commission are not keen to grant a licence allowing deer to be shot the deer as numbers are not yet high enough, additionally this would require a night licence and as the deer are in the village it is not likely that such a licence will be granted. The Deer Commission states that the responsibility of keeping Deer out of private property lies with the property owner not with the Estate; however the Estate is sympathetic to the problem. A crofter is allowed to shoot the beasts as ‘marauding pests’ however this can only happen during the appropriate season. To this end Rispond Estates are now looking at costings to erect deer fencing from Ceannabeinne to Sarsgrum.