Cash for Kishorn Port and a midsummer dance

Hello and welcome to this weeks Wester Ross Round-up. Each week we scan through hundreds of news stories, press releases and social media posts to bring you the most important latest news about the neighbourhood.

⚓ Big news for Wester Ross. Kishorn Port has been awarded up to £24 million to upgrade it's facilities. The cash will be used to expand the dry dock and for land reclamation. The Scottish Government says the investment is forecast to attract projects with the potential to support up to 1,500 jobs once the port is fully developed. More: BBC & Scottish Government.

🍛 No food in the cupboards? Tonight, June 5, is curry night at Big Sands, from 5.30pm. More: Facebook.

🎦 It's Pride month. Loch Torridon Community Centre are celebrating by showing the film Pride on Saturday June 7 at 19:30. More: Facebook

🐾 Also on June 7 - The North West Scotland Mammal Network are organising a gentle walk surveying for signs of mammals in the Inverbroom Estate. More: Facebook.

☀️ Can you believe the days will start to get shorter again in just a few weeks? To celebrate midsummer, there will be a dance at the newly refurbished Aultbea Hall on June 20 from 21:00.

🚵‍♂️ Gairloch Highland Gathering have released details of a planned Mountain Bike Time Trial event on July 5. The race - based around a 7km circuit - starts at 1pm and it is £5 to enter. More: Facebook.

🏫 Mothballed Badcaul Primary School has been saved from permanent closure by one vote at a committee meeting of Highland councillors. However, Kinlochewe Primary School is to be permanently closed.
More: William Angus | RossShire Journal (£)

🧑‍🏫 Gairloch High School are on the lookout for a new French teacher, and they're urging locals to spread the word. Teachers are also urging pupils and parents to return text books to the school now that the new timetable has begun.

⚓ The Coastguard are recruiting for volunteers in the Gairloch, Applecross and Ullapool areas. Information on how to apply here: UK Government.

⛵ The Gairloch Boat Club has released details of their annual regatta. See the flyer below.

⚡ SSEN are holding a public consultation event about plans for an electrcity transmission cable that will run east from Lewis, across the Minch, down Little Loch Broom and accross to Beauly. The Western Isles HVDC Link Project event will take place at the Dundonnel Hotel on June 10, from 12:30 - 15:30. There's more about the onshore part of project from Dundonnel to Beauly and the consultation event on the SSEN website.

🌊 Meanwhile, Marine Scotland have sent us this set of documents (Warning! Large technical pdf files.) that outline some changes SSEN propose to make to the subsea part of the project. The cable will run along the seabed through the Wester Ross Marine Protected Area and come ashore at Dundonnel. As these documents relate to the variation of an existing license that was first granted in 2021, and not a new application, officials tell us they have decided that SSEN don't need to hold further open public consultation about the proposed changes. Statutory consultees - like local community councils can still comment though.

🐚 Local Countryside Ranger Katie Grant is hoping the weather improves in time for two scheduled beach clean-up events. If you want to join in, the first is at Gairloch Beach at 10am on Tuesday June 10, and the second is at Aultbea beach, meeting at the harbour car park on Friday June 13 at 1pm. What could possibly go wrong? More: Facebook

🎉 Congratulations to the Gairloch and Loch Ewe Action Forum - the organisation has been shortlisted in two categories of the Rural Community Business Awards. More: GALE Press release.

💉 Highland MSP Maree Todd urges parents and young people in her constituency to accept the HPV vaccine as uptake here has fallen below the national average. The vaccine is widely credited with eliminating cervical cancer among those that have taken it. More: Neil Harkess | Ross-Shire Journal. (£)

🐟 Big local employer MOWI has been criticised by animal welfare charities after 135,000 fish died at a single Loch Torridon fish farm over two years. More: Billy Briggs | The Ferret (£). Highland and Islands MSP Ariane Burgess said on BlueSky the report was "yet another stark reminder of why we need urgent reform of this industry."

🕳️ MP Jamie Stone has written to Highland Council to demand "immediate action" on potholes in the Aultbea area, following a recent surgery he held in the village. He also posted a photo of himself pointing at quite a small pothole on social media to go with the announcement. More: Jamie Stone | BlueSky.

🕊️ Fifty protesters gathered in Ullapool to demand a UK arms embargo and sanctions on Israel, alongside calls for a ceasefire and unrestricted aid for Gaza, as part of a wider 'Red Line for Palestine' demonstration. More: Gregor White | Ross-shire Journal.(£)

🚜 The Scottish Crofting Federation says it is "relieved that, after so many years of discussion and preparation, the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill has finally been published and that some of the more concerning proposals have not been included." More: Scottish Crofting Federation.

💷 Highland Council has launched a £75,000 Strategic Events Grant Fund to support local event organizers with grants ranging from £3,000 to £10,000 for public events scheduled between September 2025 and March 2026. Events should promote tourism and economic growth in the region. More: Highland Council.

🛤️ Don't try and take the train to Wick or Thurso from Monday June 8 - June 30. There will be no trains running north of Dingwall during this time. More: Scotrail.

And finally, if this unsettled weather is making you hanker after the sunny times we had in spring, here's a lovely photo that sent to us by Kerry Pottinger. She used a drone to take the photo of the Salmon Beach at Mellon Charles on 21st May.

If you've taken a photo of the local area that you'd like us to share with our readers you can send it to us using this web form.