Fighting rubbish on the beaches

It's that time again – welcome to another huge Wester Ross Round-up. We've sifted through hundreds of local news stories and social media posts to bring 907 of you the latest, greatest, most useful stuff. If you have a friend, neighbour or colleague who might also find this helpful, please forward it on to them and ask them to sign-up too.

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🐚 S1 pupils from Gairloch High School – as featured in the cover photo for this newsletter – braved heavy downpours of rain to gather up eight bags of rubbish from the shoreline nearby. Excellent work! More pics on Facebook.

🚯 School pupils are not the only ones helping to keep the local coastline clean. Earlier this month, volunteers for the Extreme Beach Cleaning, Loch Ewe group removed hundreds of kilograms of debris from the shoreline at Slaggan and Greenstone Point. See photos on Facebook. You can make a donation to support their work via their website.

⚽ Should you be wondering about how you will keep the bairns entertained over the summer, The High Life Highland summer programme is going to open for bookings on Monday June 2. Details of what you need to do to navigate the booking system are in this email newsletter.

🍕 Coast Pizza are open at Gairloch Harbour. You can find their menu and opening hours on Facebook.

🎵 Budapest Cafe Orchestra are playing Poolewe Village Hall on Saturday at 19:30. If you can't make that gig, then they're also playing at The Ceilidh Place in Ullapool the day before, and at Torridon House (with additional goulash) on the Sunday afterwards.

🦷 If you live within the Ullapool and Loch Broom area, or if you would use a dental service based in Ullapool, then the Lochbroom and Ullapool Community Trust want to hear your views. They're conducting a survey on dental services with NHS Highland. Share your views here.

❓On Saturday May 31 there is a dinner and quiz night in Kinlochewe Village Hall. Proceeds from the event will go towards hall funds. More: Facebook.

🚼 There's a get-togther for parents with babies, toddlers and kids up to primary one age planned at Aultbea Community Hall on June 6. Details in the flyer below.

🎦 The documentary film Patrick and the Whale is showing at Applecross Community Hall on Saturday June 7 at 7pm. More on Facebook.

🍲 A fundraising soup and pudding lunch is planned in aid of the Gairloch Community Car Scheme at Gairloch Community Hall on Wednesday June 25 12:00 - 14:00. More on Facebook.

🏊‍♂️ The Loch Torridon Community Centre is looking for volunteers to help out with the Celtman events that take place over the weekends of 13-15 and 20-21 June. More on that in this Facebook post. They are also looking for a part-time gallery assistant to work Sunday afternoons. More in this Facebook post.

🎵 Organisers of the Gairloch Highland Gathering are also on the hunt for new volunteers. More: Facebook.

🍺 The Ewe Brew team are looking for part-time seasonal workers. More: Facebook.

☕ A new coffee roastery has opened at Applecross. The venture hopes to supply more local businesses. More: Craig Williams | The Herald (£)

🪶 Proposals for a new conservation centre on Carn Deas – a tiny uninhabited island in Loch Broom – have received an objection from Government conservation agency, NatureScot. Backers say in their application that one aim of the project is: "creating a haven for... Storm Petrels." Somewhat ironically, NatureScot experts surmise that the best way to protect the Storm Petrels that breed on the neighbouring Priest Island Special Protected Area (SPA) would be to build nothing at all. The agency concludes: "The proposed development has connectivity with an SPA of international importance for European Storm Petrel... and we therefore object to this proposal." More: Highland Council.

🚴‍♂️ The Bealach na Ba Cycle Sportive saw a record entry of 500 participants this year, marking a successful community-led revival of the event.
More: Alasdair Fraser | Ross-Shire Journal. (£)

🚋 If you are over 50, train travel on any Scotrail train anywhere is capped at £19 until June 25. More at Scotrail.

🚚 Highland Council received a formal warning from the Scottish Deputy Traffic Commissioner after concerns over the management of its vehicle fleet emerged. The council has been given a long list of things it must do to improve, including carrying out random drug and alcohol tests of drivers. It is to hire three additional mobile mechanics to work in "the outlying areas in the north west of the Council area." More: Highland Council (pdf), William Angus | Inverness Courier (£)

📍Land reform campaigner, Andy Wightman, recently published a new report looking into large land transactions in Scotland for 2023. He finds the biggest acquisition in that year was by Alexander Gerko, who acquired 15,515 ha of land in Wester Ross. More: Andy Wightman | Land Matters.

🐾 A new report investigating the reintroduction of Lynx into Scotland has concluded that: "there is plenty of suitable woodland and natural prey for a viable population of lynx to be established in the Highlands." It adds that the reintroduction would generate positive economic benefits, but: "the most likely and challenging impacts could be to sheep farming." More: Trees for Life.

🦅 The Scottish Crofting Federation have called on the government to take "decisive action" following claims that predation of lambs by white tailed sea eagles have reached unprecedented levels. Crofters that have lost lambs to eagles are urged to seek support from the Scottish Government's Eagle Management Scheme. More: Scottish Crofting Federation.

🐑 The Crofting Commission are looking to appoint two new commissioners. More: Crofting Commission

🏥 NHS Highland are also looking for new board members although, confusingly, their website might suggest otherwise in some places. The two, paid, roles available are advertised here.

🏨 Highlands MSP, Douglas Ross, has urged Highland Council to exempt locals from paying the proposed "tourist tax," if it is introduced.
More: Scott MacLennan | Inverness Courier. (£)

💷 The council is looking for expressions of interest for its Regeneration Capital Grant Fund for 2026-27. The fund: "supports locally developed place-based regeneration projects that involve local communities, helping to tackle inequalities and deliver inclusive growth in deprived, and fragile communities across Scotland." More: Highland Council.

🚲 Funding is also available from Hi-Trans to support new bike parking facilities and workplace active travel infrastructure. Applications must be in by June 21. More: Hi-Trans

💬 Quote of the week comes from the Reverend Richard Coles: "If you ever doubted the presence of the Devil just run through a swarm of midges in Wester Ross." More: Ashley Davies | The Times. (£)

⛴️ And lastly, here's a spectacular video by Alex Gray, showing the Waverley paddle steamer docked at Gairloch Harbour last week. Can you spot anyone you know? If you took any photos of the Waverley as it sailed around Wester Ross we'd love to share them in the next issue of the paper. Upload them here.

Updates and Corrections corner

In issue 10 of the paper we got the date of the next Wester Loch Ewe Community Council meeting and AGM correct, but the day was wrong. The meeting will take place on Wednesday June 4 at 7pm in Poolewe Village Hall.

In the same issue of the paper we also listed the West Coast Arts AGM as taking place on Tuesday June 17 at 19:00pm, venue tbc. The group has now confirmed that the AGM will in fact take place on June 20th at 19:30 in the Gairloch Community Hall.

Lastly, the previously published date of the ranger-led Aultbea Beach Clean event has also changed. Organisers tell us it will now take place on Friday June 13 at 13:30pm.