Happy New Year! Isn't it chilly?

Welcome to the first Wester Ross Round-up of 2025. 🎆

We hope you had a great winter break, and if you didn't, we hope you at least got to eat some nice cheese and mince pies. This newsletter was sent to 708 people with an interest in Wester Ross.

If you were forwarded this by someone with very good taste in newsletters, and you'd like to get it yourself every week, you can sign up for free by hitting the button below.

There's a lot to get through, as it's been a few weeks since we last sent you one of these newsletters. As ever, we try to respect your time and get through everything as quickly as possible. We try to include a link with most entries so you can find out more if you need to.

❄️ The ongoing cold snap has caused a fair bit of disruption. There have been trucks off the road, cancelled events, closed schools and service reductions throughout the week. The yellow weather warning for snow and ice is set to end at 10am on Friday January 10 at the time of writing, but keep checking the Met Office website for updates. Fortunately, it should warm up next week.

There have also been some incredible photos taken, like this one of Glen Docherty, below. It was taken by James Heasman using a drone. You can see more of his photos on his website. Thanks also to Allan Templeton for sending us the photo of Gairloch Harbour featured at the top of this post.

🪨 If you or the bairns have been climbing the walls whilst you've been stuck inside, you can put those skills to good use at Kinlochewe Village Hall when the thaw comes. They've announced Social Climbing sessions on the bouldering wall there for adults and kids. Details available here.

❓ The Gairloch Museum have shared the dates for a new round of their popular pub quizzes. Here's the flyer.

🃏 If whist is more your thing, then head to the Loch Torridon Community Hall. They have a programme of events that include regular whist sessions and film nights. The first film to be shown will be The Outrun on January 11. More details on that, the whist and a ceilidh on their website.

⚓ Budding historians will be interested to learn that The Artic Convoy Museum are looking for remote volunteers to help them unearth new stories from the archive. More details here on their website.

🏊 High Life Highland, the charity that provides music tuition, sports facilities, and a host of other services in the Highlands is looking for new Directors to join the board. Details on how to apply here.

🇫🇷 Learn basic French over six weeks with UHI North, West and Hebrides in Gairloch. The new class will run for six consecutive Wednesdays from January 22. Places cost £85 and can be booked online.

🥃 If you enjoy a wee dram, Iain at the Bridge Cottage Art Cafe in Poolewe is holding a whisky tasting event on January 31. Tickets are £25 and the price includes your food and drink. More info here.

🖊️ Gairloch Community Council is meeting on January 13, in the Loft Room at the community hall. Agenda and papers here. The next Torridon and Kinlochewe Community Council meeting is on January 15th. It will be held on Zoom, and you'll need to contact them for the link. And the next Wester Loch Ewe Community Council is scheduled for 19:30 on February 5, in Poolewe Village Hall.

ℹ️ There will also be a community meeting in Poolewe Village Hall on January 28 at 19:30 for a community briefing and consultation on plans to bring the former Macleod & Mitchell site into community ownership.

📈 The Lochaber Chamber of Commerce are also holding an event for businesses in Gairloch Community Hall on January 15. It's free to attend, but places are limited. Book here.

🍲 Pay-what-you-can returns to the GALE centre. Visitors eating a meal at the GALE centre can take advantage of the scheme at any time except Mondays or Wednesdays. More on the GALE blog.

🚘 Highland Council have confirmed that they intend to make most roads with a trial 20mph limit permanent. But before that happens they must undertake another round of consultation. Comments can be emailed to 20mph@highland.gov.uk before February 10. And if that weren't enough speed limit consultation news, Transport Scotland say they are holding a consultation event on separate proposals to lower single carriageway road speed limits to 50mph for cars, whilst raising them to the same speed for lorries. The event will take place in Ullapool Village Hall between 15:00 and 19:00 on January 30.

🏘️ Whilst local community organisations have recently begun working together to try to address the shortage of affordable homes in Wester Ross, it has emerged that a £25m Scottish Government fund established to provide funds for key worker housing (The Times) in rural areas has delivered just 17 homes to date, with just seven of those in The Highlands.

🪻 And lastly, the garden at 2, Durnamuck will make an appearance in the first episode of Monty Don's new BBC TV series “British Gardens.” on January 10 at 20:00 on BBC 2. Will Soos & Susan Pomeroy who own the garden said on their Facebook page: "We were so lucky to have our garden chosen to be part of this new series. However very surprised at being included as the weather was so bad! Could hardly see the plants let alone the mountains!"

If you enjoyed this newsletter and you haven't already, please consider signing up as paid digital subscriber. If you do, you'll also get an email alert and access to a digital version of every new issue of the Gairloch and District Times and the entire archive going back to 1978.

If you would like us to share some local news or a photograph that you're proud of, you can tell us about it here. If you want to get it into the next issue of the paper details of the deadlines and publication dates can be found here.

One more thing - we're a tiny charity and we have no marketing budget. So please do tell everyone you know about this newsletter and encourage them to subscribe too 😄.