Highland film extras wanted, and New West Coast Arts gigs
New local music gigs, and locals are in the running for awards.


Hello and welcome again to this weeks Wester Ross Round-up. Congratulations, you've made it through the ten darkest weeks of the winter π.
This week the Round-up goes to 743 people. If you were forwarded this by some smart person with their finger on the local pulse, and you'd like to get this email yourself, hit the button below to sign-up for free.
πΆ Wester Ross Arts have just announced a series of events for 2025, including Budapest Cafe Orchestra, who are set to play Poolewe Village Hall on May 31, and Anna Massie who is lined up for Gairloch Community Hall on April 25. All upcoming events are listed on their Facebook page.
π₯ The Three Lochs Cinema have announced that their next film is going to be Thelma. It'll be shown at the Aultbea Hub at 2pm on February 15.
π Fancy yourself as an actor? The Casting Collective are looking for paid extras for a mysterious huge new feature film that will be set in the Highlands. You can find out more and apply on their website.

π« In less good news, the ceilidh scheduled for February 1, at the Loch Torridon Community Centre has been cancelled.
ποΈ Congratulations to everyone at Laide Post Office as they've been shortlisted for the second time in the Countryside Alliance Awards for Best Village Shop / Post Office in Scotland. You can add your vote for them to win here, and read a nice feature on them in the Ross-Shire Journal by Rachel Smart here.
π₯ Also congratulations to the pupils from Gairloch High School who have been shortlisted for two awards in the FilmG gaelic short film competition. They'll find out in March if they've won.
β Popular Achnasheen coffee stop The Midge Bite Cafe has announced that it is to re-open from January 29. It'll be open 8am-5pm Wednesday-Saturday and 9am-4pm on Sundays.
βΊ Highland council has announced dates for a series of public drop-in events on the proposed Visitor Levy. There is no event in Gairloch but if you want to speak to a council officer about the plans these two events may be of interest:
- Ullapool Community Library β 27 February 2025, 11:00 β 13:00
- Kyle of Lochalsh Service Point β 20 February 2025, 11:00 β 13:00
π¦There's been some discussion on social media over whether the much rumoured new Co-op development at Auchtercairn will ever actually go ahead. A sign that building work is still set to proceed - albeit somewhat delayed - is a new notice on the Scottish Road Works Commissioner website. Work to "Excavate road crossing and footpath for electric install to new CO-OP development," is now set to start at the beginning of April and run for 20 days.
π An Avian Influenza Prevention Zone was declared across the whole of Scotland rom 12pm on Saturday 25 January. Even if you only have small numbers of poultry, including chickens, ducks and geese, you must take steps to limit the risk of the disease spreading to your animals. More information here.
π· The next deadline for the Highlands and Islands Environment Foundation grant scheme is March 3. The charity has supported a number of Wester Ross projects in the past. More info here.
π‘οΈ If your memory of 2024 was that it was cloudy all the time, then you'd be right. A Met Office scientist has published a review of last year's weather on the Carbon Brief website. It shows that we had a warmer winter, at least 10% fewer sunny days than the long-term Wester Ross average, and highlights that time last January when temperature records were broken in Kinlochewe after the mercury hit 19.6 degrees centigrade.
π©οΈ Sticking with weather, it seems most folk in the Gairloch and District Times patch avoided the worst of Storm Γowyn, although there were some people left without power for quite a while in Ross-shire. If you went without power for 12 hours or more, local MP Angus MacDonald has usefully shared details of what compensation you might be entitled to - and how to claim it.
π And whilst we're on the subject of the MP for Inverness, Skye & Ross-shire, political scientists released a study recently that ranks every UK MP according to how left or right-wing their views are. MacDonald was rated as being more right wing than the average Westminster MP, and also to the right of his own Liberal Democrat party. Politics geeks can explore the data here and dispute the methodology here.

π² Our readers seem to like clicking on links to videos of local animals, so here's a silly film from the Haggis Wildlife Foundation a bit late for Burns Night.
π Thank you to Robert Robertson for sending in our cover photo for this week's Wester Ross Round-up. If you've taken a photo that you'd like us to share with our readers, you can share it with us here.
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