Night walks, festive wreaths and housing plans

Helllo again and welcome to this week's Wester Ross round-up. This free newsletter from the Gairloch and District Times provides a brief summary of all the great stuff going on in the neighbourhood.

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⭐ The full list of Wester Ross Dark Skies Festival events for 2024 is out. Local highlights include a Super Moon Night Walk to Slaggan Bay, and an expert talk about ancient greek astrological technology at The Old School House Tearoom, Inverasdale.

🚂 Local model enthusiasts are assembling at the Aultbea Hub on Sat Nov 9 and putting on an exhibition. Entry is by donation.

🎻 An "enchanting evening" of chamber music with the Quartetto Noûs is on offer at the Gairloch Community Hall on November 9 at 7pm. Tickets available on the door.

🍺 Beer and skittles are back, but this time at Poolewe Village Hall. Also on November 9, from 6pm.

💃🏻 On November 23, there's a ceilidh planned for 7.30pm at Torridon Community Centre, with The Islands Ceilidh Band playing the tunes.

🎄 With Christmas only weeks away (sorry for the reminder!) the Farm and Garden Stores are taking orders for Christmas Trees. You can also learn how to make your own Christmas Wreaths at Corrieshalloch Gorge. Dates, times and prices are in this Facebook post.

🙋 The Chief Executives of Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, UHI North, West and Hebrides, and Maree Todd MSP will be among the great and good taking questions from the public at an Ullapool "Question Time" event on Nov 19. Organised by the Lochaber Chamber of Commerce, tickets are free, but you need to register.

🚶‍♂️‍➡️ There's nothing official on the Great Wilderness Challenge website yet but it looks like there's a date for next year's event. It'll be on August 16. Entries open in the New Year.

🐝 Highlife Highland are looking to hire a new part-time Countryside Ranger for Wester Ross, based in Gairloch library. Interested? More details on their website.

🚒 Gairloch Community Council have put out a call for local people to sign-up as On Call Firefighters. If you're interested, there's more info on the Scottish Fire and Rescue website about what it entails. The local Coastguard service have also said they'll be recruiting for more volunteers "soon."

🏘️ Highland Council has published a new Strategic Housing Investment Plan. In it, Ullapool, Gairloch and Lochcarron are named as high priority areas of Wester Ross for affordable homes. 13 new affordable homes are planned for Gairloch, to be completed on two sites some time before 2030.

🚜 The Crofting Commission has announced it is re-doubling efforts to tackle the "missed opportunity" of vacant crofts.

💷 A Summer Isles property developer has been fined £600 by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for allowing significant amounts of silt to enter the bay off the east coast of Tanera Mor in Loch Broom.

🍲 And lastly, more than 80 people showed up to the first Warm Monday's event at Gairloch Community Hall recently. Organisers have thanked Gairloch Garage for the "fantastic" donation of £300 towards the events this winter.

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