Torridon campsite win and 14 new affordable homes

Hello and welcome to another Wester Ross Round-up. This week the newsletter is being sent to 833 people. If you are new here, welcome 😍!

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⛺ Let's kick off with some good news from Torridon. The Torridon District Community Association have been awarded £20,000 from the Crown Estate to fund a detailed feasibility study into taking the Torridon Campsite into community ownership. According to Development Officer Katie Anderson: "The aim would be to make some improvements and turn it into a sustainable source of income that could help fund other community projects—and support the community centre and its facilities too." More in this social media post.

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🔥 Everyone has been enjoying the recent long sunny, dry spell of weather. But it also means an elevated risk of wildfire. This week there have been significant fires in Assynt at Stac Pollaidh, on Skye, and near Mallaig with fire crews from Ullapool and Aultbea among those called in to help with the Assynt fire. As this newsletter is being written, there are news reports of another fire at Loch Torridon.

Unsurprisingly, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are calling on people to be very careful. More surprisingly, the ParksWatch blog has used satelite imagery to show there may still be a lot of "reckless" muirburn going on, despite the warnings.

🍻 GALE have announced the first opening times for the new community pub in The Shieling. All the details are in this blog post.

🍟 The Angry Seagull mobile fish and chip van is doing a three day stint outside the Farm and Garden shop in Gairloch from 10-12 April. More details in this post.

🐴 The Gairloch Trekking Centre is now open for equine Easter holiday fun. Details of what's on offer are on their website.

🛥️ Glendale boats are also running their first two hour boat trip of the season from Gairloch Harbour today at 11am.

🥚 Speaking of Easter... here's the flyer for an egg-cellent event in Poolewe. Don't forget to bring a painted egg if you go.

🥚 There is also an Easter Egg hunt planned at Shieldaig Community Hall on Saturday April 19. There is a box in Shieldaig General Stores for anyone to drop off eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt in advance.

❓A couple of local organisations are looking for feedback to help them improve their services. The Gairloch Community Car Scheme is running a short community survey, which you can answer online here. High Life Leisure is also running their annual customer survey.

🍲 The Gairloch Community Car Scheme also thanked the organisers of a recent special soup lunch fundraiser. They raised £937 for the service and the soup was delicious too.

🏘️ Given the acute shortage of affordable homes in the area, many will be interested to learn that proposals for 14 new affordable homes in Lochcarron have been submitted to planners. For more details search the council planning portal for 25/01122/FUL. You have until April 22 to submit comments, should you wish to.

🦦 It's National Mammal Week soon. To mark the occassion there's A Big Wild Pub Quiz being organised at the Jam Jar in Aultbea on April 24. More details on Facebook.

🐥 Local Highlife Highland Ranger Katie Grant is inviting parents/guardians and tots aged 2-5 to a fun-filled nature based session at Gairloch Library at 11:15 -12:15 starting on 28th April and thereafter on the last Monday of each month during term time. Email Katie to find out more.

🌷Katie is also looking for volunteers to help her tidy up the Kinlochewe Wildflower patch on April 17, 10:30am - 12pm. More info here.

🪶 Spring birds are arriving - with sightings of sand martins at Opinan and along the River Ewe reported in local social media groups. Meanwhile winter visitors such as geese are moving north for the summer. You can track cuckoos on their way back from Africa on the BTO website. Sadly, a cuckoo named "McSporran" that was tagged in Dundonnel last spring is now missing, presumed dead.

🏨 More than 4000 responses were received by the council to its consultation on a proposed visitor levy. "The council will now take time to fully consider all responses received. There is no fixed timetable at this stage for the findings to be presented to members or considered at committee," said Convener Bill Lobban. There's more in the council press release.

🚶Should you be inspired to take to the hills by all this lovely weather, the people at WalkHighlands have announced recently that they have updated their low level Applecross routes.

ℹ️ The National Autistic Society has confirmed that it is to close it's Highland Information Service, following a funding cut. More on the organisation's website.

🐕 And finally, what happens when a wee dog meets a load of dolphins? Here's a video from Shieldaig that will show you.

The next issue of the Gairloch and District Times is out tomorrow. If you are not a digital subscriber you can pick up a paper copy from any of these tremendous shops.

Do you have a photo, event or some other news that you'd like us to share? You can easily submit things online here.