Due to confidentiality they will release no further details as to the exact location but have said that the potential fish farmers still have to undertake a variety of feasibility surveys and then if they wish to further develop the idea planning permission from Argyll & Bute Council will have to be applied for.

If it gets to this stage and permission is granted then the Crown Estate will issue the lease. The Crown Estate are not able to say what fish will be farmed, but as the majority of fish farmed in Scottish waters are Salmon, that may be a possibility.

HUNDREDS of letters from school children in Tiree were dropped into the Atlantic Ocean as part of a huge message in a bottle. Letters written by students at Tiree School were put into a buoy equipped with a tracking device so the progress of their messages can be followed via a website (www.atlanticrising.org) as the capsule drifts around the ocean with the currents. The message in a bottle was dropped into the ocean from a containership Safmarine Bayete on its route from Senegal to Brazil. This project is part of an international environmental education project, called Atlantic Rising.

Will Lorimer, from Atlantic Rising said:
“Students can visit the website and see where their letter has got to and where it is likely to wash up. We hope that one day someone will find the messages and get in touch. “The project is a good way to illustrate how currents move around the ocean. “Currents are a key way that heat moves around the ocean and so are very relevant to climate change.” The three directors of the charity Atlantic Rising (Will Lorimer, whose family have a house on Tiree, Tim Bromfield and Lynn Morris) visited the school last summer term to talk to students about climate change and collect their letters before embarking on a 32,000 km expedition around the edge of the Atlantic.

The idea behind the journey is to follow the one meter contour, predicted to be the new coastline of the ocean in 100 years time, if sea levels continue to rise. Along the way they are creating a network between schools in coastal communities of which Tiree School was a founding school. The trio, all 29, left the UK on September 1st last year and drove around the coast of Europe and West Africa to Ghana. They then shipped their Land Rover and themselves on a containership to Brazil. The journey continues northwards up the east coast of the Americas to Canada. The Atlantic Rising team will be returning to the school later this year to talk about the expedition.

For more information please visit www.atlanticrising.org or email lynn@atlanticrising.org

Three Tiree Maritime Boat Builder courses were successfully completed on Tiree during the winter of 2009/2010 and two traditional Tiree boats were renovated and a new boat was started.

The Maritime Trusts aims to preserve Tiree’s maritime heritage and part of this is to provide training in traditional boat building skills.
The recent courses were led by Adam Way of A R Way Boatbuilding in Lochgilphead and his cheerful assistants. The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery fund, Leader, Tiree Regatta Club and Tiree Maritime Trust. Each course ran for two weeks and took place in the auction ring area at the mart – many hours of hammering and sanding were to be heard throughout the Rural Centre and hard working participants turned up day after day to learn new skills and work on the boats.

The two boats which were worked on, Morag-Anne and Daisy, are now fully renovated and measurements have been taken from the two boats and a new copy of Morag-Anne has been started. The boats are currently being painted and the boat builders will return in the spring to attach all the fittings.

These courses were just the beginning of recapturing these traditional skills on Tiree. It is intended to build upon the success of these first courses in order to keep skills and knowledge up-dated and to add new interest and maintain capacity. Tiree Maritime Trust is also working on a long-term project to build a Maritime Heritage Centre –‘The Boatshed’, at Gott Pier Head. Planning consent has been granted by Argyll & Bute Council and a funding application is being assessed by SRDP.

It is hoped that the new boat will be completed in the new Boat Shed next winter. On behalf of the Tiree Maritime Trust thank you to all of the community for supporting this project, to the participants for their hard work, to the Boat Builders for their expertise and encouragement, to TRD for a great venue and to Leader and Heritage Lottery Fund for the funds.

Iberdrola Renovables

Iberdrola Renovables also has other offshore wind projects under way across the UK, including a 500MW site at West of Duddon Sands off the coast of Cumbria, which will begin construction in 2012, and development rights to a site west of Argyll and the island of Tiree, which it claims could generate anywhere between 500MW and 1,800MW of electricity.

In December it was announced that the Ringside Theatre Project had been awarded a grand sum of just over £43,000 to help achieve this. Now three months later work at the Rural Centre has now begun. Over the last few days the Auction Ring has been altered allowing it to be removed from the area while a film is being shown. The next stage is to insulate and draught proof the auction room to make it a place that can be heated. This should take ten – eleven weeks. With-in that time scale the comfy seating that has been ordered will hopefully arrive, ready for installation and blinds will be hung to block out Tiree’s famous sunshine.

In the near future, a film society will be set up to organise, select and run the films. Then we can buy a ticket, sit back in our comfy seats, hopefully with tubs of popcorn, and enjoy the show.

P.S Jason Syme – If you’re reading this, check out 2:37!!

One of Tiree’s oldest residents Christina Campbell McNeill – Chrissie- will be celebrating her 90th Birthday next weekend.

Chrissie was born on 28th February 1920 at the family home, Balinoe Post Office and lived there with her parents Flora and Lachie (a postman), three sisters Flora Anne, Alix & Phem, and her father’s sister Julieanne, who ran the Post Office. Chrissie’s memories of growing up at Balinoe are happy ones, she and her sisters were all taught how to run the Post Office by their Auntie, but by her own admission Chrissie was not a lover of school and couldn’t wait to leave. During the war she joined the WRENs and spent some time in England. On her return to Tiree she married Lachie MacFarlane from Balemartine, living first at Manitoba in Balephuil and then at the Upper Square, Hynish where they lived with their sons Iain & Lachie. (Lachie’s arrival into the world made headline news as the first baby to be born (mid-air) on Loganair’s Ambulance Plane).

Sadly, Chrissie’s husband, Lachie died in 1996. As well as bringing up her sons, Chrissie worked in Brown’s shop at Balemartine and the knitwear factory in Crossapol and provided a welcome holiday home for Christine and Neil, two of her grandchildren, each school holiday. Her other grandchild Ross stays on the mainland. She has three great grand children, and over the years a great deal of time has been spent playing many a game of whist, draughts and dominoes with Kenny and Nicola, the older two.

After spending a while living with and being cared for by Iain in Hynish Chrissie has now moved into Tigh a Rudha where her cheery disposition, wit and sense of humour means that the Staff and visitors have many a laugh with her and look forward to enjoying her company for many years to come.

to a very special
Gran and Greatgran.
All our love on this
wonderful day
Christine, Neil, Kenny,
Nicola and Michael

http://www.tireefitness.co.uk/