North Mainland Notes 12.06.09

Sunday teas

The annual Northmavine Cattle Compensation Society Sunday teas, usually held in the Ollaberry hall, will be at Sullom hall this year. As well as teas, coffees and a stomach-stretching spread, there will also be a sales table, tombola, raffle and a range of garden ornaments and items from Stonecraft at Voe. Teas will be available from 3-6pm on Sunday.

Car boot at Vidlin

Vidlin SWRI and Women’s Guild are holding a joint Sunday teas and car boot sale in the Vidlin hall on Sunday. The event, which will run from 2.30-5.30pm, is in aid of CLAN 1,2,3.

Back to Tuesday

While the Brae High School has been using the Brae Youth Centre for student exams, the Good as New shop, usually open in the centre on Tuesdays from 2-4pm, has been opening at the same time on Saturdays instead. As the exams reach an end, tomorrow will be the last Saturday opening and the shop will revert back to Tuesday openings from 17th June. The shop is proving popular with folk from all over Shetland and the recent 50p sale resulted in the sale of 190 items, which has made room for lots of new stock on the rails. The regular last Saturday of the month opening will be on 27th June from 2-4pm, after which the shop will close down for the summer holidays.

No way for slipway

Last Sunday, Hillswick Eshaness Area Regeneration & Development Association (HEARD) community group held the annual general meeting in the Hillswick hall. After the general meeting and election of office bearers, the group went on to look at existing and future projects.

The group is extremely disappointed at the lack of progress in their attempt to have a slipway built near to Swarthoull, Hillswick. Planning permission was obtained in 2007 but grant funding for the project, which was promised by Shetland Islands Council, has so far failed to materialise. A 50 per cent grant from the SRDP is possible but this requires match funding to be in place before it can be awarded. The slipway facility, which would replace an old slip that has been eroded by the sea, would be of huge benefit to the community as well as to visiting clubs and tourists. But without council support the group finds it difficult to see the project ever happening.

Simmer Dim teas

The Ollaberry hall committee has organised Sunday teas and car boot sale in the hall on Sunday 21st June from 3-6pm. Tables cost £5 and anyone who would like to book one should phone (01806) 544203.

Oily Muggie

A weekend of conferences in Comrie and Dunblane meant I was unable to take advantage of an invitation to drop along Oily Muggie last Sunday. Oily Muggie is the latest business to open in Hillswick, and owner Fiona Cope, assisted by husband Nick, has worked incredibly hard over the past year to transform an extension to their house into a space that now sells arts, crafts and creative gifts.

It’s encouraging to see enterprising spirit in Northmavine and to have folk in the area who are willing to take what is a huge step. Oily Muggie will add to the existing services and facilities Northmavine has to offer and this will undoubtedly encourage visitors to spend more time – and hopefully money – there. Congratulations to Fiona and Nick.

Gunnister Man

Two local men casting peats at Gunnister, near Nibon, Northmavine, in the early 1950s came across the remains of a person who would become known as the Gunnister Man. Although the man had died in the late 1600s, his peaty grave had preserved much of his knitted and woven articles of clothing as well as coins and the remains of wooden implements.

The artefacts are now housed in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, but later this year they will return on loan to be displayed at the Shetland Museum and Archives. Currently, the story of the Gunnister Man is also interpreted at Tangwick Haa museum in Eshaness and curators there are often asked the whereabouts of the gravesite. Until recently little more than a lemonade bottle marked the site, but now in a nearby passing place, the Northmavine History Group has erected an interpretation board that gives details of the story. A simple stone, a little further up the road, pinpoints the spot the peat casters, Messers Bigland and Johnson, made the discovery.

Website updated

Out of date information is often worse than no information and websites can be notorious for hosting pages that were last updated years ago. After a prompt that some of the day-to-day information on the Northmavine website should be updated and a need to change some of the content to reflect the new era the NCDC has moved into after the end of Initiative at the Edge status, some updating of site content has taken place.

Old favourites such as Northmaven Community Council and NCDC minutes as well as the Northmavine skip rota remain. New articles include news of Northmavine Community Powerdown Officer Colin Dickie and information on the three areas the NCDC intends concentrating on for the next five years, namely renewables, social enterprise and housing. There’s also visitor information, a business directory for Northmavine, an opportunity to purchase A visitors’ quick guide to Northmavine and the much-read forum that includes some superb photographs from contributors.

Administrators of www.northmavine.com always welcome new contributions from folk including stories, information and business adverts from the area. Comments and suggestions for updates and improvements would also be welcomed so anyone with ideas should contact the NCDC office – email ncdcoffice@northmavine.com or phone (01806) 544222.

Maree Hay