Just this weekend Tanera hosted a wedding party. The knot was tied on the island and the newly-weds started life together amid spectacular scenery and happy friends. Guests stayed in the holiday cottages and joined the bride and groom to celebrate, enjoying a feast of local produce in the boatshed café – followed by some traditional ceilidh dancing to Kevin Macleod and his band, and then an island boogy with some more current sounds from their own DJ.
Now the island is on the market – here’s your chance to start a new life!
For further information please click on the links below:
The current owners of Tanera Mor have decided to sell the island and have offered Coigach Community Development Company (CCDC) the opportunity to buy the island on behalf of the community of Coigach. The owners’ agents CKD Galbraith, have assessed the value as being approximately £2.6m.
A consultant, Munro Gauld, has been appointed to carry out a quick options appraisal in order that the community can make an informed decision to either pursue the matter and seek funding or if declining, enable the current owners to put the island on the open market in Spring 2013.
As part of this process we would like to find out your views as a local resident and would be grateful if you would complete a questionnaire – available here: Tanera Mor Community Survey Questionnaire 18.1.13 then return it to either Achiltibuie Stores, Polbain Stores, or directly to the consultant Munro Gauld, West Tofts Cottage, Stanley, Perthshire PH1 4PG munro.gauld@tiscali.co.uk All responses will be treated as confidential.
The results of the Options Appraisal and Community Views Survey and will be presented at a Public Meeting on Thursday 7th February at 7.30pm in Coigach Village Hall.
Julia Campbell, CCDC, Coigach Community Hall, Achiltibuie, 07745 205 433 / 01854 622 379. email: coigachldo@hotmail.co.uk
As part of his study, Munro visited Tanera on Thursday 18th Jan, where Richard Williams (representing the current owners) showed him round some of the houses, the cafe and took a spin round the bay to get an idea of what was on offer. All aboard the Patricia, with Richard at the helm were Munro, Lesley Muir (local resident and member of CCDC) and Julia Campbell Local Development Officer: all enjoying the glorious sunshine and the fair shipping conditions!
All aboard! The commute from Badentarbet Pier.Munro and Richard outside the post office: home of the famous Summer Isles stamps.The Cafe, bay and Coigach hills from the old school on TaneraRichard Williams, Lesley Muir & Munro Gauld in the Tanera Cafe
And thanks to these hairy locals – owned by CCDC director Ben Walton.
Another busy year for CCDC beckons! With fresh new diaries on their desks, the staff and directors are looking at their To Do lists and bashing on with implementing the community development plan and working towards Coigach’s future sustainability.
Tanera: We will shortly select a consultant to carry out a quick appraisal of options to look at the pros and cons of possible purchase of the island for the community. This will enable us to make an informed decision regarding purchase and it will be helpful to all to look at the possibilities from a different viewpoint.
The Smokehouse: Having cleared many of the hurdles of the community right to buy process, we are nearing a crucial point in the proceedings. If funding is firmly secured, we should be in a position to purchase soon – but there’s still a bit of work to do so watch this space and see what the Spring brings!
Housing & Workshop Units – still on the agenda, still working towards achieving these essentials on the community wish list!
Badentarbet Pier & Old Dornie Harbour: the feasibility study is still ongoing. Wallace Stone have carried out extensive surveying and consultation work and now Steve Westbrook is looking at the economics. Hopefully we’ll soon have a draft report of their findings which will give us further information to look at the scope for community ownership and/or developments and improvements.
Renewable Energy: work continues through our subsiduary companies Coigach Wind Power Ltd (community wind turbine) and Ben Mor Hydro (joint hydro power venture with Scottish Wildlife Trust) to drive these projects forward and closer to our goal of a sustainable income – to help with all the projects above and more.
CCDC and Citizens Online will shortly be embarking on informal training sessions for local people who would like to use the internet and who might be missing out if they don’t know how. Sessions will be kicking off soon so if you know someone that could benefit from accessing services, shopping, travel (and fun!) online please contact coigachldo@hotmail.co.uk . Training will be free, friendly and local – in the hall with a cup of tea.
And we (LDOs) are particularly pleased to report that funding and contracts for the Local Development Officer (LDO) post has been extended to include 2013 so that’s a good start! Peter Muir and Julia Campbell will continue to share the post and are can be contacted by email coigachldo@hotmail.co.uk by phone: Peter 01854 622 444, Julia 01854 622 379, visited in the hall most Wednesday mornings from 10am – or stopped in the road, post office or shops if you have any queries, comments, suggestions or ideas.
Journalist Paul Webster visited Coigach as a youngster and came back recently to see if it was as good as he remembered. To summarise: it was! All in all Mr Webster has written an enthusiastic piece which gives a very positive impression to the potential visitor though as locals were quick to point out, there were are few inaccuracies: we have TWO whole shops, which between them serve the community with a wide variety of goods and services and the school has not been downgraded to a one teacher establishment…..yet. The CCDC continutes to work hard towards our goal of providing housing to encourage young families with children to live here. The happy news that the wind turbine can be transported here means we are a little step further towards a sustainable income but there’s lot of work to do – not least finding a suitable site for housing development.
We’re looking forward to welcoming visitors spurred on by Mr Webster’s article – and if they want to come and live here too so much the better. Vibrant community, excellent little school, fantastic scenery in an unpolluted environment, fun for all ages – what’s not to like?
For accommodation and visitor information go to Achiltibuie Tourist Association’s own website www.coigach.com
(Click the link to read the whole article – but if that doesn’t work, we’ve pasted it into Coigach Connections for posterity.)
