22 December 2023 Issue 2559 © ULLAPOOL NEWS
Happy Christmas to all our readers from the Ullapool News Team
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LODGE ST. MARTIN No. 1217 Santa Float
The RWM, Office-bearers and members would like to thank everyone for supporting the 2023 Santa Float. We would like to express our gratitude to Alistair and Iris Fraser, Kenneth Macdonald, Tesco Supermarket, the Ullapool News Team. We would also like to thank all of Santa’s Helpers who do a wonderful job. 100% of the monies from the Santa Float are used for the Children of the village and surrounding areas, thank you all for your support.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. See you all again 18th December 2024.
*****
Thanks to everyone for supporting OXFAM at the village hall market on 1 December where over £400 was raised in sales and donations. Also many thanks to all those people who leave donations of books, clothes, shoes, bric-a-brac and more. Goods can be left in my front porch any time and Alex and I will take them through to the OXFAM shop in Lombard Street Inverness where they sell them to raise funds to carry out relief work and fight poverty and throughout the world.
I have been asked about used stamps and I’m pleased to say OXFAM can take those and also old mobile phones and spectacles. J.S.
*****
ULLAPOOL SWIM CLUB RAFFLE
We had an amazing five hampers this year and have had the best ever amount raised for the Ullapool Swim Club – an incredible £845.81!
What an incredibly generous community we live in.
The funds raised will make a huge difference to Club funds and help us encourage children in our wider community to enjoy sport, keep fit and have fun safely on as well as around the water.
Thank you so much to all who donated luxury goodies, the Christmas Hamper elves and everyone who bought tickets!
*****
2024 Calendars and Diaries for Prisoners
It’s that time of year when some of us end up with more calendars and diaries than we need! Once again, St Mary’s Church is asking for any spare 2024 calendars and diaries for the prison in Inverness for distribution among those serving sentences there.
Keeping track of passing time – as well as being able to look ahead to a prospective release date – is important for many of the men there, and the chaplains very much appreciate having these to give away. However, please note that we cannot donate any containing pictures of children.
Donations can be placed in the mailbox by the church door in Market Street or given to a member of the congregation to pass on to me. Many thanks. Rev’d Dr Clare Caley
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(ANNAT) BAYWATCH
The year seems to have flown in, and I haven’t done any updates in recent months/weeks as not much been happening
– or at least I’m not seeing it…
Summer on the Shearwater and out on Mada-Chuain resulted in us submitting 478 sighting reports and a total of 7,034 animals were reported from 8 confirmed species (plus one unconfirmed). Order of what we saw: Common Dolphins, Porpoise, Bottlenose Dolphins, Minke Whales, Risso’s Dolphin, Basking Shark, and also had humpback and fin whale sightings from aboard Sea-Scape with Carlos and out with Harry.
Slightly down on last year’s totals but probably due to the fact we were seeing so much inshore, we didn’t push out to the big pods as much this year, but number of species seen definitely up.
The Sea Eagles were far more regular this year and that contributed to us staying closer in as many passengers want to see them. We had seals every trip and interesting that the eagles and seals all had young within days of the previous years tracked too.
Also seeing a rise in otters around the loch.
Sea Savers were active all year though work commitments meant our activities during the summer wasn’t as much as hoped, however there’s now additional members and pods, and we have relinked with some of the organisations and groups that lockdown had seen drift a little. Janis has secured some funding from the Heritage Lottery Scotland which will hopefully see the group in a position to carryout trips and activities for the next year or two, and we also look set to fully take over ‘Mada-Chuain’ the boat we have been leasing from the Scottish Wildlife Trust since the Living Seas Project stopped.
Weather is making boat trips a little less easy at the moment but the new pontoons at the harbour has meant we haven’t had to take the boat out yet and hope to try doing things all year. We did manage to bring in some of the debris from the fishing boat that sank recently, thanks to assistance by Flick Hawkins and other residents at Rhue that helped gather stuff into piles which we uplifted and brought in for disposal at Ullapool Harbour. This system does work well – please shout if you have any rubbish needing collected, please pile it securely above the tide line and let us know where.
We moved ashore with some recent activity. Our work with the Brora bird rescue team also resulted in hedgehog connections being made. A couple of Ullapool hedgehogs were treated and returned here but we also discovered that Highland Wildlife Rescue had a large number of young hogs needing rehomed. An initial 3 came over a few weeks ago and last week we brought over 7 more. These have been homed with volunteers who have suitable gardens (not on main roads, no dogs, bushes) and able to help feed and monitor for the first couple of weeks. They have been located in the village, at Lochside, Rhue and Straithkanaird. Although this is the last relocation for 2023 due to the weather turning, we will be looking to take more in Spring. We hope this will give them a good chance of survival and boost our local population numbers.
Please keep sightings and news coming in for 2024. Also keep an eye out for Cal Major and James Appleton who after years of working with us and filming for Autumn Watch and other TV shows have made the decision to move to Ullapool. We hope their enthusiasm and camera skills will help us do lots more exciting things next year. Watch this space…
Thanks to everyone who has helped out with things through 2023. Have a good Christmas and New Year. Noel
*****
Happy Christmas to all our readers from the Ullapool News Team
*****
*****
LODGE ST. MARTIN No. 1217 Santa Float
The RWM, Office-bearers and members would like to thank everyone for supporting the 2023 Santa Float. We would like to express our gratitude to Alistair and Iris Fraser, Kenneth Macdonald, Tesco Supermarket, the Ullapool News Team. We would also like to thank all of Santa’s Helpers who do a wonderful job. 100% of the monies from the Santa Float are used for the Children of the village and surrounding areas, thank you all for your support.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. See you all again 18th December 2024.
*****
Thanks to everyone for supporting OXFAM at the village hall market on 1 December where over £400 was raised in sales and donations. Also many thanks to all those people who leave donations of books, clothes, shoes, bric-a-brac and more. Goods can be left in my front porch any time and Alex and I will take them through to the OXFAM shop in Lombard Street Inverness where they sell them to raise funds to carry out relief work and fight poverty and throughout the world.
I have been asked about used stamps and I’m pleased to say OXFAM can take those and also old mobile phones and spectacles. J.S.
*****
ULLAPOOL SWIM CLUB RAFFLE
We had an amazing five hampers this year and have had the best ever amount raised for the Ullapool Swim Club – an incredible £845.81!
What an incredibly generous community we live in.
The funds raised will make a huge difference to Club funds and help us encourage children in our wider community to enjoy sport, keep fit and have fun safely on as well as around the water.
Thank you so much to all who donated luxury goodies, the Christmas Hamper elves and everyone who bought tickets!
*****
2024 Calendars and Diaries for Prisoners
It’s that time of year when some of us end up with more calendars and diaries than we need! Once again, St Mary’s Church is asking for any spare 2024 calendars and diaries for the prison in Inverness for distribution among those serving sentences there.
Keeping track of passing time – as well as being able to look ahead to a prospective release date – is important for many of the men there, and the chaplains very much appreciate having these to give away. However, please note that we cannot donate any containing pictures of children.
Donations can be placed in the mailbox by the church door in Market Street or given to a member of the congregation to pass on to me. Many thanks. Rev’d Dr Clare Caley
*******
(ANNAT) BAYWATCH
The year seems to have flown in, and I haven’t done any updates in recent months/weeks as not much been happening
– or at least I’m not seeing it…
Summer on the Shearwater and out on Mada-Chuain resulted in us submitting 478 sighting reports and a total of 7,034 animals were reported from 8 confirmed species (plus one unconfirmed). Order of what we saw: Common Dolphins, Porpoise, Bottlenose Dolphins, Minke Whales, Risso’s Dolphin, Basking Shark, and also had humpback and fin whale sightings from aboard Sea-Scape with Carlos and out with Harry.
Slightly down on last year’s totals but probably due to the fact we were seeing so much inshore, we didn’t push out to the big pods as much this year, but number of species seen definitely up.
The Sea Eagles were far more regular this year and that contributed to us staying closer in as many passengers want to see them. We had seals every trip and interesting that the eagles and seals all had young within days of the previous years tracked too.
Also seeing a rise in otters around the loch.
Sea Savers were active all year though work commitments meant our activities during the summer wasn’t as much as hoped, however there’s now additional members and pods, and we have relinked with some of the organisations and groups that lockdown had seen drift a little. Janis has secured some funding from the Heritage Lottery Scotland which will hopefully see the group in a position to carryout trips and activities for the next year or two, and we also look set to fully take over ‘Mada-Chuain’ the boat we have been leasing from the Scottish Wildlife Trust since the Living Seas Project stopped.
Weather is making boat trips a little less easy at the moment but the new pontoons at the harbour has meant we haven’t had to take the boat out yet and hope to try doing things all year. We did manage to bring in some of the debris from the fishing boat that sank recently, thanks to assistance by Flick Hawkins and other residents at Rhue that helped gather stuff into piles which we uplifted and brought in for disposal at Ullapool Harbour. This system does work well – please shout if you have any rubbish needing collected, please pile it securely above the tide line and let us know where.
We moved ashore with some recent activity. Our work with the Brora bird rescue team also resulted in hedgehog connections being made. A couple of Ullapool hedgehogs were treated and returned here but we also discovered that Highland Wildlife Rescue had a large number of young hogs needing rehomed. An initial 3 came over a few weeks ago and last week we brought over 7 more. These have been homed with volunteers who have suitable gardens (not on main roads, no dogs, bushes) and able to help feed and monitor for the first couple of weeks. They have been located in the village, at Lochside, Rhue and Straithkanaird. Although this is the last relocation for 2023 due to the weather turning, we will be looking to take more in Spring. We hope this will give them a good chance of survival and boost our local population numbers.
Please keep sightings and news coming in for 2024. Also keep an eye out for Cal Major and James Appleton who after years of working with us and filming for Autumn Watch and other TV shows have made the decision to move to Ullapool. We hope their enthusiasm and camera skills will help us do lots more exciting things next year. Watch this space…
Thanks to everyone who has helped out with things through 2023. Have a good Christmas and New Year. Noel
*****
