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Gaelic choirs descend on Ullapool!
Anyone walking past the Village Hall last Saturday would have heard singing. Gaelic singing.
This was the annual workshop for Rural Gaelic choirs, hosted this year by Coisir Ghàidhlig an Iar Thuath – the Gaelic Choir of the North West, which is of course based here in Ullapool.
7 choirs joined together from as far afield as Mull, Strath in Skye, Lairg, Carloway, Taynuilt and Lochaline.
These choirs all compete against each other at the Royal National Mòd held in October every year, but Saturday’s event was not about competition. It was all about old and new friendships, having fun, learning new songs, collaboration, and lots of singing together.
There’s no doubt – Gaelic is a wonderful language to sing in.
With over 100 singers in full harmony, I found it uplifting to be one small (bass!) part of the event.
After morning and afternoon workshop sessions, chairs were cleared for the evening meal, and then pushed to one side for the Ceilidh. This meant dancing, and (of course) more singing – choral and solo, by some truly gifted Gaelic singers.
The event was a huge success. The choir wants to thank the local businesses and individuals who donated prizes for the Raffle. Thanks also to members of the Rowing Club who provided refreshments and lunch. And of course to our very own Ruth Clark and Lisa MacDonald for organising and co-leading the workshop.
If you would like to try singing in a local Gaelic choir, you’re welcome to join us! Contact Ruth Clark at ruth.clark1955@icloud.com
Nick Tatchell
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Local Weather for Tuesday 27 February – Monday 4 March
Max temp 12.7C = 55F min temp -1.3C = 30F
So another mixed week. We had rain pretty much every day, but often just a little bit. Thursday was the exception to this and it was also the windiest.
Wednesday gave us the high of the week and Saturday the coolest.
There were some fine sunny days on offer though with Monday having the best of it and Saturday the worst.
The lighter days are here now and we can see more on our commute to Inverness.
The felling of trees at Braemore sticks out like a sore thumb, but I have read somewhere that the plan is to plant more native species.
Meanwhile, I haven’t seen the dam so high in a long time.
SB
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Ullapool Hill Path
Highland Council Access Team and contractors Alex Grant Ltd have undertaken repairs to some of the paths on the Ullapool Hill network which stretches from behind Broom Park on the North Road over to Braes.
Most of the work was on the worst parts of the Braes section but also the recent wash-out on the main start point at Broom Park. Our local Access Ranger will continue to cut back gorse and clear cross drains of debris on this path network which is very well used by both local people and visitors.