Skyecomuseum

AN EARLY Easter means Staffin businesses are March-ing into the start of the 2016 season this week.
The “shoulder months” between October and Easter are getting shorter and many local businesses are still trading in the winter as more people enjoy the winter experience in Staffin, particularly when the skies are blue and the sun is out, like last week. As the clocks spring forward this weekend, the Taobh Sear is preparing for another busy season and an influx of visitors from all over ...

A SHORT film – shot from the air – of the Old Man of Storr has been narrated by a star from the smash hit TV series Downton Abbey.
If you are watching the More4 channel this weekend watch out for the Bodach on the screen with the Downton housekeeper Mrs Hughes/Carson’s dulcet tones accompanying the pictures. 
Production company True North TV used a drone to carry out filming at the Storr in February and the footage has now been made into a short ...

RESIDENTS and businesses in the Taobh Sear are being invited to express an interest in securing superfast broaband.
The North Skye Broadband company was officially launched last month and is supported by HIE and Community Broadband Scotland. It is made up of volunteers representing various communities on a steering group with a full-time project officer now in post. The company’s objective is to provide superfast broadband in the areas where BT will not reach.
In Staffin, BT is scheduled to provide a ...

GAELIC speakers in Trotternish who are fond of duileasg, partial to nettle soup or avoid food which plays havoc with their well-being are invited to take part in a new TV programme.
Researchers are looking for local residents who have a different approach to their diets – compared to the general population – to interview next month for a BBC Alba series. It may be somebody who is trying out so-called super foods as part of a health and fitness regime or a man who has had ...

AFTER a giant billboard of the Old Man of Storr was spotted in Australia last month, we asked for other pictures of Staffin sites spotted in unlikely places around the globe to be sent in.
One eagle-eyed Staffin Trust website reader e-mailed in the picture, below, which she saw near a fuel station. It is the Storr again but this time a little bit closer to home in Keighley, West Yorkshire.
With Staffin’s extensive range of scenery such as Staffin Bay, the Quiraing, the Kilt Rock, Lealt Gorge, ...

STAFFIN Community Trust has declared its interest in purchasing local authority-owned land at the Old Man of Storr.
The SCT has written to Highland Council regarding the 82-hectare site at the Storr from the A855 roadside upwards. It follows a community consultation in Staffin which strongly backed the organisation managing or purchasing the area near the hugely popular visitor landmark. SCT has also made an expression of interest to the Scottish Land Fund. 
SCT has been in productive talks with ...

A GIANT image of the Old Man of Storr is now looming over a city’s streets – more than 10,000 miles away.
While the Storr features in the holiday pictures in countries across the world with it visited by thousands of people each year, it is now also on display in all its glory in Melbourne, Australia. It is featuring in a major new advertising campaign launch by VisitScotland hence its arrival on the Melbourne skyline.
With other Staffin landmarks such as the Quiraing, the ...

THE SECOND of three planned heritage events which will record old stories from people in North East Skye, takes place in Staffin tomorrow (Saturday). 
1230 gu 3.00 feasgar; Bidh bròt, ceapairean, srùpag is sgona ann. Nach tig sibh, is nach toir sibh nàbaidh leibh?
Taigh-bìdh Chill Mhàrtainn, An Taobh Sear.Tuilleadh fios bho Sìne air 01 470 562 325
Soup and sandwiches, tea and a scone are available from the Kilmartin Restaurant 12.30 to 3pm. Everybody is welcome and the event is free of charge. ...

AS OSCAR season looms, the Old Man of Storr has had to put on his own brave face for the cameras after missing out on the UK Landmark of the Year title.
BBC 1’s popular and long-running rural TV programme Countryfile has announced the results of its magazine’s annual awards which celebrates the best of the UK’s countryside.
And despite a strong show of support from Staffin and the rest of Skye, the Bodach an Stòrr came runner up in its category. ...

TWO plots in Staffin – which could be suitable for local people seeking affordable housing –  are now available.
The Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust (HSCHT) has developed a site at Dun Flodigarry, just off the A855 and north of the youth hostel. They could be self-build plots, Rent-to-Buy or discounted/open market house sales.
Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust (HSCHT) is a registered charitable organisation set up to help rural communities secure long-term solutions to their local housing needs and ...

A DROP in event updating local residents about the Staffin Community Trust’s major footpaths and heritage project will be held on Saturday.
The SCT received a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant to extend its hugely popular Skye Ecomuseum, called Ceumannan (footsteps in Gaelic) and has been working hard on surveying potential routes in Staffin, liaising with crofting townships about the most appropriate sites and collating information about the history and stories behind each of the locations with a particular focus on crofting, ...

NUTS found during an archaeological dig at Staffin Bay were from the hunter gatherer period more than 8,000 years ago, tests have confirmed. The hazelnut shells were discovered during the five-day community-led excavation in September 2015 when University of the Highlands and Islands archaeologists investigated a suspected Mesolithic structure, in collaboration with the Staffin Community Trust (SCT).
Radiocarbon dates have now confirmed the excavated lithics date to the Mesolithic period, towards the latter half of the 7th millennium BC. Two fragments of charred hazelnut ...

A POSTER design submitted by a Staffin Primary School pupil has beat off competition from almost 5,200 children in a national contest.
Food Standards Scotland (FSS) received 5,183 entries from 200 primary schools across Scotland and in a fantastic achievement Declan Malloy was judged the overall winner of the poster competition which required a poster about healthy eating or food safety. It was a great result for Declan and the school. Declan’s prize was £1,000 worth of Amazon vouchers for the school and £300 ...

STAFFIN footballers will be back in action this Saturday – two years after the club pulled out of the Skye and Lochalsh Bagshaw League.
Several players will be pulling on the legendary sky blue and white tops to compete in an inaugural football tournament. Danny Steele and team mates at Portree Juniors FC have organised the June McCaherty 7s at Portree High School’s astroturf pitch.  
June sadly passed away last year. Her husband, Phil McCaherty, manages the Juniors and June was a keen supporter ...

FUNDING pots which young individuals, groups, schools and youth/arts organisation based in Skye can bid into for arts schemes have been highlighted. 
Full details below. 

Creative in Your Community. This is administered through the individuals groups, schools and youth/arts organisations… Open to: Young people aged 12-25, living anywhere in the Highlands. For: New cross art form projects, to be planned and run by the young people. Aim: To encourage young people to take initiative and ownership over a project and become more confident in ...