A new finance officer has taken the reins at Staffin Community Trust, as the organisation gears up for a busy 12 months ahead.
Aileen Taylor, who has connections to Glasphein, began with SCT in September and has taken on the key role from Donald MacDonald.
Once development trusts across Skye and the west Highlands deliver large capital projects they have property, land and facilities to manage and the financial workload and statutory requirements significantly increases.
Aileen started the handover process from Donald in September 2025 and has a crucial role in the team managing the organisation's financial work, which has grown rapidly since Taighean a' Chaiseil opened and following SCT's purchase of Staffin Harbour in 2024.
SCT has responsibilities to our tenants, both residential and at the harbour, and Aileen's work also includes managing our accounting system, VAT claims and annual audit work etc.
Aileen was raised in Crieff and moved to Aberdeen when she left school to undertake a degree in Gaelic. She spent time working for the Bank of Scotland in Portree after graduating and stayed in Stenscholl.
Aileen then joined Aberdeenshire Council as an internal auditor. She had two lengthy secondments managing the council's payroll project team and the second in an accountancy role.
In 2018, she took up her present position of engineer with the quality and resources team in the roads and infrastructure service, where she is primarily responsible for the finances. Aileen is also a duty officer for the council’s winter service which involves reviewing data and co-ordinating resources to manage the winter treatments across Aberdeenshire’s network of roads and footways. Aileen moved to the Aberdeen-shire village of Tarves last year and visits her parents in Glasphein as often as she can.
In her spare time, she teaches Gaelic and is a treasurer for Club Gàidhlig Obar Dheathain.
SCT's board is grateful for all the support and diligent work by Donald in the last two years. His predecessor Joanna Jaques was also very helpful in the handover with Aileen.