Proud Broadford P7 pupils joined by head teacher Stephen Atkins Pic Willie Urquhart Broadford Primary School has earned a glowing report card following a recent inspection by a team from Education Scotland. The 61-pupil south Skye primary was recognised for its strong leadership throughout the school, and the keen and motivated children. Education Scotland evaluated Broadford Primary as “good” in all four areas of inspection – leadership; learning, teaching and assessment; ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion; and raising attainment and achievement. The inspection team found the following strengths in the school’s work: • The leadership at all levels across the school. The headteacher and staff have developed a caring and nurturing school culture where children are keen and motivated to learn. • The leadership of Gaelic. The headteacher and staff are enthusiastic in taking forward and celebrating Gaelic. This has resulted in the numbers of learners of Gaelic at the...

There were four Lynx released in the Cairngorms Pic Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) A farmer from the Isle of Skye has voiced fears over the reintroduction of lynx and other species in the wake of the recent rogue release in the Cairngorms. Robert Macdonald, who farms near Grantown on Spey, warns there are clear parallels between the controversial reintroduction of sea eagles, which are blamed for lamb predation, and lynx being brought back to the Highlands. Mr Macdonald, chairman of the 60-member Cairngorm Crofters and Farmers group, farms Cheviot ewes near to where four lynx were illegally released earlier this month. Robert Macdonald The cats were confirmed as Eurasian lynx, the largest of four species of the animals. All were captured by experts, but one later died of starvation.  “We were all very concerned when we heard about the release of lynx,” said Mr Macdonald. “I have spoken...

Adam in his lifeboat kit Pic Willie Urquhart A volunteer crew member at Portree RNLI Lifeboat Station is celebrating after successfully completing a 10k running challenge, and raising £1,000 for the charity. Adam MacDonald, who has been on the volunteer lifeboat crew for a year, took part in the Glenmore 10k on Saturday 25 January to raise money for the RNLI. To make the challenge even harder, Adam donned the recognisable yellow PPE waterproofs and a lifejacket for the duration of the run. Adam raised an incredible £1082.83 through his fundraising challenge, which will go to the RNLI to help save lives at sea. Speaking after crossing the finish line, Adam said: “It was a spontaneous idea to take part in the run, but I wanted to raise money for a cause I know is important to me and the local community. “The Glenmore 10k is one of the hardest...

Glebe House, Glendale Pic Craig Ford/Flickr Dr John Shaw is one of the worlds’ foremost scholars of Gaelic oral traditions and is an Honorary Fellow in Celtic and Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. Following encouragement from John Lorne Campbell during his visit to Canna in 1961, John went on to conduct extensive fieldwork research into Nova Scotia’s rich Gaelic culture. Here he recalls his first summer in Glendale, Nova Scotia… Glendale is a small rural community in Inverness County, Cape Breton Island, about a dozen miles inland from the Strait of Canso – the body of water that separates Cape Breton from the Nova Scotia mainland – and extending along the Trans-Canada highway. During the first half of the 19th century, it was settled by Gaels forced by the clearances to leave their homes and relatives in Uist, Morar, Moidart and adjoining areas. Predominantly Roman Catholic, it has been a...

A Skye nurse is getting set to head to the icy climes of the Arctic Circle as part of a unique fundraising effort to help the Marie Curie charity. Fiona Henderson – more commonly known as Fiona ‘Peem’, and originally from Kyle – has signed up for a survival challenge lasting eight days in total. She heads for Sweden this weekend and over the course of the challenge she’ll be participating in and learning new skills in husky driving, ice fishing, trapping, hunting, sheltering, snow hole building and skiing – to name but a few. Accommodation starts with a basic log cabin with no power, but after that participants will have to sleep in shelters constructed by natural resources that will be built during the survival phase of the challenge. Temperatures are expected to range from 0 degrees to minus 30 degrees. The aim over six days is to build...

The series starred Sorcha Groundsell as Kat Crichton Pic Black Camel Pictures/BBCAlba/John Maher Now that the fourth and final episode of the BBC Alba mini series ‘An t-Eilean’ has aired, many readers will be wondering how £4 million couldn’t buy something better. Was the script produced by Artificial Intelligence? That might explain the embarrassing catalogue of clichés and robotic dialogue relieved by drone views of sand and sea. What was presented as substantial, “high-end Gaelic drama” was just thin gruel. Gaelic with all the Gaelic bits taken out.  Compare it with Crá, a BBC/TG4 six part crime series in Irish set in Donegal. The dialogue is larded with naturally sweary English but its native wit and charm shine through. The two series have the same director, Tom Sullivan, who is clearly used to working with a cast of mixed acting and language abilities. So how come An t-Eilean is as...

James Coull from Harlosh in Skye Pic Willie Urquhart A Skye man, whose life “was turned upside down” by a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, is set to undergo medical treatment in Mexico in a bid to secure a fighting chance in his battle with the debilitating condition. James Coull, from Harlosh, plans to fly to Mexico in May to undergo Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation – a chemotherapy treatment designed to help halt disease progression in neurologic autoimmune diseases, such as MS, for which there is no current cure. The treatment is not available in the UK through the NHS, so currently James relies on Disease Modifying Therapy in the form of pills in a bid to reduce the frequency of MS relapses. A fundraising campaign, to help meet the estimated cost of the £50,000 needed for the treatment, has been met with an incredible response – bringing in nearly £30,000...