Andrew Jones and Rich Murray are pictured with staff at the Coffee Bothy in Broadford. Photograph: Willie Urquhart. BY KIRSTY WATT The Skye community have started rallying to help a beloved Broadford coffee shop which is set to lose its home as their leased property hits the market. Broadford’s Coffee Bothy, formerly Creelers, opened in March 2022 when Andrew Jones and Rich Murray took on a five-year lease of the building to open their ‘dream coffee shop’. Now, it forms an important place in the community, but Andrew and Rich’s lease ends in November and the building, owned by Eric Davet trading as Main Green Ltd, has been put on the market leaving the Coffee Bothy desperately needing a new home. Andrew told the Free Press: “We always knew it was a five-year lease, but we had always hoped for an extension. Now, we have a few options [for a...

Harbour manager Lachie Gillies hands over keys to new tenant Corran Coffee. A new community harbour building in north Skye is proving an aromatic hit with local people and visitors. Coffee beans sourced from all over the world are being roasted at Staffin Harbour and enjoyed by customers in the premises by the very first tenant, Corran Coffee. The new café and coffee supplier, run by Andi Dunkel and Paul Milne, has taken on a five-year lease of the harbour facilities building which includes much-needed public toilets and showers. It is the latest addition to the harbour which has been owned by Staffin Community Trust for less than two years. A number of businesses now operate out of the harbour after seven work sheds were built last year and include a sauna, fish farming, scallop diving, bike hire, Gaelic outdoor education activities, bike hire and boat tours. The revenue from...

Children attending the giant puppet-making workshop at the Kyleakin Community Hall as part of Fèis an Eilein are pictured as they prepare for the Puppet Picnic Parade through the village on Saturday. Photograph: Willie Urquhart. Ocean Devine from Ferindonald with his puppet. Photograph: Willie Urquhart. BY DANIEL CULLEN A week of creativity, music and craft making will culminate in a colourful puppet parade through Kyleakin this Saturday 18th July as SEALL’s annual Fèis an Eilein reaches its finale. Since Saturday 11th July, families, children and local residents have been taking part in a packed programme of workshops inspired by this year’s ‘space’ theme. Participants have been building giant puppets with acclaimed theatre company Vision Mechanics, alongside drama, drumming and stilt-walking sessions, all designed to encourage people of all ages to take part in the festival’s closing celebration. The free (pay-what-you-can) workshops have transformed Kyleakin into a creative hub throughout the...

The absolute legend, Archie Law. Photograph: Radio Skye BY KIRSTY WATT Skye teenager Archie Law saved the lives of two men last Saturday after they got into difficulty on an inflatable toy dinghy in Broadford Bay. 15-year-old Archie was praised by the RNLI for his ‘quick thinking’ as he took his own boat out to rescue the men after seeing them floundering on an inflatable dinghy between Scalpay and Pabay around 9pm on Saturday night. Speaking to Radio Skye earlier this week, Archie said: “I was just having dinner when I saw a little boat out in front of our house. I never really see any boats in front of the house, not wee ones like that. “I could see it was just a rowing boat going in circles and I was a bit confused about it. I decided I would get my boat out and see if they needed...

Marc Smith with the rest of the HebNet team enjoying their 15 year anniversary on Eigg. BY KIRSTY WATT HebNet, the Small Isles’ community-interest broadband company, has just reached a major milestone this month celebrating 15 years of providing the area with fast, reliable internet. Based in Eigg, HebNet CIC’s origins began in 2010 when Simon Helliwell launched an experimental pilot scheme to see if usable broadband could be wirelessly transmitted to Eigg. By the end of the year, HebNet CIC was formed and the majority of Eigg’s businesses and households were connected, with each household contributing £75 to materials. Since then, the CIC has gone from strength to strength with Ian Bolas, Davie Newton and Marc Smith joining Simon in the team of directors, helping to connect Rum, Canna, Muck, Knoydart and Elgol into the network. Not stopping there, the team are upgrading the service and have already moved...

(left to right) Derek Brown (Highland Council chief executive), Morag-Anna MacLeod Mitchell (Gaelic officer, Highland Council), Nicola Simpson (Fèisean nan Gàidheal senior development officer), Lauren MacColl (musician), Eilidh Mackenzie (Fèisgoil manager), Calum Alex Macmillan (Fèisean nan Gàidheal CEO) This September sees the return of the celebration of Gaelic culture, language and music across the Highlands as Blas Festival returns, with two new strands which will see young creatives get the chance to experience life on tour and an evening of conversation and music, delving into the lives of some of Scotland’s, and Canada’s, top traditional musicians. This year there will be over 30 concerts and cèilidhs across the Highlands, between 4th and 12th September, including a new piece of musical work by Inverness fiddle player Graham Mackenzie; a celebratory concert to mark 40 years of Ross-shire arts organisation Fèis Rois; BBC weather presenter Calum MacColl on opening night; Black Isle...

Denis Mollison BY KIRSTY WATT A founding member of the John Muir Trust – a major landowner on Skye – has been expelled from the board of trustees after raising concerns about the charity’s governance. Denis Mollison, former chair of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and the Mountain Bothies Association, is yet another person to be forced out of the Trust in what has become a three-year mass exodus. The charity, which owns land at Strathaird and Sconser on Skye, have claimed Mr Mollison breached the Trustee Code of Conduct; after an unsuccessful appeal, he received notice of his removal earlier this month. Mr Mollison is a founding member of the charity and spent 26 years as a trustee before stepping down in 2013. He was re-elected by members in September 2024, alongside Alison Russell, former chief finance officer of JMT, on a public manifesto raising concerns about allegations...

Neil McRae BY JACKIE MACKENZIE A Skye man is currently undertaking a trek in the Cairngorms as part of a big fundraiser to help bring a young Gazan veterinary student to Scotland to complete his studies. Vet Neil McRae, who lives in Kilbride in south Skye, hopes to raise around £35,000 so that his Palestinian friend, Mustafa Elshekhahmed, can be evacuated from his war-ravaged homeland to further his learning in Glasgow. Mustafa was half-way through his studies at Al Azhar University’s school of veterinary medicine in Gaza when hostilities broke out in October 2023. Shortly after the war started, the vet school’s buildings were targeted and destroyed by Israeli bombing. It was Gaza’s first veterinary college and the building had only been completed in 2019. After the destruction, somehow staff and students managed to keep the veterinary course going via distance learning and Mustafa passed his finals with flying colours...

Hermione Lamond and Donald Jack with the paintings BY KIRSTY WATT Bonnie Prince Charlie has returned to Elgol – in the form of two specially commissioned paintings donated last week to the community development trust by a visiting couple. Lynne Dougan and Neil Haston, Alloa, commissioned artist and illustrator Donald Jack, Ardersier, to paint two paintings depicting Bonnie Prince Charlie’s journey to, and from, Skye for the Elgol Exhibition, which is this year celebrating 150 years of the village primary school. The exhibition, run by the Elgol and Strathaird Development Trust, is located within the mothballed Elgol Primary School and features local historical and geological displays and a small shop selling local artwork and literature. Hermione Lamond, chair of the ESDT, told the Free Press: “The paintings are a fantastic thing to have because they tie in with the local history. It’s incredibly generous of Lynne and Neil to think...