Local people are demanding urgent action. Photograph: Willie Urquhart. BY JACKIE MACKENZIE There was a good turnout at a public meeting in Portree on Monday evening when the community was given a chance to voice views over the future of closure-threatened Home Farm care home. The NHS Highland-run elderly people’s home is currently being overseen by the Care Inspectorate after major weaknesses were found in its operation, potentially putting residents at risk. Organised by local campaign group SOS-NHS Skye, the meeting held in the Church of Scotland Hall was chaired by Fay Thomson and attended by local MP Andrew Baxter, Highland councillors Drew Millar and Chrissie Gillies, and SOS-NHS Skye members Neil Campbell and Marion Carson, along with members of the public. Local people were united in their view that Home Farm is a vital facility for Skye and must remain open. They wanted reassurance from NHS Highland over consistent...

(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...

Finlay Wilson and Theo Scott get to work at Skye Auto Detail in Portree. Photograph: Willie Urquhart. BY DANIEL CULLEN Two enterprising young Skye residents have turned their passion into a successful business after launching Skye Auto Detail, a new car valeting and detailing service in Portree. Founded earlier this year by recent Portree High School leavers Theo Scott and Finlay Wilson, the business has already proved popular with customers across the island, with demand keeping the pair fully booked since opening. The Free Press spoke to the young entrepreneurs about how the business came about, with Theo Scott explaining: “Our business, Skye Auto Detail, is a local car valeting shop based in Portree. We do interior and exterior valeting and also headlight restoration.” Finlay Wilson added that the pair wanted to take a different path while they were still at school. “When we started the business we were pupils...

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...