Ardgay plans to celebrate 50 years as part of Sutherland
A celebration is being planned in Ardgay to mark the 50th anniversary of the community becoming part of Sutherland.
A public meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 12, at the Community Bothy, Drover’s Square, Ardgay, to discuss how to mark the occasion.
Ardgay and District was formerly part of Ross and Cromarty but became part of Sutherland in a major reorganisation of local government in 1975.
Ardgay and District Community Council spoke briefly about plans for the anniversary celebrations at their meeting in Culrain Hall last Thursday.
Secretary Kerry Hawthorne said: “It is the 50th year since Ardgay became part of Sutherland rather than Ross and Cromarty and there is a general drive to celebrate this and do something about it.”
The meeting noted that the anniversary date is May 16, which falls on a Saturday this year.
“We could have something on the Saturday or over the whole weekend,” said Ms Hawthorne. “
Members were told that only “very brief conversations” had taken place so far about a commemorative event and suggested that funding could be sought.
Minutes secretary Miranda Jones told the meeting that she would be happy to set up a working group to coordinate the celebrations and would let the community council know what input would be needed.
Ms Jones then went ahead and arranged the March 12 meeting, which will start at 6pm.
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 reformed local government in the country by introducing a two-tier system of regional and district councils.
The Act replaced the counties, burghs and districts established in 1947 with a system of nine regions, 53 districts and three island areas.
Sutherland became part of the Highland region and the parish of Kincardine, comprising Ardgay and district, was added to the county.
At the same time the Sutherland parishes of Farr and Tongue were transferred to the Caithness district, but this proved unpopular and less than two years later, in 1977, they were transferred to the Sutherland district.
