Celebrating Farr pool’s Sweet 16th Birthday with a big splash
The North Coast Leisure Centre, which includes the North Coast Swimming Pool, celebrated its Sweet 16th Birthday in style last week, with a series of community events in partnership with Farr High School’s ILC – the Integrated Learning Community which exists, at least in theory, in the catchment area of every High School in Highland Council area.
Events got under way at 6pm on Thursday night with the start of the Swimathon, a 24 hour continuous relay swim in the pool involving 30 or so swimmers, for periods ranging from 15 minutes to two and a half hours.
Plus, there was a mass swim by the Farr and Melvich Nursery pupils, which was of a somewhat shorter duration but carried out with equal determination.
Swimmers represented a very wide cross-section of the population, from one year old James Wyllie of Thurso, who admittedly required a little help, to Brian Kitchener of Bettyhill, approximately 68 times as old, who managed his quota of lengths without assistance!
Over the 24 hours, 4656 lengths were swum, a total of around 58.5km and, as many of these lengths were heavily sponsored, the outcome should also be quite lucrative for the pool.
Throughout the Swimathon the pool and all its facilities, including the fitness suite, were open to the public free of charge, an offer which kept the punters coming in all through the night.
Also, additional events were running simultaneously, with a Gaelic Placenames Treasure Hunt, designed by Brian Macleod of Skerray, around Bettyhill on Thursday night, which attracted entrants from as far away as Brazil!
On Friday, there was a village and beach litter pick-up, involving the local Countryside Ranger, Paul Castle, together with pupils and staff from nursery to S3 from Farr Primary and High Schools.
Would-be foresters of all ages, together with some residents, participated in tree planting sessions at Caladh Sona in Melness, the Kyle Centre in Tongue, and Sinclair Court in Melvich, with trees, shrubs and expertise courtesy of the Forestry Commission.
When the Swimathon ended at 6pm on Friday, it was party time with pool staff, Tongue and Farr Sports Association (TFSA) directors, friends of the pool and members of the public enjoying drinks and a barbecue, to music from the North Coast Jazz Band, in a marquee adjacent to the building.
TFSA Company Secretary, Jim A Johnston, paid tribute to the good work of the dedicated and enthusiastic pool staff, past and present, and to the quality of the building, built by the O’Brien Construction Company and completed on schedule for opening by the then MP, The Honourable Robert Maclennan, on the 29 April 1995.
Since then, though, there have been ups and downs, with an astonishing 185,621 visitors passing through the doors, an average of just over 11,600 visitors per year and which was continuing to increase against a falling demograph and a national recession.
He predicated that, as long as the pool continued to energetically pursue the opportunities available, and to adapt to changing trading conditions, this successful picture would be maintained.
The evening was rounded off with the cutting of a birthday cake, by local Highland Councillor, Linda Munro .
She is Children’s Champion for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, and with an interest in the well-being agenda, has taken a special interest in the pool during her term of office.
Saturday brought a change of tack, with a kite building and plate painting session in the High School, run by Paul Castle and Jean Eisenhauer respectively.
Prior to this there was a healthy cook-in at Skerray Hall from noon onwards, marinated by Layla Pearson and Mhairi Peattie of Skerray, a mother and daughter team who likened their approach to that of Fanny and Johnny Craddock and, either in spite or because of that, delivered an excellent afternoon of health orientated cooking and eating.
For those not completely exhausted by this time, there remained a Saturday night ceilidh in Tongue Village Hall with Bettyhill-based band, Macunrook, which went down very well, though the audience was a little restricted by competing events.
Summing up the preceding few days’ activities, Brian Macleod of North and West Sutherland Community Care Forum, representing Farr High School ILC, thanked all who had taken part in the huge range of activities on offer, break-dancing, graffiti wall, major and minor movers, anticipatory care and mountain biking.
The shield for the winners of the Gaelic Treasure Hunt was presented to “Beathachan” by Linda Munro and accepted, on their behalf, by Erin and Connor Cook of Bettyhill.
And finally, on Sunday morning, all those kite manufacturers from Saturday morning joined some possessors of professionally produced kites to see whose would soar over Melvich Beach in a mass aerobatics session.
To the delight of the youngsters involved, the kites they had made themselves won the day – an illustration perhaps that, as with most community projects, the things you work hard for yourselves, often come out best.
