From the Northern Times 25, 50 and 100 years ago
25 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of May 31, 1996
A GLASGOW builder has offered to take over a dilapidated Highland Council owned building at remote Cape Wrath lighthouse and turn it into a tea room and visitor attraction. John Ure also intends moving with his wife and three school-age children from his city home to live at the isolated cape, the most north-westerly corner of the Scottish mainland. His proposal is set to be discussed by Sutherland area committee when it meets in Bettyhill on Monday.
Beechview Lodge in Brora, the first respite care centre in the Highlands for adults with a learning disability, will be officially opened this afternoon by Highland councillor Ron McDonald.
Crisis talks over the future of Bettyhill's cash-starved swimming pool are to be held next Tuesday between pool managers Tongue and Farr Sports Association and Sutherland cultural and leisure services chiefs. A substantial increase in grant aid from Highland Council has been requested.
50 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of May 28, 1971
British Aluminium's £37million smelter at Invergordon is in operation. The plant's total capacity will be 100,000 tons of metal a year, and with eventually 550 employees the smelter payroll alone will create an injection of £75,000 a year into the local economy. More than 350 employees have already been recruited, the bulk of them from the Highlands. The Invergordon plant, built in two and a half years, comes into operation almost exactly 75 years after British Aluminium first produced aluminium.
Mr Michael Burnett, of Pulrossie Farm, Dornoch, a Sutherland county councillor since last May, has been selected by the Caithness and Sutherland Liberal Association as their prospective parliamentary candidate.
The District Council are suggesting that the water hole at the clay quarry at Brora would appear to be ideal for dumping old car bodies. But the dumping would have to be controlled and the material bulldozed.
100 YEARS AGO
From the newspaper of May 26, 2021
The H.M. Inspector’s reports on a number of the schools under the jurisdiction of Sutherland Education Authority were submitted. The report for Skerray school was considered an excellent one. Badcall-Inchard had also an excellent report. The attendance at Glencassley school only reached 50 per cent, and the Inspector points out that steps would have to be taken by the Authority to bring about a much better attendance.
Durine H.G. school was only considered fairly good. The report on Oldshore school was not viewed with satisfaction. Complaint was made about the unclean and unsatisfactory condition of the offices, Dr Bremner stating they were a disgraceful state. The Authority were of the opinion that the cleaner should be dismissed.
His Grace the Duke of Sutherland, the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the Duchess of Sutherland arrived in Edinburgh on Monday and took up residence at Holyrood Palace.
