Views sought from public on NC500 community-owned pub venture
The first steps have been taken towards potential community ownership of a popular pub on the North Coast 500 in Caithness.
Sinclair’s Bay Trust is hosting a series of consultation events to gather feedback from the public on the idea of a sustainable project centred on the Village Inn, in Keiss.
The initial goal would be to retain an important local asset, with the longer-term ambition of generating funds to benefit the area as a whole.
The Village Inn, formerly the Sinclair Bay Hotel, is a pub/restaurant with apartments which has been on the market for two years. The present owners, John and Nicola Russell, say they are “flat out” with trade from local customers as well as tourists.
Sinclair’s Bay Trust chairperson Maysie Calder explained: “The trust is looking for a sustainable project, something that would generate income, so that we’re not financially reliant on wind farms or other funding streams – we can generate our own income.
“We’ve looked at lots of different options. Recently you’ve had Wick Development Trust taking over the Wick campsite, and that has been really successful, and you’ve got the Watten shop that has been taken over by the community.
“The pub has been on the market for a long time. There is the potential for that asset to be bought up and turned into holiday accommodation, and we could lose the facilities. So we thought, ‘Why not just take a look at it?’
“Basically the idea is to protect a community asset for the community. However, you need to have community buy-in to do that, so the first step is consultation with the community and get a steering group.
“You need to have that before it can go any further. These are the early, early stages that we’re at.”
The first community consultation event took place in Ackergill on Tuesday.
The next is at Keiss hall on Sunday, April 27 (11am to noon). Others will follow at Reiss and Killimster hall on Monday, April 28 (7pm-8pm), and Staxigoe hall on Thursday, May 1 (4pm-5pm).
An online community engagement survey is available on the trust’s social media and takes about 10 minutes to fill in.
“In fairness, we need to go out to all the halls and make sure that people have the opportunity to have their say,” Ms Calder said.
“It is really important that the community come to these events. If the community does want to see this happen, there are ways to do it and we can walk them through that.
“There are a lot of myths that go around, so we’ve got myth-busters to put people at ease about it. We need a good response from the community in order for us to take it forward.”
Ms Calder stressed that if the venture does go ahead it will ultimately benefit communities across the whole Sinclair’s Bay area.
“That’s the important message for those outside of Keiss to understand,” she said. “They might think, ‘I’m not going to fill in these forms because it’s got nothing to do with me, I don’t live in Keiss.’
“But it’s a sustainable venture and any income will be put back into the Sinclair’s Bay area for the benefit of everybody, not just Keiss.
“If we don’t have people’s buy-in, it’s not going to work.”
The trust is being supported by Kerry O’Keefe, a community development officer employed by Caithness Voluntary Group.
John and Nicola Russell have owned the Village Inn for six years.
Mr Russell welcomed the Sinclair’s Bay Trust proposal, saying: “I think it’s a good idea. It can only be a good thing for the village.
“We’ve had some offers already for the place. A couple of them were turning it into apartments, which we weren’t keen on.”
He added: “We’re really busy at the moment, we’re flat out. So far this has been our best year, and the tourists have started now.
“A lot of locals are coming out, a lot of people from Wick and Thurso. We had an 18th birthday party, a 21st and a family reunion last Saturday, all on the one night.”
The introduction to the online survey says Sinclair’s Bay Trust is looking for “a large sustainable community project in our area to generate funds to be used for projects across the Sinclair’s Bay area, to benefit all through community-identified needs”.
It adds: “The Village Inn, Keiss, is for sale so this may be the perfect opportunity for a community-owned pub.”
