Author: Leona

  For nearly the last two years the group  have been filming a documentary that explores the role that music plays on Skye. Covering subjects like Gaelic, Community Events, Housing, and Tourism.  They have been lucky enough to have participants such as Donnie Munro from Runrig, Peter Morrison from The Peatbog Faeries, Ruiradh Graham from Niteworks, and Dan and Martin from Valtos. Some filming has take place at Celtic Connections, Skye Live, Portree Highland Games, and multiple smaller local events and this is very much a community-led project.  They have been filming this for last two years, and aim to complete postproduction over the next five months and then tour the film across the highlands and island next spring and summer before entering it into international film competitions. The film actively celebrates and illustrates Skye’s Culture and Heritage. As well as offering a historic appreciation of Skye’s contribution to music it also actively discusses Gaelic and its importance to both music and the culture. The group also aim to tour the film round the island including a screening in Dunvegan where we have filmed previously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlt0XNX3tf8     

   A social evening to help promote the local heritage while encouraging social interaction for some of the older members of our community.  A local band is also hired for the evening, with traditional ceilidh dancing encouraged.   This event takes place at the Old School Restaurant in Dunvegan and its aim is to provide a Christmas dinner and entertainment for eligible residents of the area.      

DCT grants Dunvegan Primary School an annual fund of £5000.00.  A large portion of this is to be spent on school trips, some goes towards running the breakfast club and the rest is to be used at the discretion of the school.   In June 2024, 8 P7 pupils went to Raasay for their P7 residential trip, which the DCT part funded – this means that all pupils have access to such a worthwhile trip, where children can meet new friends that they will be attending High School with.  The trip sees the pupils staying in Raasay House, and taking part in lots of fun outdoor activities over the 3.5 days.   The school also had end of term trips, 1 to Portree for a boat and cinema trip and the other over to Attadale Gardens  – both trips were thoroughly enjoyed by the pupils.  At the end of the school academic year, we had finally been able to get the outdoor shelter and mud kitchen built in our forest area.  This will become a pivotal part of our newly renewed Forest School project.   Breakfast club continues to be run each morning, in the school canteen by our wonderful group of volunteers.  Healthy breakfast items are offered to each child.  This helps the children to concentrate for the rest of the day.     

DCT provides an annual grant to DCC as a way to get funds out into the community in as efficient a way possible.  This has included extra grass cutting over and above what the Highland Council currently provide, providing financial support to the newly formed ‘Dunvegan Brigade’, the erection of the annual Christmas street lights and financial help to set up the new website skye.scot and purchase of wraparound signage to help the tourists.  The Highland Council only have provisions to be able to cut the area at St Mary’s Church, Dunvegan, twice a year, but this means that the area becomes so overgrown and dangerous for folk to visit.  DCC have employed a local grass cutter to cut the area a further 2 times during the summer. with financial help from DCT.  This keeps the area much tidier and more welcoming for visitors to visit. DCT also helped with the cost of repairing and renewing the signage at St Mary’s Church which will help to keep the area visible to visitors and locals alike, meaning that folk will be able to visit the area.       

Radio Skye applied to our Skye Wide Charities grant to help offer Sam, a local lad from Dunvegan, a 1 year placement on a 21 hour a week contract.  Sam had been working at Radio Skye since he left school at the age of 16, when he joined YOUTH space, Radio Skye’s training scheme for young people aged between 12 and 24. His contribution to the scheme has been impressive and they were keen to continue to work with him.   Sam will be continuing his education on radio broadcasting in a work environment with support from Station Manager Suzy Lee and YouthSPACE Mentor Robert John MacInnes. During his year, Radio Skye will be signpost him to further education options in media and broadcasting, while supporting him with applications and developing pathways into this sector. As part Sam’s role at the station, he will be championing his local area, its culture and heritage, interviewing local people about relevant issues and stories that affect them. Sam is passionate about his home town of Dunvegan and the surrounding areas and is well known for being part of the community, he hopes to develop this through being part of the station through his shows and the GreenSPACE project and will seek to include Dunvegan Community Trust in partnering alongside the conference with interviews with the team, showcasing the work Radio Skye recently attended the Community Radio Awards in Cardiff, where they were shortlisted for 6 awards, one of which Sam co presented, and in this particular award, they won bronze.      

The Scottish Coastal Clean Up (SCCU), along with Skye Beach Cleans have worked on a project to bring their beach cleaning boat to Skye in August and together with local volunteers, the aim was to remove as much marine litter as possible from, in particular, the more remote and inaccessible beaches in the loch which may have up 50 years accumulation of plastic and other marine litter on them.    

Dunvegan Community Trust continues to offer educational support to folk pursuing further education.  We had 6 applicants for the educational grant in 2024, with a combined total of £7420 being granted.   All of our applicants are at different stages in their further education, and the amounts that have been awarded demonstrate this.  Some of our grants have gone towards people who wish to remain on Skye while furthering their education and some have gone to students moving to a large city for the first time.  We feel that everyone should be able to ask for some help to further progress their education / career.  Good luck to everyone from all at DCT!