In the spring of 2020, a group of volunteers got together to give Sheila’s Cottage a revamp following the re-thatching of the roof the pervious winter. Sheila herself (a mannequin for anyone wondering) was taken apart, repaired where necessary and given a set of new clothes including a hand knitted shawl and a ‘Sunday best’ skirt made using a piece of Harris Tweed donated by The Harris Tweed Company. The internal walls of the cottage were whitewashed and new curtains fitted before undergoing an extensive clean. Sheila is now back in the cottage and seated at a spinning wheel which was rescued from Ulva House and restored by local wood turner, Bob Hastie. We are delighted with the results of the makeover and are grateful to the all the volunteers involved in making it happen. The team comprised Belinda & Mike Hale, Ian & Joan Hepburn, Mary Barton, Jan Morrison, Cath Mayo, Andy Primrose and Helen Murray.
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Development Manager's Diary
Wendy Reid
Hi everyone, my name is Wendy Reid & I’m the Ulva Development Manager. I moved up to Ulva from the Scottish Borders, where I had lived for the past 20 years, to take up the post in 2019.
This is my diary of the developments that are taking place on Ulva as part of the continuing plan to renovate and re-populate the island of Ulva.
2023
Development Manager's Diary - March 2023
It’s been a relatively quiet winter this year, after flurry of activity at the back end of the year. The housing renovations were finally completed at the beginning of December. Later that month welcomed our latest resident, who moved in to No1 Bracadale just before Christmas, meaning that all the residential properties are now occupied.
Since the arrival of our livestock manager, Phil Bertin, in June last year, there are now both breeding cattle and sheep on the island. It’s been great to see livestock back grazing in the various in-by fields.
The arrival of a beautiful wee heifer calf at the beginning of the month signalled the start of the calving season, with lambing due to begin at the end of the month.
The most significant development on the farming front however has been the transition of Phil from livestock manager to farm tenant, thereby realising one of the early objectives outlined in the buy-out business plan. Reaching this milestone wouldn’t have been possible without the advice and support of many people, but in particular Claire Simonetta and Ian Mackay, to whom we owe a huge debt of thanks.
As ever at this time of year we are gearing up for the start of the tourist season, with both the ferry service and the Boathouse café opening for business on April 3rd . We’re delighted that this year there will be a choice of accommodation options for visitors looking to spend more time on the island. In addition to the existing bothy at Bernais, Cragaig bothy, on the southside, has had a makeover and is now available to book via Island Holiday Cottages.
After extensive renovations, Ardalum Hostel is also due to open its doors from the beginning of April.
2022
Development Manager's Diary - August 2022
We had a visit from one of our funders a few weeks ago and they asked if I’d stopped doing the Development Manager’s Diary. The answer was no but the question did make me realise that I hadn’t actually written one at all this year. I’d like to think this is down to how busy we’ve been rather than any deficiencies on my part! So much has happened over the past 8 months, both positive and negative it’s hard to know where to start.
At the beginning of the year, we were disappointed to have to pull the plug on our Storas Ulbha project which would have seen Ulva House repurposed into a heritage/education centre with an associated 3-4 bed self-catering holiday unit in the housekeepers’ quarters. All was going to plan in that we had planning permission and listed building consent along with an interpretation strategy and had a project manager and an education officer in place. However, on going out to tender, the costs for the capital works required on the house were more than double the estimates our grant funding had been based on. This was despite us obtaining a revised cost estimate from our Quantity Surveyor prior to the tender process. The board had to take the very difficult decision to call a halt to the project as the costs were prohibitively expensive. We are now exploring other options for Ulva House and are holding a community event in the house on Sept 18th to enable us to gather local views on it’s possible future. For more details visit Ulva House - The Future
The refurbishment of the 6 residential properties on the island, our biggest project to date, will be complete by the end of September. It’s been a mammoth task for all involved as the renovation works were extensive. All properties were gutted and rebuilt from the inside. They now feature new roofs, wiring, windows, doors, staircases (where needed) and are fully insulated. New bathrooms and kitchens were also fitted along with air source heat pump central heating systems and septic tanks. As a tenant of one of the properties I can honestly say I’m looking forward to winter this year knowing I now have a properly insulated and centrally heated home! None of this would have been possible without a huge amount of support stretching over a 4-year period, starting with Moxons Architects who produced detailed renovation plans for each property on a pro-bono basis. These, alongside a feasibility study & business plan developed by the Communities Housing Trust, enabled us to secure funds for the development. Since then, our architect and quantity surveyor, Ronnie Neil and Tommy McQuade, have worked tirelessly with the contractors, TSL, to overcome the inevitable logistical issues that come with working on an island off an island. Between them they have delivered
In April we hosted a 3 day beach clean, organised by the brilliant Kerrie Flockhart and a team from
Forth Resource Management, a waste management and recycling business based in East Lothian, including their . Luckily, we hit a sweet spot weather wise and were graced with blue skies and sunshine every day. A gargantuan amount of waste was collected from numerous sites along the southside of the island.
Three locally based business,
The Ulva Ferry,
Scottish Salmon Company and
Turus Mara transported the rubbish across to Ulva Ferry where it was later uplifted by
Argyll & Bute Council. One member of the group from the central belt was Ally Mitchell, founder of
Ocean Plastic Pots who produces beautiful plant pots from old fishing nets. He was delighted to leave with a laden transit van! As ever, these activities wouldn’t have been possible without dedicated volunteers willing to above and beyond to help. There are too many to name individually, but they all have our heartfelt thanks.
Talking about dedicated volunteers, our garden crew have continued their brilliant work in the walled garden despite the pretty dismal summer we’ve had. Unlike the majority of the country we weren’t blessed with blue skies and soaring temperatures. Notable achievements have been the construction of a new composting area along with the assembly of a new greenhouse on the remaining base of an old Victorian one. Although only the frame is up yet, it won’t be long before all the glass is installed ready for use over the winter.
As well as working on the housing refurbishment project, TSL were also awarded the contract to upgrade our pier at Ulva Ferry. The project was funded by the European Marine Fisheries Fund with design work and project management provided by Gordon Brown from Wallace Stone. The work has resulted in a longer, wider and higher pier, a new lay-down area and small breakwater making it possible for more that one fishing boat to tie up at any one point as well as at high and low tide. A new set of steps means getting on and off the Ulva Ferry is now far easier.
In July we welcomed Phil Bertin, our new livestock manager, and his wife to the island. Phil has moved down from Harris to take up the position on Ulva and has been busy supplementing our livestock numbers with his own which means we should really begin to see visible signs of improvements to our grazing land as a result. These developments were featured in an episode of ‘On your Farm’ on Radio 4 at the end of August – still available on BBC Sounds for those that missed it first time round!
2021
Development Manager's Diary - December 2021
As we approach the end of another year, I’m delighted to be able to say that we have finished our first house renovation! The Manse is a grade B listed Thomas Telford designed building from the early Nineteenth Century and was originally built to house the minister for the nearby Ulva Church. In the short term it will be used for existing residents to ‘decant’ into while work continues on the remaining properties. We are delighted with the way it has turned out – a tribute to the various professionals that have worked on it with us. We owe huge thanks to Moxon Architects who worked up the original designs on a pro-bono basis. The baton was then picked up by Bruce & Neil Architects and TSL contractors, with funding from the Scottish Government’s Rural & Island Housing Fund and Island Community Fund, Argyll & Bute Council and the Ecology Building Society. As you can imagine the logistics of working on Ulva have not proved easy, but we think the end results justify the the effort.
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The next two houses are scheduled for completion late spring 2022 with the rest due to be finished early summer. It’s all taking a bit longer than originally anticipated but we are getting there.
Storas Ulbha Update
Continuing with the good news theme we finally got permission from Historic Environment Scotland to go out to tender for the proposed works to Ulva House, an exciting mixture of new holiday accommodation and heritage centre telling the story of Ulva through it’s people. We are looking to build an archive of stories as an historical record to be kept in Ulva House and to inform the material we put on display.
We are working with Lateral North, our interpretation consultants, to collect relevant stories. To get the ball rolling Lesley and Liz took along items from the library at Ulva House and the renovation plans to the Christmas Fayre at Mull Theatre.
In this time of Covid restrictions it was great to speak to so many people directly about our exciting project. We would love to hear from more people and more consultation events are planned for the New Year, and a short survey can also be accessed by clicking on the button below.
With all this activity, and work continuing on our other projects, 2022 is gearing up to be an exciting year.
Development Manager's Diary - September 2021
It has been a busy summer on Ulva with visitors returning to the island, bringing with them the beginnings of some normalcy returning. The fact we’ve been blessed with good weather, on the whole, has been an added bonus.
Despite a few hiccups, there are now visible signs of progress on the three properties undergoing renovation. The new roof is nearing completion on the Manse with the slates going up over the next few weeks, new floors are going in and new windows won’t be far behind. It is hoped that the building will be weatherproof by the end of September. One and Two Bracadale have thrown up a few unwelcome surprises but nothing that can’t be dealt with, which means we are now running a little behind schedule with these. However, the good news is the new concrete floors have now been poured and work on replacing the roof will start shortly. All positive steps forward.
There is also good news regarding proposals to upgrade the stone pier at Ulva Ferry to provide a safer working space for local fishermen and for the Ulva Ferry. The funding was secured earlier in the year and planning came through last month. Following a public procurement exercise, we’ve awarded the contract for the capital works to TSL while Wallace Stone will provide contract management support. There are still a few loose ends to tie up, but we are hoping that work will commence in October and be finished by February 2022. The work will involve extending the length of the pier, raising the height, improving access to the slipway, creating a storage area at the rear of the pier, installing safety lighting and creating a small breakwater.
At the back end of last year, we were invited by the Scottish Island Federation to be part of a joint funding scheme by the European Small Islands Federation (ESIN) bid to a European Programme called NESOI (New Energy Solutions Optimised for Islands) for some funds to undertake a Clean Energy Transition Plan. A total of six islands from France, Ireland, Denmark, and Finland are involved alongside us. We will be working with a consultant to produce a Clean Energy Transition Plan for Ulva, the process for this is still under discussion with ESIN but we are planning to start work in October.
Our two new electric vehicles have finally arrived on the island! Thanks to TSL and the Scottish Salmon Company who helped with transportation across from Mull.
The UTV has already been put to good use by the garden volunteers, I’m sure they will become a familiar sight around the island as they are put to good use by both the company and residents alike.
Storas Ulbha News
The Storas Ulbha team has grown considerably in the last couple of months, we welcome Lesley Davies and Calum Hall who will be working on Education and Marketing respectively. Both bring a huge amount of experience to the project and lots of exciting things are in the pipeline.
During August and into September, Lesley is running a series of guided walks around Ulva House and the walled garden. Come and find out about the plans for the house and gardens and its history. Keep up to date via our Facebook page.
Work in the walled garden has been tremendous this summer, with a dedicated band of volunteers coming over each Monday to tackle both the ongoing weeding, grass cutting and the clearance of material. There have been some challenges, the winds in the early part of the year have brought down a number of trees, but the group immediately saw the potential for the wood and hope to create more seats around the garden.
As we move into autumn there are plans to build compost bays from the reclaimed timber from the house refurbishment and to rebuild the greenhouse with a new glass frame, which is on order. The group meet on Mondays and new volunteers are always very welcome.
Development Manager's Diary - June 2021
Firstly, I want to apologies for the long gap since my last update, so much has happened that time simply ran away from me. We are delighted that the easing of Covid restrictions has allowed us to welcome visitors again. Both the Ulva Ferry and the Boathouse began operating at the end of April and since then we’ve had steady stream of people making the trip over.
In addition to the revamp of Sheila’s Cottage, work on upgrading the Church toilets has also been completed. We now have two fully functioning, modern toilets with baby changing facilities. A vast improvement on what was there previously and a welcome addition to the facilities available on the island.
Housing Refurbishments
As reported back in March, we have appointed TSL as lead contractors for our housing refurbishment programme. Work has now started in earnest with TSL moving vehicles and materials to the island by barge last month. The logistics of this were not easy given the access issues we have, and will continue to have, throughout the project, and required us to close the island to visitor for a couple of hours over two days. The offloading of steel containers, diggers and large vehicles was a sight to behold. For the past couple of weeks the TSL team have been busy creating a welfare site, making improvements to the tracks and removing trees/tree limbs, as necessary, to enable their vehicles to move around the island safely and removing. So much unusual activity on the island has proved to be a strange experience after the quite of lockdown. Thankfully, we only had a few days of jackhammer activity!
The refurbishment programme will be undertaken in 2 phases with the 3 empty properties (No’s 1 & 2 Bracadale and the Manse) being tackled first. Residents spent a couple of days, in glorious sunshine, emptying these properties of their contents in preparation for handing over to TSL. Many thanks to Barry George, Andrew Primrose & Hannah & Kelly Hollander for their help with this. Once complete, existing tenants will then decant into these properties to release the currently occupied properties for refurbishment.
Visitors need to be aware that there are construction vehicles operating at various locations and several fenced off areas which are out of bounds to non-authorised personnel, so a degree of caution is required when walking round the island. The project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our funders, the Scottish Government’s Rural & Island Housing Fund, Argyll & Bute Council and the Ecology Building Society - huge thanks to them for enabling us to turn our aspirations into reality.
Storas Ulbha
Work is progressing well with the Storas Ulbha project. The Design Team has submitted the planning application for the proposed capital works to the house itself. A bat survey was undertaken one balmy night to determine if the house was being used as a roosting site. No evidence of bats was found in the house although two lone Pipistrelle bats (a Common and Soprano) were sighted emerging from under the slate work at dusk. This information will be passed on to the relevant authorities.
The garden volunteers have been continuing the long slow job of tackling the overgrown flower beds and burning off the brash from the felled trees and are making impressive progress having upped their visits from once a fortnight to every Monday. They have also been working alongside a Landscape Architect to develop a master plan and a long-term management plan for the restoration of this historic garden. New volunteers are always welcome if anyone is interested in getting involved.
This month we welcome Sally Feldt to the team, filling the position of Administrator left vacant when Liz Peel took over from Ailsa Raeburn as Project Manager. Sally lives in Derviag and has a strong background in business having run her own company for many years as well as working in a range of retail and service sector positions.
Development Manager’s diary – March 2021
This past month has seen the island begin to come to life again after the winter, the snowdrops in the walled garden at Ulva House were spectacular – unfortunately, I completely forgot to take any photos, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Housing Refurbishments
The big news is that we finally have all the funding in place for our housing refurbishment project. We’ve been working on securing the necessary funds for well over a year, so you can imagine how delighted we are. The project will see the 6 existing residential properties (the Ferry House, the Manse House, No’s 1, 2 & 3 Bracadale and Fisherman’s Cottage) undergo extensive refurbishments, in order to bring them all up to modern standards. Work will include installing insulation, double glazing and central heating using air source heat pumps, roof repairs, new rainwater goods, new bathrooms & kitchens, staircases, and external porches where required amongst other things.
The extensive design, survey and specification work to achieve consents and warrant was provided to the community pro-bono by Moxon Architects Ltd. Bruce & Neil Architects have been appointed as lead architects to take the project forward and the work will be carried out by TSL as lead contractors. Funding for the project has come from the Scottish Government’s Rural & Island Housing Fund, Argyll & Bute Council, Ecology Building Society as well as from our own funds. Huge thanks to the funders for their support for this project which will see an improvement in living standards for existing tenants and bring 3 currently empty properties back into use as affordable homes for long-term rent. No start date has been fixed; we are hoping that we will be in a position to kick off in mid-May. It is likely that the houses won’t be ready for occupation until early next year, so we won’t be advertising for new tenants until the back end of this year.
Storas Ulbha Project
The Architects have been to site again to gather final details before submitting their planning and listed building application for the House refurbishment in April. They are in discussion with Historic Environment Scotland to ensure they are happy with the proposals. An asbestos survey has been commissioned and a bat survey should be taking place soon.
Work continues on the Garden by the volunteers with drainage a key priority, as some areas of the garden continue to be waterlogged. Some of the mature trees have very sadly come to the end of their life and we are looking at how they can be removed safely. New tree planting is part of the plan for the improved garden.
Together with our Monitoring and Evaluation Consultants, Iconic Consulting, we are developing a visitor survey for visitors to Ulva this year. This will hopefully be ready for use when the island reopens and will be very valuable in helping us better understand what visitors want. Anne Cleave from the Mull Archaeological and Historical Survey has been really helpful in helping identify a pool of volunteers who might help with running guided walks and talks on the island and in the House when it is open. Get in touch if you are interested in volunteering.
Finally, it is with sadness that we are having to say goodbye to Ailsa as she is having to step down from the project for personal reasons. However, we are very pleased to say that Liz Peel, the project Administration Officer is going to step into the role. Liz will take over from the 1 May.
Re-opening to Visitors
With covid-19 restrictions scheduled to be eased in April we are aiming to open the island the week beginning April 19th, as the rules allow. The Boathouse and the ferry will be operating 3 days in the week – exact days still to be confirmed. Further information can be found elsewhere on this website and via The Ulva Ferry facebook page.
The Church toilets have had a makeover in advance of re-opening – they’ve been painted and have new sinks, toilets and flooring along with baby changing units and covid compliant hand sanitising units. Many thanks to Andy Primrose and Hannah Hollander for all their efforts at completing the work in record time.
On a personal note, I’ve become a dog owner! Meet Bruin. He came to live with me at the start of the month and has settled in well. As you can imagine, he’s keeping me on my toes & is loving exploring his new home.
Development Manager’s diary – February 2021
Work on our various projects had been continuing apace this past month despite some atrocious weather which saw winds of 60mph hitting the island over the course of a week. Unfortunately, this resulted in extensive damage to trees at Ulva House. We lost at least 3 trees within the walled garden and several limbs off a beautiful old tress next to the garden. The clear up operation is still underway. We are hopeful however that we may be able to turn some of the wood that has come down into benches for the garden.
In other Ulva House news, the Storas Ulbha design team visited Ulva on a very sunny day to start detailed design work on the House and Gardens. The garden gang met with the Landscape Designer and discussed the developing Masterplan for the House. This should be ready in draft by early April and will be available for public feedback.
We held a very well attended Zoom public consultation event setting out the House and Garden plans, with some well-considered questions and lots of support shown. We will look to do this again at the end of April to make sure everyone is kept up to date with what is happening.
We have gone out to tender for the Interpretation project - this will include designing and installing the exhibition in Ulva House, as well as interpretation and signage around the island. Tenders are expected back at the start of April and we are pleased to report that Anne Cleave and Amiria Salmond will be helping us with the interviews for consultants and decision making.
Finally - we are now advertising for an Education and Marketing Officer. This will be a really important role for the project and Ulva and will involve setting up and managing a programme of events and activities for local people and visitors. As we all emerge out of our long hibernation, it will be great to see activity and life again around the island!
The island’s population has grown again with the arrival of Brendan and Mark to take over the running of the Boathouse. Opening, of course, will be dependant on covid rules but there is an aspiration to do this as soon as is practically possible.
The electric mountain bikes that I mentioned last time have now been ordered and should be here for the start of the season (whenever that turns out to be), along with a child cycle trailer for families to hire. We are looking at sourcing a couple of solar powered bile lockers for them which will be located somewhere at the top of the pier. In addition, the funding has allowed us to acquire an electric quad bike, an electric UTV (a Polaris type vehicle) and an electric cargo bike which will be mainly for use by residents. This initiative supports the aspirations to minimise the carbon footprint of the island as it develops.
Development Manager’s diary – January 2021
In previous jobs I always found that things took time to pick up after Christmas & Hogmanay celebrations. Not here though! It’s been a surprisingly busy month with progress on a number of fronts – enough to keep me brooding about the on-going covid restrictions!
The most significant development is that we have found new tenants for the Boathouse – Mark Elliot and Brendan Tyreman. They are planning on moving up from Edinburgh at the beginning of March with a view (covid permitting) to opening the Boathouse in April. They have been to Ulva before, spending time here in 2019 following a trip to Iona, so they have some idea of what they are coming to. With the Boathouse being such an important island attraction, we are delighted at the prospect of the cafe welcoming customers again in 2021. I’ll be first in the queue for coffee & cake – it’ll be a welcome respite from my own baking efforts.
Work on installing our new stock fencing is progressing well. Rhoda Munro has almost finished the in-by area. Materials for the hill section were lifted over by helicopter at the end of last week and work on the new fence on the north side of the Gometra track will start the week beginning Feb 15th. This is all part of our commitments under our Agri Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) contract to manage the land in such as was as to target and support biodiversity, in particular vulnerable priority species including farmland waders, Corncrake, Hen Harrier and Twite as well as the Marsh Fritillary and Slender Scotch Burnett moth, all of which are already present in the local area. This will be achieved by following a grazing plan for our highland cattle and sheep that removes roughage and creates an open and diverse sward suitable for flowering plants and less competitive plant species, whilst providing cover during the nesting season for specific priority bird species.
We’ve been successful with a couple of small but significant grant applications. One will allow us to improve the condition of the toilets in the Church while the other will enable to purchase a couple of electric mountain bikes which will be available for visitors to hire. More details on both these initiatives next month.
Good progress is being made with the Storas Ulbha project. We have appointed Bruce and Neil of Oban as Project Architects and are looking forward to working with them on restoring the House. This appointment was made after a long and involved tender process with 4 firms in contention. They bring a team of additional specialists including Morham and Brotchie Quantity Surveyors, also of Oban, and local landscape designers Craignish Design. An open Zoom meeting for local people to comment on the initial plans will be held shortly. Details will be sent out through our usual communication channels – Facebook, Twitter, website, newsletter mailing list etc.
The Garden volunteer group are also developing their ideas for the Walled Garden restoration. They have been talking to the Head Gardener at Achamore Gardens on Gigha, to the Scottish Garden and Landscape Heritage Society as well as Historic Environment Scotland garden specialists to start refining their plans. Their first meeting with the appointed Landscape Designer will be on the 12 February. Their first plans including repairing the polytunnel to give them a place to work
One of the original authors of Clan Macqaurie - A History has offered to update this respected reference book on the Clan and allow it to be sold with profits going to Ulva. We are very grateful to the original authors and their estate for this generous offer
Development Manager’s diary – November/December 2020
A double edition this month to make up for the fact that November went past in the blink of an eye and I now find myself almost at the end of the year having not posted anything for almost 2 months. Frightening how that happens – I’m desperately avoiding blaming it on age!!
It’s been another busy period for the island with progress being made on several fronts. The Storas Ulbha project is steaming ahead. At the beginning of December we appointed a Liz Peel as the project administrator. Liz lives in Dervaig and brings with her a wealth of project & community experience including management of European grant funds. We can’t quite believe our luck in finding her but are delighted to welcome her to the team! The tender process for the design team for the Ulva House restoration element of the project elicited 4 submissions and we anticipate making a final appointment early in the new year. The contract for consultants to monitor and evaluate the success of the project over the next 2 years has been advertised, along with a contract to undertake some filming work. These contracts will also be awarded in early January. Virtual meetings have been held with the Garden Force volunteers and a plan for the restoration of the walled garden at Ulva House is emerging. Finally, we are starting to build a network of historians, archaeologists, genealogists and general interest individuals who will be contributing to the interpretation work.
We’ve been working with marine engineers Wallace Stone since April on plans for improving the pier and slipway infrastructure at Ulva Ferry. The good news is that our application to the European Marine Fisheries Fund has been successful and we now have the money to undertake the proposed work. If all goes according to plan the work will start in on site in April.
The other big news is that we hope we have found new tenants for the Boathouse! In the end we received 9 full applications, of which 4 were shortlisted. Following an interview process with each of the shortlisted candidates the panel decided to offer the tenancy to a couple from Edinburgh. Final details have still to be agreed so I’ll say no more on this for now.
The dry-stone dyke repairs have been completed. Massive thanks go to Peter Holmes (Rural Skills Training, Kilchoan) for finding a way to safely run the training sessions for us. Residents Barry George, Kelly Hollander and our Gometra friends, Andy & Yvette Primrose, did a great job. We are especially grateful to Barry for all the additional shifts he did sorting out problematic trees and sourcing and shifting stone to where it was needed.
Despite the difficult circumstance that have faced everyone this year we feel that we are ending 2020 on a positive note. Here’s hoping things improve in 2021 and we can welcome people back to the island.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
Development Manager’s diary – October 2020
I can’t quite believe that another month has gone by already. Not only have the trees I look out on from the office window gone from green to gold, as of this weekend most have now lost their leaves entirely! While it’s been an exceptionally wet & stormy few weeks work has been cracking on with the various projects we’ve got on the go.
Frustratingly we’re still in discussions with the Scottish Government about the housing refurbishment programme with no final funding decisions being made yet. It means that tenants face another winter in cold, draughty properties. However, we do believe that progress is being made and that we’ll have definitive news shortly.
Ailsa Raeburn, the Storas Ulbha (as the Ulva House project is officially known) project manager, has been working furiously behind the scenes with our various funders making sure that all the funding conditions and timescales align so we can actually get the grant agreements signed. We’re currently out to tender for a design team to take the Ulva House refurbishment part of the project forward andwe’ll shortly be seeking consultants to work with us designing an interpretation strategy. In addition, we’re in the process of recruiting an administrator for the project so, fingers crossed, we’ll have another team member before too long.
The process for finding new tenants for the Boathouse continues, with the date for submitting formal expressions of interest passing in the middle of the month. We received a staggering 69 submissions from as far afield as Australia, South Africa, Uganda, the USA, Canada, Norway, France, and Italy as well as from the across the UK. Those who expressed an interest now have until the end of November to submit a full business proposal. These will then be assessed by a panel comprising people with a range of appropriate skills & experience before a final decision is made.
On a practical note, we are about to start a large fencing initiative which will see all the fields in the in-bye area fenced to make them stock proof and a new line of fencing installed along north side of the track to Gometra. All this work is required under the terms of our Agri Environment Climate Scheme contract and will allow us to graze the cattle in a manner consistent with agreed conservation purposes. In addition to the fencing we are also undertaking some repairs to some of the stone dykes. This involves interested residents undertaking training in dyking so we are repairing the walls as we learn. So far so good!
Development manager’s diary – September
September has been surprisingly busy - after months of frustration due to Covid related delays we’ve finally begun to see progress with on a number of fronts.
The Boathouse
Back in January Rebecca and Emma who have run the Boathouse for the past 12 years or so indicated that they intended to give up the lease at the end of the season. The news was quite a blow as the Boathouse has been such an important part of the character and fabric of the island. However, it does mean that there is now an opportunity for new people to take on the premises and develop a new hospitality business on the island. There has been a lot of interest – 54 formal expressions of interest lodged so far and there’s still over a week before the closing date! We are hoping to have selected new tenants by mid-December with a view to having a business operating out of the Boathouse by the start of next season.
Ardalum House Hostel
Another business opportunity highlighted in the Masterplan was bringing Ardalum House back into use as a bunkhouse. We are delighted to say that we have leased the building to a couple, Kelly & Hannah Hollender, from Shropshire. For this very purpose. They moved up the first week of October and will spending the winter undertaking essential work on the house. They hope to be able to open for business next year. This of course means that the island resident population has increased from 6 to 8. Baby steps but exciting none the less.
Ulva House Project
On the Ulva House front, we have appointed a dedicated project manager. Ailsa Raeburn started in post on Oct 1st and will be steering the project over the next couple of years. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that needs to be done before we will be able to see any visible signs of work on the ground but its’ great to finally be starting on the project.
Pier Improvement Project
In August we appointed Wallace Stone as professional advisors for our pier improvement project. They will be working with us to draft and cost designs for extending, raising, and widening our pier at Ulva Ferry and creating a better dry berth facility adjacent to the pier on Ulva. Gordon Brown from Wallace Stone undertook a site visit at the beginning of September and we are now consulting on the plans that emerged from that visit. We’ll be applying to the European Marine Fisheries Fund for the money to undertake these capital improvement works.
Cragaig Bothy Stove
Last, but not least, we finally managed to get a new stove fitted into Cragaig bothy. No mean undertaking given that access to the bothy is by foot, quad bike or boat only. Many thanks to Alistair & Jamie for their willingness to take this on. We are now on track to be able to let out Cragaig again next season, Covid permitting.
As I said, it has been a busy few weeks.
Development manager’s diary – August
While Covid-19 restrictions have meant that it’s been a quiet summer of Ulva from a visitor perspective that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening. We’ve used the absence of visitors to do repairs on some of the farm tracks and undertake some small repairs to the interior of Sheila’s Cottage and at the Church (both toilets are now in working order!). Sheila herself made a trip across to Mull for a makeover although her big reveal will now have to wait till next year.
Development Areas
We’ve been working on 4 major areas of development: production of an Ulva Masterplan; refurbishment of 6 residential properties for long-term affordable rent, the reintroduction of agricultural activity and the repurposing of Ulva House into a heritage centre which will tell the story of Ulva through telling the story of Ulva’s people. I’m delighted to say that although progress has been slow there has actually been progress in all these areas of activity.
The Ulva Masterplan can be viewed on the Council’s website using the following link:
https://portal360.argyll-bute.gov.uk/…/Hand…/Doc/pagestream…
Back in March we learned that we had been successful with our application for support through the Scottish Government’s Agri Environment Climate Scheme (AECS). Our aim is to target and support biodiversity, in particular vulnerable priority species including farmland waders, Corncrake, Hen Harrier, Marsh Fritillary and Twite by following a suitable grazing plan for our native livestock and, bring the land, which is currently in a state of varying degrees of neglect, back into suitable condition for both the environment and agriculture. One of our first actions will be to repair existing and install new stock fencing to allow the grazing plan to be implemented. We hope to have this work completed by the end of the year.
On the housing front we have submitted an application to the Rural & Island Housing Fund for a significant contribution toward the costs of refurbishing the 6 residential properties to bring them up to modern standards. We’ve also identified a preferred contractor following an open procurement process and have secured all the relevant permissions required for the planned works. Fingers now firmly crossed that we secure the funding required to proceed with the project. This will not only improve living standards for the existing residents but will also make 3 additional properties available for affordable long-term rent. First step on the road to increasing the island’s population.
With regards to the Ulva House project, we were due to hear the outcome of the final bit of funding required in March, just as Covid-19 hit. Funding announcements were delayed, and we are still waiting to hear.
Most frustrating. We’re hoping that there will be some positive news soon.
