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participate. These events promoted great fellowship amongst the participating guides, frequently ending with a sing song.
‘We were on Barra staying in a hotel by the water after a tour of Kisimul Castle and I think it was Morag Dunbar who discovered that two of the guests had just married that day and that the bride’s name was Mairi. So Morag had all of us singing Mairi’s Wedding to the bridal party. It was a dreadful stormy night and the conditions caused the sewage outfall to back up and start sewage flowing into lower bathrooms. Pandemonium ensued! Attending the Highlands and Islands CPD outings became quite a feature of STGA life.
‘I stepped down from the STGA board and the Highland branch committee in 2007 handing over the Highlands chair to Stuart Shields.’ Sally added: “We had the most wonderful training trips/AGMs organised by Tom and Cairine. There was always a waiting list and many guides from other branches joined the legendary Highlands and Islands visit. Singing, recitation, lots of tasting, eating and drinking took place along with the serious business of learning and keeping up to date. Who can forget the House of Duns and Violet Jacob’s poetry, beautifully read by Cairine, Sheila Wilson telling us about Camanach in Kingussie and Newtonmore and Kompani Linge in the Cairngorms. Happy memories indeed!
Lorna Johnson qualified as a Blue Badge Guide in 2000, one of the ‘Millenium Babes’, and it wasn’t long before she was invited to attend a committee meeting of the branch which was held in Perth.
‘Sally Spaven was chairman of our branch and at the same time, Chairman of the STGA Board. Sheila Scott, Rosemary Thomson, Lene Langlands and Annie Lyndsay were active committee members then and soon after encouraged me to take on the role of Secretary.
Of the four STGA branches, Highlands and Islands had the lowest number of members but covered the largest geographical area including all of the Highlands, Western Isles and Northern Isles.
‘In 2002, roughly half of our 16 members resided in Perthshire with the rest scattered throughout the Highlands, including one guide who lived in Orkney. Most of us were guiding part-time and still pursuing our original careers. Not everyone used email or had access to the internet so communication was by phone or ‘snail mail’ with meetings kept to a minimum to avoid the cost and logistics of unnecessary travel.
‘With such a far-flung membership it was not possible to arrange a series of lectures during the winter season, and without the possibilities of Zoom that we enjoy today, the committees focussed on organising imaginative outings to different parts of the region, combining an AGM or Xmas lunch with the opportunity to visit established tourist sites and keep abreast of any new developments in each area.
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