Glenuig Community Association

The commitment of local people to music and culture led during 1980s to, first, the Glenuig Music Festival, and then the establishment of the Glenuig Community Association.  The Association has now delivered the purpose-built Glenuig Hall to house its extensive arts programme and other community’s activities.  It’s now branching out into other social enterprises, and using its activities and the income generated to invest in the community’s future.

Company Ltd by Guarantee and a Scottish Charity

75% earned

Glenuig Hall

Local people started organising gigs over 40 years ago, using the old school room in the village and other local venues in Lochailort and Fort William. In 1983 the first Glenuig Games and Music Festival was held in a marquee.  Almost as an afterthought the organising committee decided to build their own venue and the Festival, which ran until 1993, became not simply good craic but a crucial source of fundraising for the Hall.  The Glenuig Village Hall Committee was formed in 1982, becoming in 1985 the Glenuig Community Association.  The Glenuig Hall was opened in 1995.

A Management Committee of 7-8 people, a local membership, and a Memorandum of Articles that focuses on the following community benefits:
• providing recreational facilities;
• encouraging an understanding of our heritage, culture and environment;
• creating employment and training.

Many:
• about 15% of local people are on the Committee!
• a wide range of activities and services for the whole community;
• see Memorandum of Articles in ‘Governance’ section above.

Regionally and Nationally:
• Big Lottery Fund
• The Highland Council
• Creative Scotland
• The Touring Network

The Glenuig Hall acts as a hub providing space for:
• events and ceilidhs;
• arts programme – includes theatre and music;
• local community activities e.g. yoga.

Through:
• assisting the establishment of social enterprises;
• creating an income source for the local community through the Association’s programme of events at the Hall;
• working to establish the proposed new shop/post office, potentially with a petrol filing station, as a subsidiary and trading arm of the Association.

The Association also supports a team of  volunteers in running the existing local shop/ post office, which forms a social hub as well as providing services.

Glenuig Hall.

1. Glenuig Hall – having built the Hall and now run it as a viable business for over 20 years it has been hugely successful and allowed us to invest in other activities to support our community.

2. The Glenuig Music Festival: this was one of the first such festivals in the Highlands, Scotland even.  It ran for ten years (83-93) and effectively continues through a year-round arts programme that includes a tremendous range and quality of events.  This has a substantial knock-on effect for the wider community, bringing in people to stay for a whole weekend perhaps, and so supporting local accommodation providers and other local services.

Empowering local people: the whole community has become empowered through its work running the Music Festival, building the Hall and running it and the arts programme.  We’ve all learnt skills and knowledge and gained the confidence to move on to new challenges.

Looking to our future: We’re a small community.  We work well together and we move forward gradually … but to ensure the long-term viability of the Association and the community, we need to encourage young people to stay in the area and pick-up the reins as ‘the oldies drop by the wayside’.