TWENTY YEARS AGO

Saturday 6 December, 1996

Whisky scam

On the back of the sale of bonds at the Isle of Arran Distillery, an organisation called James Devereaux Ltd has sent mail to people offering a ‘never to be repeated chance of a lifetime’ to purchase a 50-gallon hogshead of Arran single malt for £950. Those who sent money never heard any more and were sent no certificates, whisky or receipts. The distillery confirmed that it had received many complaints about the or- ganisation and that it owed the distillery money too. The possible scam was exposed in the Sunday Times last week.

Night mail

Experiments have been tried before in the quest to get mail delivered to Arran. In December 1984, it was brought over by helicopter but that proved too expensive. Alternatives have been tested since then but since October the Arran mail has been leaving Glasgow at 3.30am, riding by lorry to Tarbert and, once there, boarding the fishing vessel Green Pastures heading for Lochanza. The mail has since been arriving in post boxes in Brodick by midday and, even though the ferry has been unable to sail, customers have still been getting their mail with the new system being trialled.

Ship shape

While the MV Isle of Arran is in service on the Arran run while the MV Caledonian Isles is away for her annual overhaul, rumours have been circulating that cracks have been found during the work on the vessel. CalMac’s chief executive Colin Paterson said: ‘There is slight cracking but it’s not in the hull itself. It is between the engine bed plates and the hull.’ He also said that this was not uncommon in new ships and that it was not something that they were unduly concerned about. Being the company’s second newest ship, he expected it to be repaired and back on the Arran run at least a week before Christmas.

B49twe001 Fishing boat Green Pastures arrives at Lochranza Pier and brings in the Royal Mail at 8am as owner Calum MacMillan unloads and Arran postman Alan Dillon collects it.

B49twe02 Above: Ann Uttley presents Mamie Smith of Brodick with a doll which she correctly named as Marina in the Children in Need competition held by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

B49twe04 A quintet of farmers who attended the Christmas prime stock show at Brodick market last Thursday which suffered from a small number of entries.

B49twe03 Right: Shona McMullen, who works as the depute unit manager at Montrose House, has graduated from the Glasgow Caledonian University with a BSc in Health Studies after attending evening classes to obtain her degree.

B49twe05 Alan Currie of Kilwinning judges the only entry in the Young Farmers section from David Henderson.