THE ARRAN BANNER 20 YEARS AGO

Saturday October 25, 1997

Fashion shoot

An Arran fashion shoot is featured in the big selling American financial Forbes

Magazine this month. Having stayed at Glencloy Farmhouse, the team of six spent a week on Arran and the magazine cover features Brodick Castle behind an elegant model.

All the locations are listed as well as the prices of the clothing. Suits at more than $3,000 indicate the readership. One fashion picture shows a male model reclining in an armchair in Glencloy Farmhouse wearing his expensive suit.

He is reading The Scotsman with its title prominent in the picture. They wanted to use the Arran Banner, explained Mark Padfield, who owns Glencloy, but had found the format just too small to feature prominently in the picture.

Cave men

It is more than five years since the Buddhists came to Holy Isle and, while their presence may be unusual for those visiting Arran, here they are now considered part of the furniture. They have now submitted plans for their retreat which are most unusual.

The raison d’etre of their buying on the Holy Island was always the need for privacy. With monks going into retreat for four years they needed a place where they could be largely undisturbed and they found that their centre at Eskdalemuir did not fit this bill. The new plans which are being submitted will certainly ensure privacy as they are mostly all underground. The retreat will form a pyramid shape up the south end of Holy Isle. At the top will be the Lama Yeshi’s house with a winding path up to it. The development will descend in a triangle, made by two separate retreats, one for men, one for women.

Each of these will rise up in triangle form, like terracing up the hillside with monks’ cells the higher you go. These cells will be cut into the hillside and have roofs of heather and turf. The applicant is Andrew Wright Associates of London and in addition to the two retreats there are two water treatment plants and three 18-metre high wind turbines.

Arran ale

Arran may shortly have its own brewery for a planning notice has been submitted for a micro brewery at Cladach. Mr and Mrs Roberts, the applicants, are understood to have been looking for a suitable place to set up a brewery on Arran for some time. They considered one of the new units at Balmichael but now their application is to house it in buildings behind Neary’s House at Cladach. Charles Fforde who has no involvement in the project beyond owing the land, said he was pleased at the idea of an interesting addition to the overall development at Cladach.

01_B42twe03 Scottish Opera visited Whiting Bay recently with a fine performance of The Barber of Seville. The packed performance was their 10th visit to Arran, which is included in their itinerary of places in rural Scotland.

01_B42twe05 Lamlash tennis champions with their trophies: Campbell Seaton, Tim Keen, Ian Scott and Bobby Sloss. Audrey McCrone, Isabelle McClure and Eleanor Muirhead.

01_B42twe01 Jenna Thomson, Eileen Logan, Gillian McFadzean, Stacy Dickson and Fiona McLellan won the team silver medal at the Ayrshire Cross Country Championship.

01_B42twe02 Ian Small and Tommy Gilmore of the Arran Sports Association receive a cheque for £5,000 from Stuart Montgomery of Scottish Brewers. This donation almost completes the total necessary for the whole project which is nearly now complete.

01_B42twe04 Ross Duncan and Douglas Fowles the two finalists in Brodick Golf Club’s oldest competition The Mclelland Medal. Ross, who is Brodick’s youngest member playing senior golf, was the winner, beating Douglas one up.