THE ARRAN BANNER 20 YEARS AGO

Saturday February 28, 1998

Road recycling

Juggernaught roadbuilding machines have been churning up the String Road this week. By the weekend the brow of the hill should have one of those quite smooth surfaces which have been popping up in short stretches here and there over the last few years.

This one is unusual because, as roads engineer Geoff Norris says, the road is being recycled. This has not only been made for less disruption, but less cost, and the 520 metre stretch will cost a mere £45,000 – cheap by roadbuilding standards. Instead of bringing in new materials the machines are churning up the exiting road. What was Tarmac then becomes soft. It is then levelled and bonded with cement and a surface is laid over the top. This precludes the need for bulky materials being shipped and great mounds of old tar to be disposed of.

Geoff said it is the first time this recycling method has been tried on Arran and is therefore experimental from his point of view. It is hardy and especially suitable for, at 235 metres, the highest road on Arran.

Blooming marvellous

With March approaching we are told to expect colder weather but until now this has been the mildest of winters and what better way to identify that but with trees and plants. Many people will have unseasonably early buds in their garden but Isobel Miller of Lamlash has flowers on a tree in her garden which should not be growing here at all. It is an Acacia Mimosa whose natural habitat is the Mediterranean.

This tree is even more unusual in that it was taken from a cutting at the castle just eight years ago. She was told then that it would not survive.

It has not only survived but thrived and is now a fine strong tree of about 20 feet tall. It is also covered in small, scented yellow flowers and could be living proof of global warming.

Platform party

The last night of the Arran Drama Festival will begin tonight (Saturday) with a one act comedy performed and part directed by pupils from Arran High. The play is

Platform Party, by Alan Richardson, and is set in present day Scotland, on the last night of an amateur drama festival.

The play portrays all too clearly the many ways in which the presentation ceremony can be painfully drawn out, and how frustrating it can be, not only for the players, but for organisers and adjudicators too.

This year 11 different drama groups have rehearsed and prepared plays to, hopefully, entertain and perhaps even win a trophy.

01_B09twe02 On the steps of the Kilmory Hall last Monday, five-year-old Raiann Sim and 11-year-old Sandy McMaster, respectively the youngest and oldest pupils of Kilmory Primary, present a cheque for £140 to four-year-old Bobbi Adamson, the oldest member of the Kilmory Playgroup. The schoolchildren raised the money with a sponsored silence.

01_B09twe01 Pictured at Balgowan Farm last Saturday, the Arran team which will compete in the sheepdog trial finals at West Kilbride next weekend. On the right, Tony Brookes with Jill, centre Willie McConnell and Jess, and left John Clarke with Spot.

01_B09twe04 Tonight concludes the week-long Arran Drama Festival which started with the youth playRed Box. Performing in the production were Lamlash Junior Drama members; Andrew Young, Lee Little, Eilidh Struthers and Fiona MacLellan.

01_B09twe03 Perhaps the largest roadbuilding machines ever to visit Arran are working away on the top of the String Road this week. The resurfaced road will be open to traffic by this weekend.

01_B09twe05 One of Scotland’s most successful writers, William McIlvanney, visited the Arran Gaelic Society to perform a reading from his own work at the Ormidale Hotel. Joining him for a cup of tea afterwards were Ailsa McNicol and Alex Clark.