Countdown to opening of new Skye centre

A NEW community hub in Sleat, Skye, will be open in time for Easter.

An Crùbh has a shop and post office, a café, a community hall, a meeting room, exhibition space, toilets and showers.

Situated just above the A851 where it passes through Duisdale and Camuscross, the hub will serve local residents and visitors, and is one of the first projects of its kind in Scotland to be developed, owned and run by a local community as a social enterprise.

Construction finished last December when the building was handed over to its owners, Camuscross and Duisdale Initiative (CDI).

CDI chairman Mark Wringe said: ‘ We are very proud of our new building. Both the café and the hall have spectacular views above the Sound of Sleat. We want what we offer in the shop and café to be as impressive as the building and we need ambitious staff to achieve that.’

Another CDI director, Susan Walker, added: ‘It is fantastic to see our hard work and the confidence placed in us by funding bodies become reality. In just one year, we’ve gone from local children symbolically cutting the first turf to having an amazing facility.

‘It takes a lot to get an empty building fitted out to do so many things and working groups have been meeting regularly since the New Year to hone plans for equipping and furnishing its various spaces, drawing on the expertise of local people with experience of operating a shop, café or hall.’

CDI director Laura Stephen added: ‘A team of fundraising volunteers, mainly women from Camuscross, did a magnificent job of reaching the £6,000 we needed to raise towards the project through local activities.

‘ We’re now juggling a very tight budget to acquire everything, from teaspoons to chill cabinets. The team is going the extra mile to make it happen. Its next fundraiser is a car boot and table-top sale at An Crùbh on Saturday February 25.’

For details of the jobs on offer and photographs of An Crùbh visit www.camuscross. org and CDI’s Facebook page.