Prayer walk for Tayvallich
The imminent sale of Tayvallich estate means that its tenants fear for the loss of their homes, with consequent threats and challenges to the sustainable future of the wider community, writes Ewan Halley.
The Tayvallich Initiative has been set up to bring some of the land into community ownership to address some of the challenges that this isolated community faces: reversing population decline, maintaining the area’s natural richness and responding to the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
A group of concerned community members, including neighbours from across Loch Sween at Achnamara, set off on Sunday November 6 from the causeway at the Isle of Danna to walk the length of the estate to Tayvallich village.
Brought together by David and Louise Logue of Tayvallich, the walk asked for God’s blessing on the land, its people, its livestock and wildlife, its crops, and its biodiversity.
Walks like these were a regular and significant part of life in the church in the time of the Celtic saints who lived and practised there from the 6th to 8th centuries and spread Christianity around Scotland and northern England. Blessed with an afternoon of warm autumn sunshine and the breeze at their backs, the walkers followed the road from Danna along its six-mile length to Tayvallich, pausing at landmarks along the way to bring the situation under God’s authority so that what is right, fair, and life-enhancing may manifest in the future of the estate.
The walkers reflected on how populous the area has been in past generations and how crucial it is for its survival to continue to have people living and working here.
Some of the buildings that waymarked the walk spoke of that history: the old schoolhouse at Ulva; the ruined smiddy at Coshandrochaid; abandoned farmsteads at Fernoch.
The Tayvallich Initiative wants to bring life back to some of these buildings as well as ensuring the ongoing presence of households who help make Tayvallich what it is. Tayvallich Initiative, which was due to hold a meeting on Tuesday (November 8) with the community on the parameters of the bid, hopes that God’s blessing and the will of the community will ensure its sustainable future when the sale of the estate closes on Thursday November 17.