Black Maria for Inveraray

Heartless owners left Cranna attached to a car in the town’s Co-op car park last year and it was not until the driver was pulling away that a passer-by spotted her.

Handed into Achnabrech Kennels, it was there that she was then rescued by Ken Weatherstone, who trains collies for Search and Rescue Dog Association Scotland (SARDA).

Since taking her to his home in Lochgoilhead last June, Ken and his wife Moira, who also volunteers for SARDA, have trained her to become fully-qualified rescue dog.

Last week, she passed a vigorous test in Glencoe and was awarded the Madras College Trophy for best novice dog.

Cranna will now help search for missing people on mountains all over Scotland.

“She is a great dog, very soft natured. It is great that a rescue dog has become a rescuer,” Ken said.

TWENTY YEARS AGO Friday April 9, 2004 Raising cash for Africa

The fourth-year geography class at Lochgilphead High School has raised £641.15 to help people in the poorest areas of Africa.

The students were supporting a project operated by Farm Africa, an organisation that provides African families with goats.

The goats provide nutrition and any surplus products can be sold for money, helping families to become self-sufficient. Just £17 can provide a family with one goat.

The fourth year pupils raised the money by holding a coffee morning and non-uniform day before the Easter break began.

Inveraray Jail has taken ownership of a wonderful prison-related artefact that is now being exhibited at the Loch Fyne-side tourist attraction.

The process of getting the 19th century, horsedrawn Black Maria prison transport vehicle to Argyll began when Inveraray governor Jim Linley received a call from the governor of Aberdeen Prison.

The Aberdeen man thought it might make a good exhibit, even if its wheels had not turned in many a year, and Governor Linley agreed. “Wonderful,” he said, “that sounds exciting!” The Black Maria was built in 1891 for use at Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen.

For some time she was not in good condition, having served as a chicken coop and garden shed at a local farm for 60 years, before being rescued by Aberdeen Prison, at a cost of £10, where she remained in the prison yard until now.

Having been carefully restored back to her former glory – and probably now the last of her kind in the United Kingdom – the Black Maria was ready to enter the historic yard of Inveraray Jail.

The two ton, 16-foot wagon was hoisted to its new home by a crane.

But why is she called a Black Maria?