LOOKING BACK: Distillery blaze at Brora in 1924, Swiss tourists go fishing in 1974 and Call for action in Wick in 1999
Distillery blaze at Brora
From the Groat of September 12, 1924
Several thousand pounds’ worth of damage had been caused at Clynelish Distillery as the result of a fire that had broken out around 10pm the previous Wednesday.
Smoke was seen issuing from one of the kilns and “within a short time crowds of people flocked to the scene”.
The cause of the outbreak was not known as the distillery was not working at the time.
It was reported that “willing hands did all possible with fire hose to extinguish the flames and the Dunrobin Fire Brigade was summoned. Most of the buildings, being of wood, were set ablaze, and it was not until about three o’clock in the morning that the fire was extinguished”.
“The kilns, malthouses and barn, which held about 600 qrs of barley, were completely destroyed.”
The report stated that it was “fortunate that the efforts of the firemen etc did not allow the fire to spread into the stores” where there was a considerable quantity of whisky.
The damage was so extensive that work at the distillery could not recommence until the affected areas had been rebuilt. The distillery had been due to restart operations in a few weeks.
Elsewhere, there was an epidemic of measles in Wick and it had been deemed advisable to close the infant departments in the town’s schools and postpone the opening of Sunday schools.
Swiss tourists go fishing
From the Groat of September 13, 1974
A warm welcome had been given to the first party of Swiss tourists to arrive in Caithness on a one-week fishing holiday.
Caithness tourist officer Ted Simons met the group at Wick airport, having been instrumental in setting up the package holiday which had attracted them to the county.
The 16 men had booked the trip as the result of an exhibition the Caithness Tourist Association had held in Switzerland in conjunction with the British Travel Association.
The Caithness Tourist Association was the first in the Highlands and Islands area to promote package holidays from overseas.
Now that Caithness had established itself in Europe, Mr Simons saw the possibility of “quite a number of this type of holiday being arranged for the early and late part of the tourist season”.
And the county had already made arrangements with travel agents in Switzerland and Germany which would enable people to book stays in Caithness.
Meanwhile, the Mercury Motor Inn in Wick had become one of the first hotels in the north to qualify for a fire certificate. Under regulations introduced two years previously, all hotels had to be inspected and approved by fire prevention officers before a certificate could be issued.
Elsewhere, Watten had crowned its first gala queen. She was 16-year-old Kathleen Farquhar, a pupil at Wick High School.
Call for action in Wick
From the Groat of September 17, 1999
Trade union leaders in Caithness wanted to see more action being taken to address the social and economic problems besetting Wick.
Members of Thurso and Wick Trades Council welcomed the news that Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise (CASE) had made the creation of new job opportunities for townsfolk a top priority in Caithness, and they were keen to explore how “agencies and local folk can work together to reverse the apparent downturn in fortunes of a town with the second-highest rate of unemployment in the Highlands and Islands”.
Speaking at the latest Trades Council meeting, CASE chief executive Neil Money said the agency had applied for European funds to carry out research into the root causes of the unemployment.
He contrasted the fortunes of Wick with those of Thurso which “for the first time in a decade had an unemployment rate below the national average”.
Elsewhere, Scrabster Harbour Trust faced a race against time to build a new deep-water berth to serve a larger ferry to be deployed on the Pentland Firth service.
Work was due to start early the following year on a major construction programme which had to be complete by 2002 when the new vessel was to come into service.
The harbour trust was going ahead on the assumption that Scrabster would continue to be the mainland link for the service, which was operated by P&O Scottish Ferries.
