Capture Caithness through eyes of young people in new photography contest

A photography competition is being held as part of the events to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Castletown Heritage Centre.

The event is open to amateur photographers aged 17 and under and aims to create interest in the youngsters in their Caithness heritage, landscape and people. It is free to enter.

Speaking on behalf of the Castletown Heritage Society, which runs the centre, Muriel Murray, said: “The present archive of photos contains images of life in Caithness from the late 1800s onwards. It is hoped this competition will produce an image resource recording present day Caithness as seen through the eyes of young people.

“The three categories set for the competition include: a landscape capturing the unique features of our county; an image of a person set in a Caithness context; and an image illustrating the essence of our heritage, be it social, military, cultural or the built environment.”

Related news:

• New World War II exhibition at Castlehill Heritage Centre to highlight Castletown’s war story

• Woodturners to host 20th anniversary demonstration day in Castletown

• Castletown screening for film about first Labour prime minister

She added: “A panel of three photographers will judge the entries and award prizes. Entries and winning photos will be displayed in the Castlehill Heritage Centre.”

Application forms and terms and conditions can be found on the group’s website at www.castletownheritage.co.uk

Images should be in jpg format with a size limit of 5Mb and should be submitted digitally via the Castletown Heritage Society email address: castletown.heritage@talk21.com

Entries opened on Monday and can be submitted until the deadline of Sunday, June 30.

As previously reported, the Castletown Heritage Society, which runs the centre, has plans to celebrate its 40th anniversary, including a formal opening of a newly-refurbished World War II area.

The former archaeological wet-sieving facility at the building has been transformed into the RAF Castletown WWII feature.

The plan was “in the making for a year or two” and held the engine of a World War II aircraft which had been based at RAF Castletown but had crashed and been retrieved 50 years later. The Merlin engine was recovered from a Hawker Hurricane single-seater fighter aircraft.

But Mrs Murray pointed out that the display area now includes pictures and information of the construction in 1940 of the aerodrome at Thurdistoft farm, near Castletown, and the airmen who were based there.

As part of the anniversary celebrations the centre is also displaying a series of photographs tracing the various stages of transformation of the one-time farm steading into a four-star visitor attraction.

“We still have the list of the original committee and the minutes of their meetings from 1984 when the society was founded,” she added.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.