Spittal Village Hall hosts special heritage event

The Northern Saints Trails Group (NSTG) held a very successful lunchtime event at Spittal Village Hall last Saturday, with over 30 participants.

This was to launch the five information panels that were commissioned with the help of a grant from the Achlachan Community Fund. The panels describe the history of the area over the last 2,000 years, covering the brochs, the saint’s trails, the pilgrim route, drove roads and the flagstone industry.

The panels were displayed in the hall to allow everyone to examine them in comfort but will soon be attached to the planters arranged along the front wall of the building. There will also be a flagstone sign at the roadside bearing the legend ‘Spittal Hall Heritage Hub’ to draw everyone’s attention to the panels.

In addition to admiring the panels, everyone had an opportunity to support the group by buying, raffle tickets, guidebooks, pilgrim tokens and Jane Coll’s book ‘In their Footsteps’ which gives some of the history attached to the pilgrim route between Tain and Kirkwall. Extra photos of the event can be seen on the Spittal Village Hall Facebook page.

This event was the swan song of the NSTG as it is about to amalgamate with the Northern Pilgrims’ Way Group. They already share a website at www.northernpilgrimsway.co.uk. The enlarged group hopes to find lots of support if it is to achieve its next target – recreating the Skinnet and Ulbster stones and placing them close to their original settings.

The group is also looking for new members to help it achieve its aims and donations are very welcome too – see the Support Us page on the website. For any other information, leave a message on the website or send an e-mail to northernpilgrimsway@yahoo.com

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