VIDEO AND PICTURES: Colourful convoy of Caithness tractors brings joy across the county
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A huge convoy of over 60 tractors decorated with Christmas lights made its way through Watten last night (December 28) as it headed towards its finishing point at Wick.
The event was a special fundraiser for the centennial year of the Caithness District Young Farmers in 2023 and the parade of brightly lit tractors made its way from the western side of the A882 and turned up Station Road past the Brown Trout hotel towards Sibster and finally Wick.
Sandy Douglas, chairman of the 100th Anniversary Committee’s Tractor Run, was watching the colourful convoy pass through Watten and said: "This is the final event for the centenary celebrations to mark 100 years of Young Farmers in Caithness.
"We'll then be giving out our charity cheques on the 10th of January. We started with a tractor run in December last year; we had a quiz in January and February; we had a Young Farmers rally up at Quoybrae mart in July which involved stockjudging, baking and sports with past and present members getting involved; we then had the unveiling of our centenary stone up at Lanergill school; we had a centenary ball at Wick Assembly Rooms in November; and now we're finishing off with our last tractor run.
"Hopefully, we'll have raised the target of around £12,000 for our three charities – Scottish Air Ambulance, Moray Firth Cash for Kids, and RSABI [the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution]." Sandy is based at Achnamoine Farm, on the Watten to Mybster road, and regularly features in the top results of categories entered at the Caithness County Show.
He said he followed the tractor run from its start at Thurdistoft at 3.45pm and journeyed on as it went through Castletown, continuing to Thurso, Glengolly, Halkirk, Achalone, Spittal, Watten and Reiss before ending in the car park at B&M in Wick's South Road at approximately 7.30pm.
"We've a squad of collectors in Castletown and there were others in Thurso. I took the Castletown ones to Halkirk and then from Halkirk to Watten and now we're heading to Reiss and we're going to finish up in Wick. Everything's gone well and there are 60-odd tractors."
There were two members of Halkirk Young Farmers with their collection buckets in Watten as the parade of tractors ran through the village, Chloe Begg and Tyler Gordon. "It's been a very, very good tractor run and we've had more tractors than last year so we're happy with the result," said Tyler.
"The conditions weren't as great last year and we're quite fortunate that the rain's held off since the start." Tyler added that the collection had done really well and they had probably collected around £3000 on the night for the good causes.
The 100th Anniversary Committee’s Tractor Run is still accepting donations towards its chosen charities. There is a crowdfunder page for further donations which can be found at: www.gofundme.com/f/100th-anniversary-of-caithness-young-farmers
There are 72 Young Farmers clubs across Scotland, including three in Caithness – Bower, Forss and Halkirk.
The Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs describes itself as a membership organisation for and run by young people from across Scotland. It has more than 3500 members across three regions.
