The Glendale trust hosted as public meeting last night the 9th December 2009 in front of an audience of over seventy members of the community. The Glendale Trust presented their business plan to establish a permanent heritage and cultural centre which was followed by a discussion on the plan.
At the end of the meeting the audience were asked whether they were for or against the proposal to host a permanent facility in the mothballed Borrodale School. The meeting voted unanimously in favour of the plan.
The meeting was attended by local councillor, Ian Renwick with no less than five Highland MSPs noting their apologies, Rob Gibson, Rhoda Grant, Peter Peacock, David Stewart and Dave Thompson.
Speaking after the meeting, the chairman of The Glendale Trust, Ian Blackford said:
“We are delighted that those at the public meeting have given their backing to our plan. We will now continue with our process of consultation with the community and begin the effort to raise the funding necessary to establish the heritage and cultural centre.
This is an important development for Glendale and we are most excited about the potential of building a heritage and cultural centre we can all be proud of and of course one that will tell the story of Glendale and its people.
This initiative will encourage tourism to the north west of Skye and will create much needed jobs in a fragile community.
We believe we have a strong case to put to Highland Council to allow us to use the mothballed Borrodale School for the benefit of the community and sustaining the use of the building for an educational and social use.”

The Glendale Trust applies to Highland Council to lease Borrodale School to establish a permanent Heritage and Cultural Centre for Glendale
The Glendale Trust has today written to Highland Council requesting that the mothballed Borrodale School be leased to The Glendale Trust to establish a permanent Heritage and Cultural Centre.
In the letter to Highland Council, Glendale Trust chairman Ian Blackford states:
“I write on behalf of The Glendale Trust to formally request that the Education Culture & Sport Committee of Highland Council consider our proposal to lease Borrodale School at its meeting in January 2010 as part of its deliberations on the future of the school.
Whilst leasing is our preferred option as it would retain ownership of the buildings in the hands of the council whilst sustaining the use of the building for educational and cultural use within Glendale, we would be prepared to consider outright purchase on behalf of the community.
In the interim we would also like to request that until a decision is taken on the future of the school whether the Trust can have access to the buildings to mount exhibitions and events in 2010. The Highland Council have been extremely helpful in allowing us to host an exhibition in 2009 and continued access would allow the trust to develop the heritage theme and demonstrate that we have robust plans to that will generate sustained demand for such a facility. This will of course make sure the buildings are put to good practical use in the meantime.
We attach to this letter our business plan for a heritage and cultural centre which would be an important educational and social resource for Glendale as well as high quality tourist attraction. This proposal would allow the school to continue to serve as an educational centre for Glendale as well as securing employment opportunities for the area.”