One man’s silent vigil for 6 year-old Palestinian girl

Bill Williamson outside Dunoon Burgh Hall

As the tragedy in the Middle East continues, a silent vigil has been held outside Dunoon Burgh Hall to highlight the death of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab. The child who had been missing in Gaza for 12 days after an Israeli tank targeted the family car, killing her six relatives, had initially survived the ordeal and was able to make a call for help. An ambulance was despatched to rescue the little girl, however this was also targeted at the scene, with both crew members killed.

For the past 2 weeks, Ardentinny resident Bill Williamson has been holding his vigil outside Dunoon’s Burgh Hall to highlight the death of the 6-year-old and her family. Bill said “There is a huge tragedy happening before our eyes in Gaza with over 30,000 innocent people dead, this devastation would equate to wiping out more than the whole population of Cowal. To some, this may seem like just another ‘foreign war’ that has nothing to do with them, however on the contrary, there are a number of companies in Scotland that are participating in the manufacture of arms components used against the innocent women and children of Gaza and being subsidised by our governments. This is not acceptable”.

Bill intends to continue with his vigil over the coming weeks.

Dunoon Observer 8 March 2024
Dunoon Observer 8 March 2024

Police bomb disposal attend incident at Ardentinny

An area around a beach path at the side of Loch Long was taped off by police early this morning. A police bomb disposal team arrived at the scene at 8am and could be seen on the path. A small explosion was heard in the village at 8.30am. We will update this story when we have more information. Cash offers make selling a house simple. They simplify home selling. Visit https://www.cashoffers.com/idaho/cash-offer-lewiston-id/.Video available on our Facebook group and Facebook page.

Proposed licensing scheme and Ardentinny’s holiday homes

With foreign holidays this year being off the radar for many vacationers, Ardentinny, along with many parts of Scotland, has seen a sizeable increase in the number of holidaymakers visiting the village. Indeed now, almost into November, much of the self-catering accommodation is still fully occupied. 

Ardentinny has a total of approximately 112 dwellings. Reviewing the relevant short-term rental websites, the village currently has some 16 holiday lets listed, as well as 8 holiday apartments (at Ardentinny Outdoor Centre). In addition, there are approximately 8 second homes in the village. Therefore, the percentage of Ardentinny short-term lets is just over 14%. If second homes are added, this would bring the total holiday homes in the village to 21%. This is excluding the Ardentinny Centre holiday apartments. If the 8 apartments were added, total percentage of holiday accommodation would rise to just over 28%.

According to one recent report, with a total of 3,131, Argyll and Bute has the second highest number of second homes in Scotland (after Highland region). 

With the growth of self-catering, the Scottish Government is now seeking to bring in a licensing system for the sector and is consulting the public. Holiday lets and second homes are of course controversial issues. The contribution the industry makes to local economies can be substantial. However, one also must consider the challenges mass tourism brings to fragile rural infrastructures.

What do you think? The short-term lets consultation ends of Friday 29 October, 2021. You can participate in the survey here.

End of the line for Ardentinny’s phone box

Last Tuesday saw another of Ardentinny’s familiar landmark functions disappear from the village. After the closure of Ardentinny School in 1997 and the church in 2018, this week another little piece of history was lost as the village’s only telephone box was unceremoniously loaded on a truck, destined for the scrapheap.  

The box, while not the original, had served the village probably close on a century and was no doubt once a lifeline prior to the days of home and mobile phones. However, it was now deemed by BT to be no longer necessary.

Site of the removed phone box.

We contacted Argyll & Bute Council regarding the removal of the box and they informed us that in November 2019 BT advised the village (by way of a poster in the box) that a consultation was underway and invited comments or feedback to be directed to the local authority.  Indeed the BT campaign to ‘Adopt a Phone Box“, where communities could take ownership of their phone box for just £1 has already seen 5,000 communities take up the opportunity. That wasn’t the case in Ardentinny but perhaps understandable as it had long since lost the original red box.

The phone box did however gain a new, if short-lived, lease of life at the start of the first Covid lockdown in the spring of 2020, with residents turning it into Ardentinny’s very own ‘box of kindness‘ and donating a wide range of essential goods from baked beans to cleaning products and even live plants!

‘Box of Kindness’ May, 2020.

We understand that Ardentinny’s original phone box was located opposite Ardentinny Hotel but was relocated to the Church car park many years ago with the latter being of the modern design rather than the old traditional red box. If anyone has photos of the original phone box or can share with us more on Ardentinny’s phone box history, please email us or post to our facebook page.

Couple rescued from Loch Long inflatable dinghy

On Saturday evening MOD Police from Coulport rescued a couple from their inflatable dinghy in Loch Long. It would appear that they had been on a fishing expedition in their small Explorer 5 inflatable. The couple did not appear to be wearing lifejackets.

According to contributor Jonathan Hart on the Ardentinny Facebook Forum, the two were given a lecture by MOD police about wearing lifejackets and wind conditions.

Considering how quickly weather can change on the loch it was a dangerously uncomfortable lesson.