Welcome to Our Village Hall
The Nether Lochaber Village Hall is more than a hall serving one village - Nether Lochaber is the collective name for a number of settlements in our beautiful part of the highlands that stretches from the Corran Ferry in the north through the villages and townships of Keppanach, Inchree, Cuilcheanna, Onich, Old Town, North Ballachulish, Carness and Callart - around 9 miles in length, the village hall being at the heart of it.
Given how dispersed we are we clearly need a gathering space and that space has been long been our beloved village hall. Built at the start of the last century during a time when corrugated iron buildings were popular as relatively inexpensive and quickly built structures it's been in constant use. Once a common style of building throughout the highlands as schools, churches, halls and homes, our hall was a rare survivor.
Sadly, though, it is now no longer safe to use, following recent flooding and damage to the roof and some interior structures. It is beyond repair and a new hall is required. We are rightly proud of the unique look and feel of our hall, though, and our hope is to build a new hall that resembles the present one, but one built to the highest safety standards for the 21st century.
The village hall serves all of our many small communities and allows us the sense of being one community. Without the hall we have no obvious place to gather, no focal point, no social centre and no place of our own for our clubs and groups to meet, play, sing or dance.
Rebuilding the hall will be expensive but we are determined and hard working and with help from many friends and benefactors we are confident our new hall can be built.
Over the coming months we will use this web page to update on progress with planning, fundraising and building and we need your help and support.
Fundraising is our main priority at the moment and in the words of that famous Scottish maxim 'monys a mickle maks a muckle' we are asking for donations of any amount to help us especially in these first few months where money is required for feasibility studies, removal of the unsafe structure, planning and drawings, applications to be submitted, and so on.
Already many donations have been received and we have regular community lunches, coffee mornings, sales and sponsored events that all help. If you can support any of these, details are always published on the Community Council website and our own Village Hall Facebook page, and will be on this new site as well.
If you know of, or have access to, major funders, then we would especially like to hear from you. We know there are trusts, foundations, grant bodies and so on that may support community building projects like this one but we don't always know who these bodies are or how to apply to them. All suggestions are welcome!
Come back to the site regularly, especially as we make progress with our planning etc. And if you can volunteer to support the Village Hall Trustees in any way so much the better - just get in touch!
In due course we plan to add a section on the history of the hall so if you can point us in the direction of good sources for that please do.
More about Nether Lochaber
As a small community we work together in various ways for the good of everyone who lives and visits here.
As village hall trustees we focus particularly on developing the much needed resource of a meeting space. We work alongside two other groups who each also do a tremendous amount to support the village, namely the Community Council and the Community Association.
The Nether Lochaber Community Council serves as a communication and service body between Highland Council and the local community. It's a voluntary organisation of elected members who meet regularly to discuss and take action on issues affecting the local area. They also consider and respond to planning and licensing applications for the area and advise, petition and advocate on various causes of concern and interest to the community. Visit their website here.
The Nether Lochaber Community Association is a registered charity whose work is to improve local facilities, amenities and services for the benefit of residents and visitors. This involves organising and supporting community events to take care of our many historic sites and our glorious natural surroundings, planning and organising community gatherings such as activity days, social events and more. Visit their website here.
We all look forward to the day when we can once again have gatherings and events in the village hall!