The club would like to give a huge thank you to John Robins who hosted our summer barbecue on Sunday 17th July. After the disappointment of our cancelled trip to the Royal Deeside Motor Show (caused entirely by the show organisers) this was a fabulous day for members, friends and family.

John and his family made the club very welcome at his beautiful home in Wester Lovat near Kirkhill with tables and chairs and a large gazebo laid out with menus on the tables. The weather was great with a nice breeze to cool us down and let us all enjoy the hospitality. While all the food and drinks were paid out of club funds, the club wish to thank John, Sarah and family for the wonderful work they did purchasing all the supplies and setting up all the equipment to make the day such a memorable event. The food was top class and enjoyed by all.
Thanks also go to Gil Graham and other members of the club who stayed at the end to
take down the gazebo and gather up the tables and chairs, etc to help John get back to normal.

There were two scratch-card winners, Richard MackIntosh won a bottle of malt whisky and a club torch while Alex Farquhar won the club umbrella and water bottle.

Once again we want to thank John, who is a main sponsor of our club via his company Hi-Serv, for hosting this memorable event!

Many thanks for the good turnout of Club members who took part in the run
out West to Mellon Charles on the 14th May.

Our first port of call was to the Aultguish Inn for our Coffee/Tea break and we were well looked after by the very helpful staff. In very nice weather we proceeded west and stopped at the spacious car park near the Corrieshalloch Gorge to admire the view and take some photos (some of which are included below – if you have pictures you would like featured please email). We then carried on to the coast and Mellon Charles where we had an excellent lunch at the Aroma Café. Afterwards some purchases were made at the adjacent Perfume Studio before driving the short distance to the Arctic Convoys Museum in Aultbea. This proved to be a fascinating experience and told the story of the hardships and sacrifices made in the supply of war materials on the hazardous trips to Northern Russia by the convoys from Loch Ewe during the 2nd World War. Members then returned home via the wonderful route through Gairloch.

The winners of the scratch card competitions were Megan Graham (bottle of whisky and club water bottle) and Andrew Blake (bottle of gin and club water bottle). Many thanks to Lynne Clark who ran the competition and collected all the cash for club funds.

Gil Graham and James Campbell

Many thanks to all who went on the Moray Coast Tour on Saturday 9th April on a cold but sunny day with some short wintry showers. We motored first to have our Coffee/Tea stop at the Househill Café on the Grantown road near Nairn and we received excellent service there before moving on to the Morayvia Air Museum at Kinloss, where they were expecting us and opened the gates so we could park all our cars next to the planes and helicopters. The mainly ex-service staff there were all so friendly and informative and gave us an excellent tour of all the many exhibits, the highlight of which was a great visit in the Nimrod fuselage and of course there were many Nimrods stationed at RAF Kinloss. Covid rules were relaxed in the nose-cone of the Valiant V Bomber when they learned that one of our members James Campbell was an ex RAF Radar Fitter that worked on the Valiant that carried out the testing of the Blue Steel missile in Australia in the 50s/60s. James was able to sit at the 3 seater desk that was below the 2 seater cockpit for the 2 Pilots and revive old memories of the radar and associated electronic equipment installed there. We were very impressed at the spacious layout and many exhibits and the place requires a further visit to do it justice.

We then carried on along the coast road to Lossiemouth where we had an excellent lunch at the Firth Hotel – they provided a menu to Gil who circulated all members and they made their choices known before arrival and the service and quality were first rate. Our thanks goes to Lynn Clark who sold the scratch cards for club funds. The winners were Steve Byford who won the club torch and mug and Gil Graham who won the bottle of Cava and club mug. Some members stayed on to sample the sea air and inspect progress on the new bridge access to the outer beach area as the old structure has been closed for over 2 years then we all returned home after a memorable day out.

The next trip will be on the 13th, 14th and 15th May for the few who are going to the Jim Clark Museum and the East Fortune Museum of Flight. For everyone else there will be a run to Mellon Charles/ Arctic Convoys Museum on the 14th May, details will follow nearer the time.

Gil Graham and James Campbell

A very good turnout of 22 cars and 38 people on the club’s last outing for 2021 took place on Sat 23rd October when it ventured into the very remote parts of Sutherland on mostly single track roads which were fortunately devoid of any significant traffic to hinder our progress.

Our trip started from Braeview Park and we were very pleased to see 10 year old Paul Cowley with his dad to take photos of all the cars. About 2 weeks ago Paul’s mum had rung Gil to see if some of our club members could run up to their home in Contin with our cars to surprise him on his birthday. This we duly did and Paul was delighted to have a run in a Lotus Elise and he was presented with a Club Mug.

We started with a run to Tain where we had a great welcome at the Platform 1864 Station Café where they served lovely home baking to go with our coffee/tea. Then we proceeded in two separate groups timewise to allow our lunch stop to be accommodated more easily. We went north in heavy rain conditions to Helmsdale which fortunately subsided as we turned inland to motor to Kinbrace and then swung left to Syre and then left to Altnaharra.

Then between there and Lairg we arrive at the remote Crask Inn where they provided us with an excellent lunch of home made soups, sandwiches and cakes. Then we proceeded home via Lairg, Bonar Bridge, Ardgay and over the Struie to join the A9 home.

It was fortunate we did this trip now as from this week on some of these roads will be closed and from the evidence we saw of heavy plant machinery in place at various points along our route it looks like wind farm construction is about to take place.

Another successful and enjoyable outing took place when the Club motored north west to go to Scourie and Kylesku on Sunday last.

In bright and dry weather they stopped off at the wonderful Pier Café in Lairg and enjoyed a coffee break before enjoying the run up to Laxford Bridge and Scourie where they stopped off at the Harbour to take pictures of the cars and stretch their legs.

Ian McHardy’s Porsche Boxster suffered an overheating problem on arrival at Scourie necessitating an AA call-out which transferred the car to the Porsche guru in Ardgay and Ian returned home in Gil’s BMW Z4.

Then off to the Kylesku Hotel where they were treated to a great meal. Gil received a very nice e-mail from the hotel when he returned home to say they were very pleased to have such a nice visit from us.

The winners of our 2 Scratch Card competitions were Harry Henderson who won the Whisky and Club Mug and John Morris who won the Club Umbrella and Mug. Many thanks to Lynn Clark who helped Gil with selling the Scratch Card spaces.

The run home was taken by the road to Bonar Bridge although some travelled via Ullapool thus ending our longest day run to date.

Check out this fantastic video taken by Bill Lowdell on our recent trip to Fort Augustus, Spean Bridge and Kingussie.

18 Cars and 25 People joined the club’s outing on Saturday 26^th June which took us down the A9 as far as Daviot before we branched off to motor to Fort Augustus via Farr, Errogie and Whitebridge and the steep descent of Glendoe to Fort Augustus.

One of our members Gordon MacAskill in his TVR broke down near Loch Tarff but Gil Graham and John Parker went back from Fort Augustus to see if they could help and after consulting the car manual it was an electronic glitch which was sorted and the car was able to continue on the trip.

We had a leisurely 2 hour stop in Fort Augustus to have coffee and spectate at all the boat traffic negotiate the locks on the Caledonian Canal. The sun started to appear and by the time we stopped at the Commando Memorial north of Spean Bridge it was warm and sunny.

Then we had a leisurely drive along a lovely route from Spean Bridge through Roy Bridge and along the side of Loch Laggan to our lunch stop at the Monarch Hotel. It was great to see all our cars parked there and with the weather being so good we sat at tables in the wonderful garden and enjoyed a wonderful buffet meal provided by the nearby Laggan Bothy .

The Scratch Card winners were Mike McHardy who won the Club Monogram Shirt and Mug and Ed Lowdell who won the Bottle of Whisky. We then made our way home via Newtonmore and Kingussie before joining the A9 North.

The weather was wonderful for the whole of this trip via Invermoriston, Cluanie and Shiel Bridge  and wonderful photos were taken from the large lay-by site high up the Mam Ratigan climb to reach Glenelg. Looking down on Loch Duich, Inverinate and the 5 Sisters of Kintail in such weather provided spectacular pictures.

The Hotel in Glenelg coped in 2 sittings with an excellent lunch for us all. The owners were delighted to have us and took many photos of all the cars. The party returned home through Dornie and then on the lovely road via Strathcarron. A most successful trip which was much enjoyed by all so thank you everyone who made the trip.

In good weather the club were pleased to go on their most ambitious trip to the Borders and were almost the first visitors to the Jim Clark Museum on Sat 15^th May which only opened that day after the Covid Lockdown.

They were very impressed with the displays there and also visited Jim Clark’s graveside at Chirnside  before returning to the King’s Arms Hotel in Melrose for their 2 night stop.

They were treated very well at the Hotel with excellent meals and accommodation.

On the way home on the Sunday they called in at the East Fortune Museum of Flight and were rewarded with a wonderful presentation of the famous supersonic Concorde as well as many other interesting exhibits.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip so memorable.