New Year...

Bliadhna Mhath Ur! That's Happy New Year for all those who don't have the Gaelic! That brings 2008 to a close... you can keep up with us in 2009 over on our resolute new blog here http://galgael2009.blogspot.com/

Hope you had a good one! And many thanks to all those who pulled an oar, put a shoulder to the load and made 2008 what it was for GalGael!

Moran Tang!

More pics from the exchange visit from PIA & LISA from Berlin.

Check out;
http://picasaweb.google.de/haikufoensek/FotosSchottland#slideshow

GalGael A.G.M. Dec.5 2008

Thanks to all who turned out to support our AGM which was a well attended and described by one visitor as "the best AGM in Scotland". Congratulations to course participants Luis, Alec, Fraser, Simon and Liam who who were awarded their tool kits and certificates by Maxwell MacLeod who gave a colourful account of his recent trip from Dunvegan on Skye to Iona which he rowed single-handedly in the celebration of his Clann ancestors. Many thanks also to the volunteers who helped convert the workshop into a suitable venue for the event and a special mention for Pops Sloey for the top class cuisine. As ususal we had a wonderful purvey of native Scottish scran including venison which was skinned and butchered by the GalGael posse in our workshop. A report on 2008 will be available soon online.

Friday Activities

Fridays at GalGael offer a welcome break from the work benches through excursions or various in-house activities. Due to the recent weather we decided to invite Sgiob Luaidh Inbhercluaidh to Fairley St. The women put on a marvelous display of waulking the tweed, accompanying the process with Gaelic song and stories. It was great to see some of the participants join in including former volunteer Kevin Triall who popped in for a visit and ended up having a go.

Sgioba Luaidh at Galgael

Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh treated us today to 2 interactive shows of great waulking song performances. Over on http://woolcraftatgalgael.blogspot.com/2008/11/sgioba-luaidh-visiting-galgael.html you can read more about it.

And here is their own website and great fun it is:
http://www.geocities.com/luadh/

For 10 short video clips got to:

http://uk.youtube.com/user/urbanclansman

And for the pictures go to

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/urban.clansman/SgiobaLuaidhVisitingGalgael#

Let us know what you think!

Helen's birthday bash at Galgael.

Appin. 7th October 2008

We are happy to announce that GalGael have now selected the timber we require for our new fifty foot boat which we intend to start working on around the turn of the year. A mini bus load of trainees, volunteers and staff set off from the Galgael workshop on a very driech Tuesday to meet with staff from the Forestry Commission who manage the woodland at Duror in Appin. We also had a local boatbuilder on hand to cast an expert eye over our timber selection. After we had a fascinating talk on woodland management with the forestry team we split into two groups and picked out twenty good larch trees which will probably be felled this week.

GalGael normally prefer to use storm felled timber where we can, but it was explained to us that the removal of trees is necessary to encourage growth of other species and for the benefit of the woodland as a whole. We have taken some seedlings from the woodland which we intend to plant at Barmaddy to replace what we have taken. We are still on the lookout for a good piece of oak for the keel. very many thanks to all the team up in Appin for looking after us so well and to Environment Minister Mike Russell who put us in contact with them.

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Caught in the act. Alastair on the mini bus to Appin ogling Susan Sontag's body (of work) on page three of the Sun.