West Highland Free Press

Established in 1972 in the Scottish Highlands, the West Highland Free Press is a left-leaning weekly newspaper dedicated to serving its local community. Located in Broadford on the Isle of Skye, it covers news and events from the Isle of Skye, Wester Ross, and the Outer Hebrides, fulfilling the role of a typical local newspaper.

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TORAFEST 2025: Dinosaurs and whisky gang thegither

2 weeks ago | whfp.com | Michael Russell

The founder of the Torabhaig Distillery on Skye is a huge fan of dinosaurs. This helps to explain why there is an exhibition of fossilised bones on display to coincide with ToraFest 2025. The private collection was inspired by the recovery of the first and most complete partial dinosaur skeleton from the Middle Jurassic in Scotland. Having been discovered in 1973 and finally collected 45 years later, it was recovered from a challenging foreshore location on Skye near Elgol.
Musical theatre award for Skye woman

3 weeks ago | whfp.com | Michael Russell

A young performer from Skye won the ‘Young Scottish Musical Theatre Performer of the Year’ award at a ceremony held at the SECC in Glasgow last month. Eilidh MacPherson (pictured) who is from Portree, began performing at an early age in local productions before moving away to further her studies in musical theatre – eventually leading her to London, where she now lives.
DR CALUM MACLEOD: Scrap the two-child benefit cap

1 month ago | whfp.com | Michael Russell

In the middle of Mental Health Awareness Week, Dr Calum MacLeod of the Mental Health Foundation stresses the importance of preventative spending and changes to the benefit system…This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week celebrates the pivotal roles that our communities of place and of interest play in protecting peoples’ mental health.
Donnie Martin Stand fundraiser

1 month ago | whfp.com | Michael Russell

Lochalsh and Skye Housing Association held a charity walk from Kilmarie to Sligachan last Saturday in memory of Donnie Martin and to raise money for the new Skye Camanachd stand that has been named after him. A spokesman for the housing association told the Free Press: “We had 20 walkers for the sponsored walk in very mixed weather conditions in memory of Donnie who worked for us for many years.
RAISING A GLASS: Plans lodged for revival of 200-year-old Skye distillery

2 months ago | whfp.com | Keith MacKenzie

Ambitious plans have been unveiled to revive an historic whisky distillery on Skye, creating 26 new jobs, a visitor centre and staff accommodation. Séamus Ó Baoighill and Seumas Gorman hope to develop the distillery in Broadford, where they currently run a small-scale gin production business.
PITCH PERFECT: Broadford sports campus nets £150,000

Mar 27, 2025 | whfp.com | Keith MacKenzie

Plans to build new community sports facilities in south Skye have been boosted by an £150,000 award from Sportscotland. Sports clubs and community facilities across Scotland will benefit from £450,000 of investment from sportscotland’s Sport Facilities Fund to local partners, including South Skye Community CampusThe award will help a new synthetic pitch to be built in Broadford, adding to the facilities that will be part of the brand new primary school for the village.
NORRIE T MACDONALD: For the Hebrides, wind power can be our ‘Shetland’ moment

Feb 27, 2025 | whfp.com | Keith MacKenzie

There is a notion around these parts, indeed any part of the Highlands and Islands (and wider Scotland?) destined to be ‘home’ to multi-billion pound investment by the renewables industry, that significant local benefit is a ‘given’. The fact that nothing could be further from the truth is what gives objectors the traction that they need to attempt to disrupt, and rightly so. For any significant, long-term benefit to be forthcoming; negotiation is crucial.
SPEED CONCERNS: NC 500 traffic means road safety measures are ‘urgent’ at Shieldaig

Feb 27, 2025 | whfp.com | Keith MacKenzie

A Wester Ross community is calling for urgent road safety improvements amid growing traffic volumes generated by the North Coast 500. Shieldaig Community Council say there have been several near misses for pedestrians, including a child being struck by a car mirror, and are now urging action from Highland Council before something more serious occurs. The potential dangers posed to local school children who have to cross the busy A896 has been top of the community council’s agenda for some time.
FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE: Skye man to take his MS battle to Mexico

Feb 19, 2025 | whfp.com | Keith MacKenzie

A Skye man, whose life “was turned upside down” by a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, is set to undergo medical treatment in Mexico in a bid to secure a fighting chance in his battle with the debilitating condition. James Coull, from Harlosh, plans to fly to Mexico in May to undergo Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation – a chemotherapy treatment designed to help halt disease progression in neurologic autoimmune diseases, such as MS, for which there is no current cure.
WORKERS’ CAMP: Group warns Broadford development will affect otters

Feb 14, 2025 | whfp.com | Keith MacKenzie

A children’s environmental group based in Broadford on Skye has found that at least 10 species of mammals and birds will be affected by plans to build a workers’ camp on the outskirts of the village.