Area 1

Area 1 is probably the biggest area in RIBI and in fact is bigger than most Rotary Districts in the UK with a 300 mile journey from the furthest south club—Isle of Skye to the most northerly in Shetland.The clubs are as diverse as their locations.

Stornoway a vibrant and enterprising club with strong links to their community and schools has up to 40 members and is the mother club to the Nicholson Institute Interact club with dozens of enthusiastic young members of the Rotary family.

The ferry from Lewis takes you to the beautiful west coast and Loch Broom with Ullapool the gateway to the outer Hebrides and the Ullapool club proves that you don’t need to be a big club to have the respect of the community and a finger on the pulse of that community.

An hour's drive inland through dynamic mountains and lochs and you find Dingwall a bustling market town overlooking the Black Isle and the Cromarty Firth where the Dingwall Rotary Club has a 60-year history of supporting good causes and is the biggest club in the area with over 60 members.

Follow the coast north past the Invergordon and Nigg Oil fabrication yards and cruise liner terminals and you come to Tain & Easter Ross, the administrative capital of the area with a Royal Burgh status dating back centuries and a small but effective Rotary club.

As you cross the Dornoch bridge into Sutherland the views change-there are mountains to admire but there is also a green and fertile coastal strip crossed by salmon rivers and dotted with some of the world’s greatest golf courses—Brora and Royal Dornoch and many more superb holiday links.

The Rotary Club of East Sutherland meets alternate weeks in Royal Dornoch Golf Club where golf has been played for 400 years and in the Golspie Inn possibly the oldest inn in Sutherland and next to the delightful Dunrobin Castle, Visitors are always welcome at either venue

Beyond Brora the countryside becomes perhaps more hostile as you drive over the “Ord” to Wick and nearby John O Groat’s and the Wick club meets in Mackay’s Hotel situated on the shortest street in the world across from the County Hospital and overlooking the once busy herring harbour.

20 miles West and the North coast town of Thurso –once the Nuclear capital of Scotland sits proudly looking north to the Orkney Islands and providing the ferry service to the old Viking lands across the Pentland Firth

Orkney is magnificent and possibly the most important place for archaeology and historic sites in the UK perhaps in Europe—a fertile group of islands with a proud history and a busy Rotary club can be found next door to the Highland Park Distillery

To get to Shetland you must go ferry hopping or Island Hopping by air from Aberdeen or Inverness but the trip is rewarding and their Rotary club is always a joy to visit.

Here is the challenge to Rotarians—take a couple of weeks (or more) and visit all the area 1 clubs—you will be made welcome and you will discover a world you did not realise existed and places you will always remember—for their beauty, for their history and for their people.