NEXT month a family will gather from around the globe to recreate the moment 100 years ago when their great-great-grandmother opened Glen Urquhart Public Hall. The involvement of the descendants of Bradley Martin will be one of the main attractions at a week of celebrations to mark the centenary year of the hall in Blairbeg, by Drumnadrochit. Mr Martin, an American businessman, was the tenant of the nearby Balmacaan Estate and paid for a new hall for the community. On 12th December, 1906 his wife used a silver key to open the front door to the local community. Celebrations to mark that event will begin on Saturday 22nd July with a concert and ceilidh featuring local and visiting performers. The Martins' teenage great-great-great-granddaughter, Katie Hutto from the United States, will recreate the opening moment by cutting a ribbon. The original silver key, presented by the building's architect, has been lost during the intervening century. A flurry of e-mails around the globe over the past year has helped to bring together the Martins' descendants in the United States, South Africa and France following an invitation from the hall management committee to attend this year's anniversary celebrations. About a dozen are expected to join locals and other visitors during next month's week of events. On the Monday evening the family will be welcomed to Inverness Town House for a formal reception in honour of their ancestors' generous help to the area. They are also related to the Phipps family who donated Beauly's main public hall. A sub-group of the hall management committee has worked for more than a year to plan the celebrations and an exhibition showing some of the key moments in the hall's life. "We have managed to maintain the general appearance of the hall," said Alan Bell of the management committee. "If Mrs Martin was to visit today I think she would find a bright, clean and fairly modern looking hall. "An awful lot has changed since she opened it but we have maintained the wooden lining and it remains at the heart of our community." His wife Jan has liaised with the founders' descendants to bring together material for the exhibition. "The hall's heyday was the '50s and '60s when there was something on every night, with a dance or concert every Friday evening," she commented. "But today it is used for indoor sports, art classes, parties, musical evenings, weddings and meetings. "It is still the focal point of our community but that depends very much on a very hard-working committee."
