PICTURES: Fun in the sun for Black Isle families ad Old Ticket Office at North Kessock hosts summer children crabbing competitions
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A BLACK-ISLE community saw families getting their sleeves up at a popular crabbing competition.
The Old Ticket Office at North Kessock provided the backdrop to a fierce and fun crabbing competition this summer, with more than 60 children and their families trying to catch the most, the smallest or the biggest crab during one of the weekend sessions.
The day was organised by The North Kessock Ticket Office Project, the charity behind the restoration of the building on the pier and who have been running these crabbing Sundays since last year.
Margaret Macdonald, form the The North Kessock Ticket Office Project charity's committee, said the competitions have become very popular both among the local community and people coming from further afield.
She said: "It all started from one gentleman who took his grandchildren crabbing on our pier, and from there we thought it would be great to invite more children and their families along so we created the competition.
"These have taken up very quickly and they have become wildly popular – each Sunday this year we had an average of 50 children with their families, with 64 coming the last Sunday, so in total we had around 100 people on the pier!
"Especially last year, this turned out to be a fantastic activity to get people out and about in the fresh air after lockdown."
Certificates were handed to all the children taking part.
Ms Macdonald added: "The dad's are particularly competitive!
"The crabbing competitions have basically gone viral, sometimes I joke and say we have created a monster!
"Every crab that is caught is then released back after the children bring it to us for evaluation. We are very conscious about the crabs' welfare.
"Crabbing is something that we don't do very much up here but which seems to be quite popular in England. Since we have so many crabs on the pier, we thought it would be a good place where to introduce it.
"We are always looking at new ways of engaging the local community."
The last session for the summer was held last weekend.
To learn more or get involved visit The Old Ticket Office at North Kessock's website or Facebook page.
