We’ve absolutely loved hearing your memories of the hall over the years! If you’d like to share yours, please message our Facebook group or email communications@aultbeahall.org.uk and we’ll publish them below.
I remember the playscheme ran by Janet, Fays mum throughout the holidays, we had a wonderful time with the multicoloured parachute and the rollerdisco.
We used to play badminton every week and also on a Wednesday evening i would play bowls with my dad, Heather and Morris, Dennis, Ted and John Alec MacLennan.
And of course my dad, Clarie. He played a huge part in the hall. He was treasurer/secretary for years, helped raise funds, took all the bookings, sorted out the money and opened up and locked up for events. The hall was a massive part of his life and he fondly talked about it even after we moved away. We even had a jigsaw of the hall made for dad’s Christmas present one year.
I also remember the spiders in the ladies toilets and the great games of hide and seek we used to play, it was brilliant!
Miranda Newton
Summer 1964
Started school in the Aultbea Hall as the Bualnaluib primary school was having work done. Gregor
Forbes used to pick us up in the cream and green mini bus. Primary class was downstairs in the small room. Ali Fin, Alex James, Patrick, Fiona, Mairead and me. We had a really nice teacher but can’t remember her name? Ali Fin loved his toy cars, Patrick loved my chocolate rolos lol!! Middle classes were upstairs with the lovely Miss MacKenzie and the older ones in the main hall with ‘The Baldie’.
I used to go to Brownies in the Hall with Mrs Buchan. I loved the Brownies. We did a show in the
Hall and I remember being sleeping beauty in one play and a smelly tramp in another play…both
done with no glasses on and I couldn’t see a thing. Sadly I was flung out of the Brownies…I think
it was for chasing Tooty round the Hall?
I used to go to badminton with Mrs Buchan in later years which was great. My cousin, young
Johnny and I used to sometimes walk there and back. There was some cracking badminton
players there. Murdo Louie, Sandra Buchan are two I remember well.
The Concerts were amazing. I mainly remember Alistair Gillies and Calum Kennedy. There were
many many more top class artists who played there but I was too young in those days to go to
many concerts. Willie MacLean used to get major Scottish acts up to Aultbea. The Mod was a big event in those days in the Hall. I couldn’t sing but had to be in the choir as I was tall…I was told to mouth the words but not sing lol! I usually did a poem or something like that. The only thing I ever won was a 2nd when I knitted a yellow kangaroo. I remember Nipper and Agnes Stewart singing, great voices.
We had Christmas parties in the hall with Scottish dancing. We all loved those. Coutts used to come to the Hall this was a great event. Lots to see and buy!! In later years great dances and especially the New Years Eve Dance. Uncle Andrew had a fab 60th in the Hall along with Wee Willie, Danny Forbes and Mike Longley, a great night. The art exhibitions, whist drives etc were always fun too.
So many memories and all good! Generations have loved this Hall and have good memories. Here’s hoping for the next generation to have great memories too. PS the ONLY bad memory was Cochrane the dentist with his foot pump drill….scared a generation!
Heather Wiseman-McPhee
I remember we had to move to the Hall from Bualnaluib School for a short time (about 55 years ago)… I’m not sure if it was the extension or new toilets that were getting done at the school but it certainly felt strange going to school in the Hall.
No-one has mentioned the infamous dentist, Cochrane who used the back part of the hall for all his dental work, he was a nightmare!!!
We had Halloween Parades each year from the Primary School. All the Parents would sit around the hall and we all stood behind the stage curtains, ready to go down the side steps and parade in front of them….prizes were given out for best costumes etc., then tea and cakes were served from upstairs.
Brownies and Boy Scouts were all held in the Hall, I’m not sure who did the Boy Scouts but Mrs Buchan did the Brownies…very proud to be part of that.
The Mod and Christmas Parties for all the Primary were held in the Hall. The Teachers from the school at that time were Mr Alick MacRae, Miss MacKenzie, Miss Munro and Miss Kay Matheson.
Concerts with dances to follow seemed to be on nearly every Friday night and the Hall would be packed….tickets were bought at the ‘little booth’ on your way in. When I was too young to go to the dances, I would have my bedroom window open in the summer and could hear the music….I lived in the house next to the school!!
Whist Drives were also held in the main hall, which were a great laugh and also Bingo upstairs where the prizes were Co-op Saving Stamps.
I’ve mentioned a few things that I remember but lots more went on….sales of work and Gordon’s of Alford with their huge vans full of goods which were unloaded into the main hall through the side double door.
The Aultbea Hall really was the centre of the Community and I have a lot of happy memories from times spent there.
Fiona MacKenzie (Maclean, Bualnaluib)
First memory is the jumble sales, they always had a sand pit which you had to pay and then rummage through it to find a (rubbish) prize. Then in 1977 for the Queen’s Jubilee there was a disco and we danced to “Rupert, Rupert the bear”! Lastly playing five aside football with Mr Vernal, head teacher at Bualnaluib, on Friday afternoons when the weather was too bad to go outside – and enduring the ordeal of getting the key for the hall from Mrs Buchan who guarded it as if it were her first born!
Peter Wiseman
When we had Drumchork Lodge Hotel, we did the Bar down at the Aultbea Hall in the early 1990s. The Band was Boys of the Lough and the music went on well into the early hours. The bar was outside in a horse trailer and Sheila McTaggart brought us out hot food as the night went on so late, we were starving!
Chris Cooper
I have memories of the hall as a child when I used to come and stay with my Aunt Nan and Uncle George Buchan who ran the shop in Aultbea. My Aunt Nan used to take me to the badminton there as she helped run them and when she died there was a trophy made in her name. They used to take me to shows there too, I’ve seen Callum Kennedy, Jim MacLeod, Alistair Giles, and the Alexander Brothers. This was in the 70s. But I also know that my Mum, Nan’s sister Maureen Taylor played badminton there too. And my Grampa Robert Taylor used to go to the pub with the Alexander Brothers.
Susan Williamson
Like many people my age, my first memory of the hall is playgroup with the lovely Joyce Mackenzie. There was an amazing huge wooden box painted in yellow and red stripes that you could crawl about in (at least, it seemed huge then!). Joyce also had this amazing silver thing that she used to hang sweets from and you got to choose one at the end. There was a huge mirror in the now bricked up part of the ladies toilets that we used to run about in front of too, it seemed to be the size of the wall! The first of many happy memories in a special place.
Jennifer Turner
My earliest memory of the Hall is going to Brownies, led by Brown Owl Mrs Buchan. It was often held in the main hall but sometimes also in the smaller room upstairs. I’ll never forget how excited I was when I got my
uniform! Best thing at Brownies was making things and for my Arts and Crafts badge I made a glove puppet which had a matchbox for a head with some brown (obvs) wool stuck to it and a red velvet body.
Then I started going to badminton – also led by Mrs Buchan! I loved badminton and can still hear the thud on the wooden floor from my sand shoes every time I missed a shot! I loved being backstage or on the stage. The Hall looked huge from there – and a bit terrifying. I remember school concerts happening there, puppet plays – and The Mod, or was it just practices for The Mod which was usually held in Poolewe?
Every so often there would be a Sale of Work! which was very exciting. Lots of sandwiches and cakes and knitted things. The best one I remember was for Bualnaluib PS to raise money for a school trip to London –
previously unheard of! It must’ve been 1972 or 73. Ken Lawrence the Head Teacher and Mr Wands the music teacher, who used to live in the old school house in Laide, ran the show and there were loads of games like Lucky Dip and a coconut shy, Stick the Tail on the Donkey and guess the number of sweeties in the jar etc. It made a ton of cash and we all had a brilliant time in London!
But the best thing ever to happen in the Hall was when Gordons of Alford came and filled it with all kinds of furniture. This happened once or twice a year and it was brilliant! Everyone went there and it was an excuse to meet your pals and try everything out. You could buy smaller things as well like ornaments and alongside the Hall they parked their bus which was full of underwear and slippers. You got to it from the Hall side door and had to walk over a metal bridge thing to get on the bus. It was heaven.
There were also Ceilidhs and Dances usually with live bands like Kenneth McKellar and Callum Kennedy. It was all very ‘The White Heather Show’! I’ll never forget the ladies toilet which was upstairs and had a huge pink framed mirror – is it still there? Many a drama was played out in that space on a Friday night. I remember seeing Runrig there which was a great event – and also The Millennium Party when the Hall looked amazing with a big fishing net full of balloons in the roof. That is probably the last time I was there.
Alison Chisholm
So many memories to list them all, but my earliest of Aultbea Hall is from when I was a child and came across from Poolewe to the roller discos but the main reason to LOVE this old hall is that it was our Wedding Dance Venue. To us, never to be forgotten! We chose Aultbea Hall quite simply due to it being the best, most loved and most memorable Hall about. We couldn’t imagine our dance being anywhere else!
Melissa Macleod
Wow where do I start I have so many memories of the hall. It was a huge part of growing up!! The amazing box that Alasdair made that we had in play school…it was magical and felt like it went on forever! Brownies sitting upstairs and playing that game where you jumped over peoples legs…can’t remember the name. Badminton club! Youth club and playing British Bulldogs with all the massive guys…well they felt like they were massive ! Sales of work! Scottish opera! Aerobics! Singing in the mod! Being taught salsa dancing for the film As an Eilean and then being filmed dancing for it. So many happy memories.
Rona Macaskill
My memory of the hall will have to be play-scheme, endless summers roller skating, playing with the parachute and making up dance routines and concerts. I also loved my weekly gymnastics class with Andy and badminton when all the generations came together… I have a million memories of the hall.‎
Carol Rippin
Pretty soon after moving to Aultbea I got talking to Andy Moore (Oran Na Mara) and he, very kindly, invited me to the weekly pool night. When I walked into the hall I was fascinated by the building, at the time I didn’t realise its rich historic value. Although I only went to the hall a handful of times I’ll always remember it as a place of fun and laughs.
Lyle Barras
I’m going to share a couple of memories. First is summer play scheme. I’d have been in primary at the time. And I remember being there with Martin Blackley and Gary Forbes and Jonathan MacLennan. Janet, Fay’s mum, ran it at the time and there was this giant multi coloured parachute. We would all gather round and lift it up then in one motion lift it right up and then behind is and sit down so that it made a massive dome with us inside. I have fond memories of the hall. I can still hear the noise of footsteps up the stairs on either side of the doorway as you go in. And that smell the place had. Not a bad smell. Just it had a smell. I remember doing plays from Bualnaluib in there. And singing (in my case badly). I remember roller discos (it was the 80’s) and being in the scouts there. I even just recall Runrig playing there though I didn’t see them I was too young. But I remember it being talked about. That building has I’m sure had a significant impact on every single person growing up in and around Aultbea.
Tony Panciroli
My funniest memory of the hall is from around 2008 when the Ross’ moved to Aultbea. I think it was Monica who thought it would be a good idea to ask Colin to be Santa (need I go on?!). With a hall full of excited kids and Santa’s arrival imminent, a new family appeared (a very rare thing in those days), kids were ushered to sit on the mat and parents took their seats. The bells started jingling and ‘ho ho ho’ Santa, yellow wellies and all, rolled in. It was certainly a kaleidoscope of colours with that introduction for Jeremy and Fiona to Aultbea. Faces turned red as the air turned blue and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but it was certainly one to remember!
Fiona MacKenzie
I loved going to Brownies at the hall when we were little (late 70s/early 80s), one of my favourite memories is when we made a snowman scene with lots of cotton wool and the obligatory toilet roll tube!
Dawn McTaggart
My overriding memory of the hall is fun, from playschool with Joyce, cubs with Jim powder, Dr Livingstone, Alcey Eustace and mum, youth club with big Colin and Danny Grant, football, badminton, singing, DJing, dancing and partying. Truly was and will always be the heart of Aultbea.
Chris Maclennan
I have many fond memories of Aultbea Hall. I remember the fun of badminton tournaments and the holiday play-scheme as a child. Attending the Saturday night youth club was the highlight of the week as a teenager. I also enjoyed attending many of the dances at the hall, they were a great opportunity for everyone to get together. It would be great to see the hall playing a part in the community again.
Morag Snaddon
I was in Edinburgh for the millennium street party (as I was just married, was involved in Y2K work and we needed to be near the office and so we got free street party tickets). It was quite an event but the following New Year in Aultbea Hall was just as good. Cans at the bar, rammed with everyone you knew and Bruce & Trish on the stage knocking out the teuchter tunes 😊
Iain Mackenzie
My best memory of the hall is going to see Runrig there in 1987, they were fantastic!
Rosanne Wiseman