Who we support
Every year we invite charities and good causes related to and based in Sutherland to apply to The Edinburgh Sutherland Association for a donation from our funds. The committee then discuss the applicants at the AGM and monetary contributions are usually awarded in the Summer. Since 2011 the Association has:
40+
FUNDRAISING EVENTS HELD
£40K+
DONATED TO APPLICANTS
10+
individuals supported
70+
groups supported
In previous years we have supported:
2025
We have donated over £4,200 to charities and worthy causes in Sutherland in 2025. The charity agreed to donate to the following good causes:
- Fèis air an Oir – £300 towards transport costs for the Ceilidh Trail Project
- Historylinks Young Curators Club – £250 towards costs for storage space
- Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust – £439.50 to fund the Perennial Plant Project
- Sutherland Adventure Company SCIO – £500 towards the Sutherland Girls on Paddleboards
- Culrain & District Community Hall – £379 to purchase of a new cooker for the hall
- East Sutherland Canoe Club – £450 towards winter pool sessions
- Golspie Primary School Parent Council – £720 to purchase a tin whistle for every pupil
- Peter Wardhaugh – £500 pledged towards the purchase of a new accordion for a looked after child
- Go Golspie Development Trust – £225 towards winter restock of the Community Food Larder
- Bettyhill Mod Committee – £500 for five Mod workshops for the local junior Gaelic choir
2024
We have donated over £4,400 to good causes in Sutherland this year. The charity agreed to donate to the following good causes:
- Strathnaver Community Hall – £250 for a new cooker
- Fèis air an Oir – £600 fees for young assistant teacher at the Fèis
- Sutherland Care Forum – £250 for supplies for Befriending services
- Connect Assynt Ltd – £200 – towards Ullapool supermarket transport
- North Coast Connection – £150 for art & craft supplies
- Culrain & District Hall Committee – £580 for events marquee tent
- Dornoch Pipe Band – £275 for new pipe bag covers
- Lochview Rural Training – £250 for an educational resource box
- Clyne Heritage Society – £300 towards a research trip to School of Scottish Studies
- Assynt Mountain Rescue Team – £360 towards new all terrain tyres
- Assynt Leisure, Youth & Learning centre – £250 towards craft supplies
- Lairg Gaelic Choir – £400 towards costs for commissioning a new song/arrangement inspired by the Clearances in the Strath of Kildonan
- Golspie Youth Action Project – £300 for personalised hi-vis vests
2023
We donated over £4,400 to good causes in Sutherland this year. The charity donated to the following good causes:
- Aaron Sutherland, Talmine – Support for music college expenses (microphones) £463
- Dornoch Primary School – Storytelling bench (request plaque) £700
- Kyle of Sutherland Hub – Arts and craft learning materials £500
- Fèis Ghallaibh, Armadale – School visits to encourage children to attend Feis £300
- Tykes Young Carers, Golspie – Respite break bus hire and groceries £660
- Fèis Chataibh, Golspie – Support for tuition sessions £300
- Rosehall Pri Parent Council – Minibus hire and a drama workshop at Eden Court £480
- Community Care Assynt, Lochinver – Tableware/crockery replacement costs £255
- Dornoch Academy Library – Outdoor storyteller event £250
- Sutherland Sessions – Support traditional music gigs in East Sutherland £500
2022
We have agreed to donate over £4,000 to good causes in Sutherland after our recent call for applications. The charity is donating to the following good causes:
2021
The Edinburgh Sutherland Association has donated £2,500 to good causes in Sutherland after its recent call for applications. The charity donated to the following good causes:
2020
2019
At our 2019 AGM we agreed to donate over £3,000 this year to the following worthy applicants:
1st Golspie Guides – £200, towards travel, camp and equipment costs.
Sutherland Care Forum – £500, towards travel costs to run their mobile footcare service in east Sutherland.
Move It Monster Club, Brora, £240, for gym hire to run an activities club for children with Additional Support Needs.
Brora Community Theatre Group, £240, to purchase a portable PA system and two microphones for use at community events.
Dornoch Festival Week Tea Dance, £250, sponsorship of the catering costs for the 2019 Festival Week intergenerational Tea Dance event.
Durness Village Hall, £500, to purchase a portable PA system for use at local music and entertainment events.
Skerray Village Hall, £500, towards the village hall WC refurbishment project.
Isobel Murray John, Lairg, £580, to cover the cost of flights to Tanzania to attend an unpaid law internship at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
2018
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £3,100 this year to the following worthy applicants:
1st Brora Cubs: £200 towards the travel cost for the group to attend Dalguise activity centre.
1st Golspie Brownie Guides: £280 to purchase a tent for camping activities.
Dornoch Allsorts Afterschool Club: £200 to contribute to the cost of running a Woodland Live Action Role Play Activity, including costume making, writing scripts, culminating in a site specific piece of interactive theatre.
Dornoch Festival Week: £200 to assist funding new activities and resources for children during Festival Week.
Dornoch Firth Campus: £150 to pay for around 80 pupils in P7-S2 from the Dornoch Firth Campus to attend workshops about the Clearances at Timespan in Helmsdale as part of an inter-disciplinary learning event.
Feis Chataibh (Golspie): £300 to assist with purchase of three keyboards for workshops and performances.
Golspie High School: £360 to assist transport costs with 24 pupils going to Outward Bound Trust outdoor centre in Loch Eil Centre.
Alexander Murray John (Lairg): £300 to attend the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS) Summer Course in Merchiston School.
Lairg and District Learning Centre: £300 for Gaelic classes for children in the community to raise awareness and usage of Gaelic language, art and literature.
Connie Mackinnon (Bonar Bridge): £400 to assist with accommodation for a self-funded research project in Professor Dan Walker’s research lab at the University of Glasgow.
Rosehall Primary School: £200 to create a school vegetable garden with raised beds, grow seasonal produce including the purchase raised bed kits, garden equipment, seeds and plants.
Sutherland Provincial Mod: £244 purchase of three prize quaichs engraved by the Association.
2017
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £3,085 this year to the following worthy applicants:
Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust, £250 to support the cost of outdoor events for local
families at Falls of Shin.
Sutherland Schools Pipe Band, £200 towards the cost of uniforms, as well as piping and
drumming supplies.
Golspie High School, £350 to pay for the hire of a bus to take pupils and French exchange
students to Landmark.
Dornoch Heritage SCIO, £125 to cover the cost of folders for Ancestry Packs at HistoryLinks
Museum.
Kinlochbervie Football Team, £300 towards transport costs for away games.
Strathnaver Hall Committee, £400 to support a project to collect and collate oral history about
the resettlement of Strathnaver after the Clearances.
Lori Macleod, Tongue, £200 to assist student with voluntary mental health placement in Sri
Lanka.
1st Brora Scouts, £400 to assist with sending local scouts to International Friendship Camp in
Austria.
Chrisanne McCulloch, Strathnaver, £200 to assist Glasgow School of Art student with cost of
art materials.
Connie Mackinnon, Bonar Bridge, £360 to assist Glasgow University student pay for a month
of accommodation in Glasgow for summer research project into Cystic Fibrosis.
Caladh Sona, Talmine, £300 towards the purchase of a powered wheelchair.
2016
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £2,500 this year to the following worthy applicants:
The Assynt Fallen 1914-18, £150 towards researching the background to the men of Assynt who fell in 1914-18. The project is being undertaken by Dr and Mrs Bangor-Jones.
Fèis an Iar Thuath, Scourie, £300 towards the cost of their annual two day Gaelic music workshop event, which attracts children from across Sutherland.
Fèis Chataibh, Golspie, £270 to provide two new keyboards for children from across Sutherland who attend the Gaelic music workshops.
Glasgow Short Film Festival, £300 to support bringing Lost Treasure, an unfinished short film shot across Sutherland and mainly in and around Achmelvich made in 1955 with a newly commissioned soundtrack, home to Assynt. The Screen Machine will show the film in Lochinver on 25 August.
Billie Houldsworth, Lochinver, £200 to support student in outward bound sports teaching course and placement in South Africa.
North Coast Connection, £280 for equipment for Otago sessions for fall prevention for the elderly.Rosehall Primary School, £150 to allow pupils to work with David Hunter, Eden Court (Inverness) Creative Worker (Caithness and North Sutherland Drama) on a Green Screen Project. The funds will pay for the Eden Court Creative worker to come to the school.
Sutherland Sessions, Golspie, £300 towards music workshops providing opportunities for young local musicians to gain performance experience by running and promoting gigs at eclectic venues across Sutherland.
West Sutherland Fisheries Trust, £200 towards attendance at public events to inform people about life existing within the Sutherland waters.
Shannon Young, Farr, £100 to contribution towards rent, food and accommodation when on placement during nursing degree.
1st Golspie Girl Guides, £250 to buy a tent for camping trips.
2015
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £2,200 this year to the following worthy applicants:
Golspie Primary School PTA, £50 as a raffle prize to encourage additional uptake of tickets in their annual fundraising raffle.
Loth and Helmsdale Flower Show Society, £150 to purchase additional materials to widen participation by children and provide increased sustainability of resources year-on-year.
Centre for History, Dr David Worthington, £100 toward public engagement support costs for ‘Firths and Fjords: A Coastal History Conference’ taking place in Dornoch in April 2016
Feis an Iar Thuath, Scourie, £200 to help keep participation fees affordable for children participating in in Scourie.
Gledfield Primary School, Ardgay, £90 towards 8 lessons of Drama classes provided by Eden Court at the school.
Transport for Tongue, Tongue, £360 towards providing transport to Thurso for a Melness-based girl unable to take the necessary classes to apply to study Veterinary Medicine at University at her local school in Farr.
Dornoch Beach Regeneration and Improvement Group, £400 to cover the costs of an eco-bench at the beach, to include an Edinburgh Sutherland Association plaque. This is part of a wider 3-phase regeneration scheme for the public areas at the beach to provide better use and improve visitor access.
The Sutherland Schools Pipe Band, £350 to pay for vital equipment for those participating in the Band competitions in Calgary, Canada.
The Strath Fleet Buttons & Bows, £300 to kit out 37 members of a beginners/intermediate accordion & fiddle group based in the Rogart Hall, Sutherland with fleeces for outdoor performances.
Feis Chataibh, Golspie, £200 to help part fund winter workshops for children providing tuition in traditional music and song.
2014
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £2,000 this year to the following worthy applicants:
£100 to Fèis Ghallaibh, to assist with travel costs for young people in Melvich, Bettyhill and Skerray attending traditional music workshops.)
£270 to Dornoch Allsorts After School Club, toward their annual Woodland Quest for children, part of their ‘Puddle Jumpers’ summer programme. The event, for children aged four to twelve is a real life outdoor adventure with monsters, baddies, stricken maidens and woodland escape.
£260 to Scourie Community Development Company Ltd, towards the purchase of a bench for the Sports Pavilion.
£260 to North Coast Connection, to assist with the purchase of equipment for the Kyle Centre in Tongue.
£300 to Lucie Treacher, to fund costumes for opera production The Fisherman’s Brides. This young composer, based in Dornoch, premiered her latest production at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival in London this July.
£260 to Fèis Chataibh, to assist in the continued success of the ever-popular Fèis in Golspie.
£300 to Fèis an Iar Thuath to help fund participation fees for youth participants in Scourie.
£150 to Strathnaver Museum towards the cost of a site marker and interpretive panel at Babinloskin, a significant place in the history and interpretation of the Highland Clearances.
£100 for the Ross and Sutherland District Explorer Scouts Botswana Expedition 2015. This money will go towards participation fees for a young female leader from the Brora Scout Group. This expedition will see Scouts participating with local communities in building a vital new water pump station, and establishing a Scout group in Botswana’s second-largest city of Francistown.
2013
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £1,600 this year to the following worthy applicants:
Farr Edge 2000, Bettyhill (£425 towards funding two youth workers to provide
and develop activity clubs)
Attitude Cheerleaders, Golspie (£375 towards new uniforms)
Fèis an Iar Thuath, Scourie (£300 towards running costs)
Rosehall Youth Club (£300 to keep the club running for younger children)
Hope Gordon, Rogart (£200 to help this talented disability swimmer prepare
for the Commonwealth Games).
2012
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £1,600 this year to the following worthy applicants:
Elphin, Ledmore and Knockan Community Association (£400)
Tongue Football Pitch Project (£300)
Feis Chataibh, Golspie (£250)
Drumbeg Village Hall Committee (£250)
Dunrobin Castle Piping Championships (£200)
Tongue and Melness Youth Group Avatar Project (£200).
2011
At our AGM we agreed to donate over £1,200 this year to the following worthy applicants:
Drumbeg Village Hall Committee (£300)
Bonar Bridge OAP Group (£200)
Brora Scout and Guide Hall Group (£200)
Dunrobin Castle Piping Championships (£200)
Dornoch Academy Drama Group (£200)
Taigh na Gàidhlig Mhealanias (Mackay Country Gaelic Dictionary) (£100).