Caithness Courier headlines for March 25, 2015

A RETIRED Dounreay electrician is taking action against his former employers whom he blames for contracting a disease caused by breathing in tiny particular of asbestos. James Reid, who worked at the site for 37 years, claims a lack of specialist training and equipment led to him developing a potentially life-threatening condition.

A WICK woman is ashamed of the town's North Head Memorial and is calling for something to be done to improve its condition. Pauline Craw, who lives beside the monument which overlooks Wick Bay, thinks work is overdue on the neglected structure which is currently fenced off because harling put on it in the 1980s is falling off.

THE overall contractor responsible for felling trees in Watten, which were in danger of falling onto houses, has donated the chopped wood to the local community. Gerry O'Donnell, general manager of Glendale in Scotland was given the contract by Highland Council to complete the work at Bain Place and he sub-contracted the job to an Aviemore-based company, Natural Tree Solutions.

CAITHNESS and Sutherland are not part of the Scottish government's plans to introduce 30 new, long-distance routes to the country's network of trails, cycleways and canal towpaths. The National Walking and Cycling project plan aims to extend the network by more than 500 miles over the next five years, by joining and improving existing routes

THE curtain has come down on Thurso Players' bid to get to the Scottish Community Drama Association final which takes place in Orkney next month. They competed in the divisional final at the Assembly Rooms in Wick, at the weekend but did not manage to win through.

THE Caithness International Science Festival is celebrating creating an event so popular with children that their parents had trouble getting them away from it. Elena Koponen-Baikie of Wick firm KP Technology, one of the supporters of the festival, said many parent were struggling to pull their children away from the excitement of the fun day held in Wick High School on Saturday.

THE cloud did its best but did not totally spoil the far north's view of the very rare sight of a partial solar eclipse last week. People travelled to Caithness from as far away as the south of England to catch sight of the spectacle, because the north was to enjoy the highest percentage of the sun's light being blocked out in the UK, at around 97 per cent.

MATCH-WINNER Davie Allan spoke afterward of his delight at taking Wick Academy to their first ever Highland League Cup final. "It feels brilliant" said the 25 year old.