15th October 2016
All refurbishment of the hall have been completed. We now have a new roof, a refurbished and re-equiped kitchen, new flooring in the kitchen and corridor, new windows and doors in the main hall and a new paint job throughout. The new stage, large screen and projector, sound equipment and table tennis tables will be purchased in the next few weeks and the broadband connection will be fitted whenever BT Openreach get their act together.
28th November 2015
A good turn out for the bairns Christmas party and the tree lighting which was blessed with a short interval of calm, dry weather.
2nd September 2015
A really good "Tune" in The Sands last Friday. 17 Musicians from 15 to over 80 years old playing guitars, mandolins, whisltes, bodrhan, moothies, keyboard and Oh yes, fiddles along with a few songs until way past my bedtime.
2nd October 2015
CLICK HERE FOR THE SANDS TUNE VIDEO
We hope to make this a regular event, at least over the winter. Probably the first Friday in every month starting on Friday 2nd Oct. Watch this space and Burray Community Facebook page for more info.
2nd September 2015
After a really good week in The Blue Door, we ended up with a great total of £3477.35.
Thanks to Mrs Jamieson and all the staff at The Blue Door, to all our own volounteers who gave their time to help out, to all who donated items for sale, we had a huge amount and to everyone who went in and bought
4th June 2015
We are seeing some development down at the play park.
I am not too sure what it all is but am certain that all will be revealed in the fullness of time.
The Play Park Work Begins 5th May 2015
The digger has arrived to start the ground work.
GlastonBurray 18th April 2015
A great time had by all, including all the musicians. Something for everyone. Hopefully to be repeated next year.
Play Park Bid in for Phase 1. 30th June 20114
The bid is finally in to Sports Active for the first phase of the play park upgrade. This includes the trim track, the embankment slide, the swings and the mounds and tunnel telly tubby type village for the younger ones.
We will just have to wait now and see if we are sucessful.
Phase 2 will be done shortly and will include the mini golf, the barbeque and getting basketball and 5 a side football into the existing tennis court.
Play Park Plan. 5th June 2014.
We have now got a copy of the plan for the upgrade and additions to the play park. You can see it on the Burray Play Park or Burray Community Association facebook page. If anybody has any suggestions for any modifications or additions to this plan then please let us know as soon as possible as we have to apply for funding soon and need to have all the costs sorted out.
We have power at last 1st June 2014
A bit of a breeze today so i could check the turbine. This morning was a bit scary though. I had been told that the bearings would take a while before they bedded in and the new grease eased everything but this morning the turbine was very sluggish and not swinging into the wind.
All is now OK though. It is whizzing round and generating well with no nasty noises so hopefully it will be quite a few years before it needs many new parts. That is a good job really as the cost of the repairs and spares this year has cost a full years income from the turbine.
With a bit of luck though, it should be more efficient with the new bearings and so should earn a bit more than it has been doing recently.
The end of the turbine saga. 30 May 2014
Well dear readers, the turbine was fixed yesterday by Pure Energy Shetland.
For some reason these people seem to inspire confidence in me. They actually drop the turbine to check it instead of just looking at it from the bottom of the pole. They know what to look for and where to expect damage or wea rand they know when they find parts that have previously been fitted with bits missing or even upside-down.
Apparently we will have to wait until we get a decent breeze before we can check it because the new bearings will be stiff for a while so it will take a good bit of wind to get it started and running properly.
Hopefully when it is back running smoothly it should run at nearer to 45% efficiency instead of the 33% that it has run at over the past year.
It has cost a mint to get it running but I suppose that as very little has been spent on it over the last 7 years then that is not too bad although it will take all this years profit to pay for this lot of repairs. I think that we will get it serviced every year in future so that we do not get such an accumulation of problems again.
All I need now is a windy day so that I can check it. Wouldn't you know it though, it seems as though Burray is the calmest place in the world for the time being.
Turbine Unsorted 26th April 2014
After saying on here a couple of weeks ago that the turbine was sorted, I am forced to retract any such optimistic statement.
Originally,one of the circuit boards was replaced and this seemed to cure the problem but a few days later the turbine was showing the same symptoms again.
We changed to using Pure Energy Shetland to do the servicing and they came down last week. They dropped the turbine to the ground and examined it thoroughly, finding that a pin which controls the pitch of the blades had broken so that each blade was set differently. They cleaned everything looking for cracks caused by the blades not being balanced and fortunately found none. They did tell me however that two sets of bearings would need to be renewed very soon. Unfortunately, this proved to be very accurate and I had to shut the turbine down the other day before it rattled itself to death.
I have arranged for them to fit new bearings but this will not be possible for about 3 weeks so we are without power from the turbine until then.
On the brighter side, I was very impressed with the efficiency and attention to detail of the Pure Energy team and we will be getting them to do regular servicing to try and catch problems before they become severe.
Hopefully once the turbine is back in commission with new bearings and regular servicing, we should get a few more years of trouble free running from it, fingers crossed.
12th April 2014
The Hall tidied up a bit.
The hall looking a lot better for having a short back and sides. Hopefully this will also help stop the damage to the floor caused by the damp.
3rd April 2014
Turbine Sorted
All users of the hall will no doubt be pleased that the turbine has now been fixed and so the heating should be OK.
The problem was the brake interface board, whatever one of those is.
29th March 2014
Another superb concert
The concert in the school on Thursday evening was another triumph for all concerned. The concert raised a load of money again, over £1400 altogether for the school and the Play park and that is great but more importantly it brought us all together again for a thoroughly enjoyable night.
Thanks to Tom and his staff for making us welcome at their school. The school hall was a great venue
It was particularly good to hear the bairns singing and playing. They will be the future musicians and the future of the island. I only wish that I had learned to play at that age instead of waiting until my brain was to set in it's ways to learn anything new.
The variety of music was also impressive. We have got used to having Douglas and Brian playing and singing but familiarity does not always breed contempt and no matter how often we hear them, they are always great, playing with a wide range of styles.
The Polka Dots must be especially thanked for travelling from right over the barriers to entertain us. I was sitting at the back along with The Burray Belles and there was a lot of hand jiving going on, so they got their repertoire just about spot on for those of us who remember the sixties.
From where I was sitting with the Burray belles while we were watching the other acts, it was great to see the friendship and enjoyment that they all got from singing and socialising together. This must surely be what it should all be about, and they can knock out a good song as well.
Brian and Jenny really made me sit up and take notice. They are both individually fine musicians and singers but together they were astounding.
All in all a brilliant concert and a great night out with different styles and promise for the future from the bairns.
Thanks to everyone concerned in making it happen. I know that a good deal of work must have gone on and I am sure that we are all grateful but it was well worth it.
I will get some videos of the performances up once I have managed to at least make my videos a bit less like the black hole of Calcutta.
26th March 2014
Playpark Toilets Open
By public demand and due largely to the herculean efforts of Hilda and Pam and a little help from me (which was rather unfairly anounced to be "cleaning man style") The play park toilets are NOW OPEN.
I have shut the bottom gate to try and keep dogs off the park but unfortunately the top gate will not stay shut so we probably need to look at getting a new gate. Watch this space.
25th March 2014
PLAY PARK UPDATE
I know that it always seems as though nothing is happening when you do not see any changes but the wheels are turning, they are just turning a bit slowly.
This is the latest update so that you can see where we are so far.
Angus is in contact with a company that will do plans and give us a quote for a trim track, embankment slide and swings.
We will be having a barbeque area, possibly set back into the embankment and provided with seating.
I am awaiting some designs from a mini golf fanatic down south and then Pam will get some quotes for building that.
I am going to get some quotes for re-surfacing the tennis court and we intend to fit basket ball hoops and 5 a side football nets to the ends of the tennis court.
We have a meeting with Claire Kemp, the community development fund manager on 2nd April and hope to be putting in the grant applications to two funding bodies by the end of June.
I promise that we are trying to get something done. We will eventually get there.
In the meantime, I will attempt to repair the tennis net this week and Hilda, Pam and I are going to clean the playpark toilets and open them tomorrow.
18th March 2014
CONCERT IN BURRAY SCHOOL
Don't forget the "NOT TO BE MISSED" concert in Burray school Thursday 27th March.
Featuring the all star line up of:- The Polka Dots, Jenny and Brian, Young Elvis, Burray Belles, Saltfishforty and to top it all, The Burray and Hope School bairns.
Doors open at 6:30 for a 7:00PM start.
Tickets £8 and £5 for school age from 731229 or 731641.
Tea, coffee, homebakes, raffle.
All proceeds to the Burray Community Association and The school.
28th feb 2014
Sponsored Walk
Some of us are doing a sponsored walk from Kirkwall to Burray on 27th April.
If you are young and fit, or even old and fit, then do the walk with us. The more the merrier. Let me know and I will get some sponsorship forms to you.
If you are unable to do the walk yourself
THEN SPONSOR ME. I take promises via facebook, blank cheques, bribes, paypal and even euro's but maybe not bitcoins.
You know that you would love the rosy, good feeling that comes with doing good, so indulge yourself and tell me how much you will sponsor me for.
Bear in mind that I am old and knackered and past my "sell by" date and so need a lot of encouragement.
You can contact me with all those huge donations at [email protected]
28th Feb 2014
Brilliant Merry Dancers Display
Last night there was one of the best aurora displays for a long time. A beautiful clear sky and a calm night made for beautiful viewing. It may be just the effects of electro-magnetic radiation from the sun but it still looks like magic to me and very beautiful magic at that. This photo by Jade Miller looking over Burray from South Ronaldsay.
This really magical photo by Premysl Fojtu looking north towards St Mary's
19 Feb 2014
We need a new roof
We had a meeting last night to sort out what we are going to do about the roof of the hall. We have just been told that it needs completely re-slating and that if this is not done, we will get a lot of structural damage and water getting in. At least it is a simple decision. It has to be done and there is no real choice.
Fortunately because of efforts over the past few years, we had a good amount of money in the funds (The playpark money is ring-fenced and will not be touched) so we can afford the re-tiling even if we can not get grant which we will try for.
It does mean though that other things like the kitchen re-furbishment will have to go on the back burner for a bit until the roof is done and we see how the finances stack up.
We are still going ahead with the play park as the money is separate but we will not be able to give extra money from the funds as I had hoped. Pam is looking to see what extra money may be available from grants though and I think that there is a good chance of getting some help from there.
If anyone has any brilliant ideas about fund raising then let us know. As I said, we have enough money to do the roof but not to do the other things that we want to be able to do. The hall and play park belong to everyone in Burray and not just the committee so have a think how we can do other things.
Some of us are going to do a sponsored walk from Kirkwall to Burray, we are thinking of having a "100 club" and we are going to save and sell any slates that we can rescue from the roof. more ideas or help always welcome.
Burns Supper 31st January 2014
Magnus Spence with his very own take on Tam-O-Shanter at the Burns Night Supper in Burray Hall.
A great "sell out" night with good music and good company. thanks to all who contributed.
The Burray Belles were in good voice with Jock Stewart. Though they appear to be hiding in the dark, this is entirely due to a failure on my part to understand how to edit videos.