Funds awarded to Aultbea, Aberdeen and Leadburn projects
- Published
The Arctic Convoys delivered supplies to Russia during World War Two
A project dedicated to World War Two's Russian Arctic Convoys has received £72,820 from the Scottish Land Fund.
The Highlands' Russian Arctic Convoy Project (RACP) will use the money to buy a former butcher's shop in Aultbea for a new exhibition centre.
The nearby Loch Ewe was a gathering point for many of the convoys.
Aberdeen's Bonnymuir Green Community Trust and Midlothian's Friends of Leadburn Community Woodland have also received funding.
The Scottish Land Fund (SLF) has announced the funding to mark the first day of Community Land Week 2018, which is organised by the Scottish government Community Land Team and Community Land Scotland.
RACP is marking the 75th anniversaries of the years when convoys of supply ships, and the warships that escorted them, left Loch Ewe for Russia.
Market garden
The Arctic Convoys transported four million tons of supplies and munitions to Russia between 1941 and 1945.
More than 3,000 Allied seamen lost their lives to the freezing conditions and attacks during the trips to ports in the Arctic Circle after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Bonnymuir Green Community Trust has received £164,750 to purchase the former Bonnymuir Bowling Green, and the accompanying pavilion building.
The group plans to create a new green space within the city that will include a market garden and a community building with a café, meeting space and retail space for locally-grown produce.
Friends of Leadburn Community Woodland will purchase woodland in Midlothian from Forestry Enterprise Scotland with the help of its award of £41,000.
Other groups receiving funding to help mark Community Land Week are Boarhills and Dunino Community Trust in Fife, Dronley Community Woodland SCIO in Angus, Stirling's East Loch Lomond Community Trust and Eilean Eisdeal in Argyll and Bute.
Kalewater Community Company and Morebattle Community Shop Ltd, both in the Scottish Borders, will also be given funds, along with Killin and Ardeonaig Community Development Trust in Stirling and Kyle and Lochalsh Community Trust.