The Trust celebrates its 10th Anniversary with a
St. Andrew’s Eve Ceilidh
Saturday 29th November, 7.30pm
at Farr Community Hall, IV2 6AX. Sponsored by Inverness Car Company and Hawco.
We are hosting a ceilidh with live music from local band, Marack, stovies and refreshments. BYOB. Doors open 7pm.
Tickets: £15 per adult, £10 per child (Primary age). Pre-school age – free.
If you are able to help, before, or on the night with food preparation, raffle ticket sales, setting up the hall etc. please let us know – many hands make light work!
Our Prize Draw will be drawn at the ceilidh. Tickets on sale now! £2.00 each, £10.00 per book (5 tickets). If you are unable to come to the ceilidh, or would be able to sell some to your friends beforehand contact us at theneilmackenzietrust@dr.com Let us know how many tickets you would like, and we will send you the bank details and allocate you your ticket numbers.
Prizes include: 3 night stay in Farr House for up to 16 people – ideal for a family gathering or celebration! Vouchers for activities and local attractions, a whole salmon, bottles of whisky and champagne and more.
Grant News
Our Expedition grants are available for adventures all over the world. We are now allocating major grants (approx. £800) twice a year in the spring and the autumn. We also offer small expedition grants, up to £200, at other times and we are always pleased to help local youngsters. This summer we were happy to help local teenager, Lucy Hunter, with her relatively local D of E Silver expedition.
Following her practice expedition, Lucy set out on her qualifying expedition.
“On the first day we started at Bunarkaig and walked with our rucksacks for about two kilometres to Clunes. Then we started on the Great Glen Way for about five and a half kilometres to our campsite near Glas-Dhoire. It was raining a lot on our walk and camp……………. On the third day we packed our things into the barrels and dry bags and canoed along the remainder of Loch Oich for about two and a half kilometres to the Caledonian canal. Here there were two sets of lock gates where we took our canoes out of the water and transported them to the other side of the gates. We canoed for about eight kilometres to Fort Augustus where we unloaded the canoes and finished the expedition.” For full report see https://theneilmackenzietrust.com/lucy-hunter/
Supporters’ Day 2025
We had another successful Supporters’ Day in Farr, in August. With activities in the morning including a wildlife walk in a local community wood, climbing, and forest activities for the younger participants. Thanks to everyone who led/helped with these – we really do appreciate it!
The afternoon saw live talks from grant recipients as well as videos from others. It was certainly an inspiring set this year!
Thank you to those who made the effort to come along, and for putting yourselves forward to talk. We love meeting the recipients in person and it is heartwarming to see the benefit we are able to give to people by our support.
We also had teas, coffees and lots of lovely savouries and cakes. Thank you to all who provided them and helped in the kitchen. There was plenty of opportunity to talk to the recipients and discuss their grants and a bouncy castle for the young (thank you, Justyna!) and the day culminated with a barbeque.
Fundraising The Supporters’ Day is not a fundraising day, however we do offer opportunities to spend money and donate! With donations, sales of cards, tea towels, etc. and raffle tickets, we raised an amazing £850. It is because of the generosity of people like you that we are able to continue to give out our grants. Other donations We are grateful to Neil’s cousin, Katherine Liggatt, who approached her works Social Value Committee which resulted in a donation of £250 from Apetito (Wiltshire Farm Foods). Thanks to all involved. Does your employer support small charities? Small donations like this mean another skills grant can be given out. Larger donations can ensure an expedition grant is available. Would you be able to approach someone, or give us contact details so that we can get in touch with them, directly?
Applications: Next application deadlines: Neil Mackenzie Adventure Grant: 31st January 2026 (VOC only). Expedition Grant and Educational Expedition Grant: 15th March 2026. Applications for Skills Training Grants and Small Expedition Grants can be applied for at any time and will take 4-6 weeks to process. If you or someone you know would like to apply for a grant, contact us by email or “contact us” on website (see sidebar on first page for addresses), indicating proposed training/expedition and we will send you/them an application form.Post Script: We have just received a snapshot of the recent Kyrgyzstan trip by Ella Wright: “Kyrgyzstan — A Humbling Reminder When Jack first floated the idea of a Kyrgyzstan trip, I was keen — no hesitation. But if I’m honest, I had no real idea what I was signing up for. It wasn’t until day one, standing under those massive peaks, that it hit me: this place was bigger, wilder, and more demanding than I ever imagined………” Full snapshot: https://theneilmackenzietrust.com/kyrgyzstan/
The Neil Mackenzie Trust 