An Crubh

Supporting Statement

An Crùbh is the realisation of years of planning and aspiration by a small community in the Sleat peninsula of Skye to take the initiative to provide essential services and facilities we did not have. Under one roof are a shop and post office, a café, a multi-purpose gathering hall plus a further meeting room, showers and toilets. It is owned and run by the people of the crofting townships of Camuscross, Isleornsay, Duisdalemore and Duisdalebeg, which together have a population of around 180, through Camuscross & Duisdale Initiative/Iomairt Chamas Chros & Dhùisdeil. We wanted to create an attractive, welcoming, useful building which people of every age and background, living locally or visiting, could enjoy and where they would have good reason to meet each other much more than before. Several rounds of consultation by open meetings and by questionnaire, and with local school children showed that the community identified the three key elements of shop, cafe and hall as their priorities, at between 80 and 90% each.
After several years of hard work, building began in January 2016, the £1.8m building was completed a few days before Christmas 2016 and handed over to its owners, the community. After equipping the shop, cafe and hall, the doors were opened on 1 April 2017.
The name was chosen by seeking suggestions and getting the community to vote. All but one of the names suggested was in Gaelic, and the clear winner was An Crùbh - meaning the hub or ‘nave’ of a wheel.
An Crùbh is active on Facebook, and our website gives a good idea of the building -www.ancrubh.com