Following a report produced by Mick Andrew, production manager of Mull Theatre, and with the aid of a Community Fund Lottery Grant, work began on the refurbishment, with Edinburgh based lighting equipment specialists, Black Light Ltd, called in to advise on lighting for the hall.
Having seen the proposed re-construction, Black Light's Paul McGreal decided that a mixture of Selecon lights would be 'spot on' for the job. He explains: "We drove the van with the equipment as far as Seil Island, near Oban, from where we could see Easdale Island some 400m away. Then we loaded all the equipment into a 25ft boat and off we went. As we moored alongside the small jetty, we noticed a row of neatly parked wheelbarrows. This was our means of transporting everything to the community centre."
The island has no proper roads and therefore no motor vehicles. So, the boys from Black Light set to and wheeled the high-tech Selecon lights to the centre by wheelbarrow. "All in a day's work, really!" commented McGreal.
The centre's new roof takes the form of a pyramid with a single central support provided by a wooden mast that once graced a sailing schooner. Black Light fixed a series of square bars to the mast onto which they mounted six each of Selecon Acclaim fresnels and profiles. "This provided perfect lighting for the hall which is about 10m square," said McGreal.
Geoff Heslop, who runs the community centre, is delighted with the overall result. "The Lottery Grant allowed us not only to re-furbish the building and provide quality lighting, but also enabled us to purchase an adjacent cottage to extend our facilities," he said.
The unique slate-built hall has a chequered history, being variously a drill hall, the base for a fish gutting operation before finally becoming the artistic centre for the island and surrounding area.
(Lee Baldock)
