A social development fund that dispensed more than pound(s)1 million in vital loans throughout the crofting counties for nearly 60 years has been wound up.
The Glasgow-based Highland Fund has become a victim of 21st- century affluence, due to the number of banks and public bodies ploughing vast amounts of money into business and community ventures.
The fund was started by mens Chopard watches Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, MP for Inverness, in 1953.
Its aim was to reverse the decay of the Highlands. In the 1950s little or no money was available to crofters, fishermen or small businesses and it was initially overwhelmed with requests for assistance.
The fund, which was made up entirely of iwc aquatimer private donations, loaned money on conditions that were far more favourable than could be found elsewhere.
Applicants did not have to file a business plan of any kind and simply provided two character references from people of standing in the community.
Loans did not exceed pound(s)500 in the early days, although in more recent years they reached pound(s)8000.
Highland Fund chairman, Murdo Morrison said: "The fund made an enormous difference to the social and economic wellbeing of rural communities."
Highland MSP Jamie Stone, whose family got a loan to set up a cheese- hermes wallets for women making business in Tain in 1961, said: "I remember my parents being extraordinarily grateful for the help they got from the fund. Fifty years later, the business is still going with a workforce of 10 and that's in no small measure due to that loan."
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