Our summer season is in full swing, welcoming all ages and skill levels to the water — from first-timers to those working towards their Paddlesports Staged Badges under the guidance of our experienced instructors and safety boat teams. 

From the beginning of May, Scouts have been diving into their Paddle sports Staged Badge training, combining on-water practice with shore-based skill-building to lay a solid foundation for future sessions. (Paddle Sports Staged Activity Badge | Scouts) 

Soon after, we kicked off our other activities with our Wayfarer dinghy fleet, alongside the larger Drascombe dinghies, each providing young people with the opportunity to learn from a leader and instructor at the helm. Meanwhile, more kayakers took to the water with four instructors, practicing essential skills like turning, rafting up, and more. 

Looking ahead, we’re excited to welcome more first-timers and to help returning participants refine their sailing, kayaking, and paddling techniques. 

At Longcraig, we love seeing young people and adults alike challenge themselves, learn new skills, and achieve what they once thought impossible. Want to get involved? Reach out to us at getinvolved@longcraig.info, and be sure to check out our Facebook page to stay updated on all our activities! 

Summer opportunities 

As is often the case at this stage of the year, we have lots of requests for activity bookings from across the Region, and we aim to do our best to accommodate these. 

But the main summer months – July and August – are often quite quiet times, so a much less crowded option of you are able to support booking up some activities during that period. You don’t need a team of leaders to support an activity booking at Longcraig – the Centre takes care of everything on the water. All you need is one or two responsible adults (don’t have to be leaders, but the do need to know the Scouts!) who can accompany the Young People for their adventure. 

We’re open in the evenings right through to nearly the end of August (when it starts to get dark earlier) and at weekends too. 

Get in touch if you would like to plan something – we can help arrange something a bit different if that might be attractive to your team. 

Scouts become Volunteers and support Longcraig Scout Centre 

One fine Friday evening at the end of April, 21 Scouts from 107th Pentland made their way down to the shore at Longcraig Pier to offer some volunteering time. 

This was planned into their programme to satisfy some of the needs for the World Badge which the Scouts have been working towards this term. 

They were welcomed at Longcraig Scout Centre, and after a quick intro, welcome, and a safety briefing, the Scouts were divided into groups and set about a number of key tasks. 

Group 1 was engaged just outside the Centre, and covered two activities – the first involved mastering a cordless electric self-drive grass cutter, which for some was a new experience. The large patch of grass which Longcraig looks after, and which provides a great expansion place and land activity area, was subjected to it’s first haircut of the year. Alongside this, the surrounds of the boat park security fence were cleared of weeds and last year’s dead vegetation, this allows a number of new trees and bushes to flourish and helps minimise any windblown litter from gathering. 

Group 2 got stuck in with one of the final sections of our beach protection work. A large timber had been positioned along the edge of the beach outside our main entrance, the inside filled with soil then covered with fresh turf to enable the roots to knit the ground together and help withstand the bigger storms which sometime pummel the shoreline. The task for the Scouts was to fit wire netting, staple it onto the outside edge of the timber, then peg its inner edge well into the ground – this means that the grass can grow up through the netting and make the protection even stronger. It also means that even if some waves do roll onto the shoreline (we can’t really stop them!) the netting and the grass roots minimise any damage such as scouring out the soil and sand. Afterwards, they delighted in a thorough watering for the newly planted grass to help it establish quickly. 

Group 3 focused on the front of the building facing onto the pier. The drainage channel which runs the length of the building was cleared of winter debris – seaweed, sand, assorted flotsam – to enable any seawater that washes in to be able to safely return to the sea hopefully without ingressing the building. Typically we have to do this two or three times a year; this one was the important Spring Clean! At the same time, others got stuck in removing piles of seaweed from the pier, and some general weeding and cleaning to make the approach more welcoming. 

Group 4 covered some of the ‘domestics’ – the training rooms upstairs were hoovered to freshen them up (another new activity for some!), all the waste bins throughout the building were emptied and refitted with clean bin liners, and the showers and changing areas were swept out in preparation for the centre opening a few days ahead. 

Group 5 were engaged in searching the local and surrounding area for litter – a regular issue caused by wind blow litter as well as sea-borne litter, in addition to regular passers-by who forget to take their litter home. But more of the focus was on finding and identifying marine litter – the often unseen debris that can cause untold damage to sea creatures, sea birds, even to the plant life under the sea which can be affected too. This ranged from abandoned nylon ropes – perhaps from fishing boats – to sheets of unidentified plastic, to plastic ‘nurdles’ which are now a common problem around many of our shores. Whilst still ‘litter’, these particular items became much better understood on how they affect sea life and are so often unseen as they are covered at high tide, often covered over with sand and mud as the sea circulates stuff around, and of course it all survives for decades because it does not deteriorate. 

At the end of the evening, the Scouts enjoyed some refreshing drinks and devoured several packs of chocolate biscuits, whilst watching the sun setting behind the Forth Bridges. Many of the Scouts gained some new skills, certainly most found new appreciations of the issues of life close to the sea, and also some of the wide range of tasks that are associated with activity centres. And not a boat was touched, inspected or repaired – today was simply about taking care of the infrastructure around the Centre as it was a single evening activity. 

Whist the Scouts gained some parts of their World Badge work, there are other volunteering opportunities for Scouts and Explorers to consider if they are able to volunteer over a slightly longer period. There is a now a Badge for Activity Centre support – spread over a few weeks; and there are numerous elements of badges and awards which involve volunteering for a particular period of time. Both Longcraig, and our sister Activity centre at Bonaly, can benefit from, and support, young people in any of these opportunities. 

Longcraig is extremely grateful to the Scouts, led by leaders Peter Malone and Gillian de Candole for offering their services to help develop the Centre, and we look forward to being able to welcome them again in the near future, this time with an opportunity to get in a boat out on the water too! 

Please simply get in touch if this might be of interest to you as a section, a group, or just some individuals looking for projects. We can help you, and at the same time you are able to help us!