February saw much more building than demolishing taking place!
The refurbishment of Longcraig has involved the building of a small extension to the existing toilet block, along with the realignment of our changing spaces, and the creation of a newly accessible room for anyone who requires it. We’ve now got new internal walls, doorways cut through some of the old walls, initial wiring and plumbing in place, and new ceilings fitted to most of the area under refurbishment.
And, the builders are still promising they should be completed by early April, so we won’t have any impact on the early part of our upcoming 2023 season.
The photos (below) show some of the extension, along with new steel beams forming new doorways, and the structure of the accessible room well underway.
We’ll continue to keep you posted over the coming weeks, and then we will be able to welcome visitors and users to see the new facilities for themselves!
What’s the benefits??
To the users, past present and future, what does this refurbishment work mean? Well – it’s not a fleet of new boats. It’s not any specific new activities (although we are always on the lookout for these!). And it’s not a specific increase in the number of users who can visit and take part in our wide range of current activities.
But – it does mean significantly improved toilets and showers in a warmer space; it means a better choice of changing spaces, with new lighting and fittings, and flexibility. And it brings our internal facilities well into the 21st century by replacing much of the old and outdated set-up we had until last year.
But perhaps one of the bigger benefits is that we will be able to make use of the Centre for longer each year – so perhaps starting earlier in the spring, and certainly being able to extend out into the autumn which we have not been able to do before.
We hope you will like it!
Planning for success with the building project, we have set up our database for 2023 taking account of bad tide days, and other events that prevent us from offering our usual range of activities.
The Online Bookings calendar is now open!
The online calendar shows at a glance what days are available for bookings to be made.
As always, if your Group does have a specific requirement, we encourage you to get in touch as soon as possible. If we can help you to fulfil your plans, we will, But don’t leave it until it’s too late!
Get in touch at bookings@longcraig.info
Activity sessions are booked per head for a 2 hour session. When booking you can indicate the numbers for each of our main activities. We will try to meet your expectations but reserve the right to mix and match offered activities on the day to available staff.
Get in touch at bookings@longcraig.info
Self staffed sessions: By this method, a group or a section can book an activity session at the centre for a flat fee. We provide the safety cover, but you provide the water that permitted leaders to cover your activity. You can find details of the costs for this on our Bookings page. We recommend up to 30 participants but no more than 40 on the water at any one time. The booking will be exclusive for your group, so you have complete control over what everyone is doing.
Get in touch at bookings@longcraig.info
Just looking for a space to get out in the fresh air, with a fabulous backdrop of the three Bridge of the Forth in the background? You can make use of Longcraig as the base for your group’s activity. You get the use of the centre grounds/kitchen/BBQ and toilets plus easy access to the foreshore, Dalmeny Estate and South Queensferry. Ideal for a base for shore walks, orienteering, wide games, group AGM’s / BBQ’s, leader away days, PL’s training, planning get=togethers – the list can go on and on! Activity Base session costs £5 per person with a minimum charge of £50. Activity Base sessions are available, subject to availability, throughout the spring, summer and autumn.
Get in touch at bookings@longcraig.info
An important part of Longcraig’s purpose is to provide training and support for the delivery of watersports to Scouting across the Region. As part of this role we are able to provide training for those who wish to gain Activity Permits in watersports and provide opportunities for leaders to gain valuable experience in working with and leading adventurous activities on the water.
We are an RYA approved training centre and are able to deliver courses based on the training programs of the national governing body for sail sports. British Canoeing is the national governing body for paddle sports, our instructors can deliver courses based on their syllabus and leading to BC qualifications.
We can also offer courses based on a wide range of both Scout and Guide water activity badges, across the sections.
For more details of training opportunities that are possible, please get in touch and discuss your needs, whether for adults or for young people. We can then advise on the best solution to help you meet those requirements.
Please contact us at bookings@longcraig.info
Remember you can help us raise funds for Longcraig to support training and equipment upgrades every time you go shopping (online). It costs you nothing, but every time you shop from one of the 7000+ retailers we will get a donation from the retailer.
We’re not asking you to dip into your pockets – we’re pretty certain lots of other groups and organisations do a great job at that!
But we’ve raised over £600 now by this method – and much more is possible!
We’ve teamed up with Easyfundraising, which works with over 7000 retailers and service providers who are willing to make donations to charities (such as ourselves) every time a customer makes an online order. It doesn’t cost anything extra for the customer – indeed there are sometimes special offers and additional discounts available – but every order with a signed up retailer can help.
To get started, you need to sign up to Easyfundraising on behalf of Longcraig Scout Centre at the link below.
Please remember to use easyfundraising every time you shop online! Over 7,000 brands will donate, so you can raise FREE donations for us no matter what you’re buying. These donations really help us out, so please sign up if you haven’t yet. It’s easy and FREE! You can get started at: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/lsc/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_medium=email&utm_content=rm-en-n2
Watch the short video there which explains how it all works!
Dates for your Diary
Longcraig will engage with the nationwide plans to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III on the first weekend in May.
Watch out for some exciting opportunities (admittedly among what may be many available!) over that weekend from Saturday through to the extra national holiday on Monday 8th May.
Get in touch at bookings@longcraig.info
Longcraig is run entirely by a team of volunteers, both for our activities on the water and for things onshore and around and throughout the Centre. To help us ensure we can meet the growing demands of young people and our growing scouting movement, we need to keep increasing our band of volunteers to enable us to keep pace.
We have opportunities for volunteers to help out on the water – either qualified or unqualified (in which case we will help you reach a qualification so you can gain some skills and take a more responsible volunteering role).
We have opportunities for land-based volunteers who help operate the Centre. Sometimes these require admin skills, but sometimes we need folks who can run a range of land-based activities which supplement our programme.
And sometimes it’s just people, who work behind the scenes, perhaps covering promotion activities, recruitment, fundraising, or assisting with the bookkeeping, bookings, or even keeping the equipment in good order. Or it could be helping run the kitchen providing catering or just simply cups of tea to the other volunteers!
But, best of all – volunteering to help at Longcraig doesn’t involve a regular weekly commitment as you would expect to need to run a section of scouts (squirrels, beavers, cubs, scouts, etc) – we can accommodate volunteering at a time and pace that suits you!
Over the winter months, we are holding a number of opportunities for potential volunteers to drop in and see what we do. (No commitment at this stage until you like what you see!)
All we ask is that you pre-register with us so we know how many are likely to come along (and we can arrange the necessary facilities/resources)
The dates set up for this are as follows:
– Saturday 25 March at 12.00 – venue TBA
– Wednesday 19 April at 6.30 – venue Longcraig
These meetings will be held at the time shown above, starting off with soup and sandwiches, followed by some brief presentations and an opportunity to discuss what we do and how we do it. And, more importantly, how you might fit into that too! And we will have people on hand to answer any questions that you may have too!
Please simply contact us at getinvolved@longcraig.info with your preferred meeting date and your contact details.
We’ll take care of the rest!
South East Scotland Scouts
71 Bonaly Road
Edinburgh
EH13 0PB
© SES Scouts 2022 | Scottish Charity SC010563
