Community / Opening event to celebrate redevelopment of Papa Stour kirk
MORE than ten years of planning and hard work will come to fruition on the island of Papa Stour next month when its redeveloped kirk opens as a community centre.
Papa Stour History and Community Group’s Peter Bardell said it was “great news” to reach the milestone.
An opening event will take place on Saturday 12 July, with “celebration, music and food” on offer.
The sizeable redevelopment has been led by the local history and community group, which bought the kirk from the Church of Scotland in 2016.
The listed building is part of the island’s fabric, having been built more than 200 years old.
It is the only community building in Papa Stour, and while the kirk will remain open for worship, weddings and funerals, it now will also be used as a centre for community use.
It could, for example, become a place to host workshops, meetings, musical events and even film screenings.
It will also be used as a visitor centre, while there will be accessible toilets and a small cafe area and space for crafts.
Bardell it has gone from a “dilapidated kirk to a renovated building”.
“It’s still a kirk,” he told Shetland News. “It always will be the Papa Stour kirk, but it’s also going to be a community facility as well for islanders for visitors.”
Bardell said the fact that the group has reached the point of an opening event comes with a “sigh of relief” given the project has been ongoing since 2013.
Over the last 12 years the group has secured plenty of public funding to support the redevelopment, including £250,000 from the Scottish Government’s islands programme.
An architect came on board in 2019 “and then Covid hit, and that knocked everything back”, Bardell said. “It’s been a long slog.”
He paid thanks to Stirling-based contractor LTM Group, a company which previously carried out work on Lerwick Town Hall and was tasked with redeveloping the Papa Stour kirk.
“The logistics of actually getting workers up with a van, with materials and tools, trying to get them booked on NorthLink and get a cabin and van space, and then coordinating that to get in and out of Papa…it’s tricky, and it’s taken a lot of effort from them,” he said.
Bardell added that the group had been unable to get a price for the work in Shetland.
Another idea for the kirk is providing computer access for a future genealogy project, as many visitors come to Papa Stour to see where their ancestors came from.
Meanwhile anyone who plays an instrument is also invited to take it to the opening day – with anyone able to attend.
After an official ceremony at 11am with invited guests there will also be an afternoon event held at the school with music and food.
However, booking the ferry – which runs from West Burrafirth and takes around 40 minutes – is essential to ensure a place.
The event is taking place while the SIC’s spare vessel Fivla stands in for the usual ferry Snolda while she is in dry dock, which will offer more capacity.
The island’s kirk was built in 1806, when there were more than 300 people living in Papa Stour.
The Church of Scotland administered the kirk and a permanent minister lived on the island for many years.
But in July 2015 the church no longer had any members in Papa Stour and a decision was taken to deconsecrate the kirk, which was in poor condition.
There is a small number of permanent residents living on the island, but that figure increases when taking into account the number of people going in and out.
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