Our first story writing competition was launched this autumn. Using the new Geopark Fantasy Map as inspiration, writers of all ages were invited to delve into their imaginations and craft up to 500 words into a story of their own. The shortlisted writers were invited to a prize giving ceremony at the Rock Stop Visitor Centre last week where the overall winners in each category were announced.
Congratulations to all the winners and those who were highly commended in each category. All stories will be posted on our website soon, for everyone to enjoy.
| Category | Overall winner | Highly commended |
| Age 3 to P1 | Lewis Lockett | Harriet Woodrow, Leon Farmer |
| P2-P4 | Alfie Beveridge | Jules Lewis, Dylan Harvey |
| P5-P7 | Willow Rogers | Amber Smith, Magnus Macrae |
| S1-S3 | Bella Macaskill | Penny Inglis, Harper Hutchison |
| Adult | Rachel Paterson | Joe Durham |
After the judging, we were made aware that a couple of the stories were written by individuals with identified dyslexia; Bella & Penny were delighted to find out that their stories were selected. Many will have heard of dyslexia, and be aware that as a learning difference, it can affect spelling and writing. It also includes challenges with reading and organisational skills, among other areas. This is often balanced out with strengths, such as in design, problem solving, creative and interactive skills. It is not linked to intelligence and academic ability and there are many high achievers who are recognised to have dyslexic aspects, such as: Richard Branson, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Zephaniah, Sally Gardner, Keira Knightley, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. And today there are so many tools available to help everyone to get their stories across, we hope that Bella and Penny’s experience, encourages and inspires others to do the same. For more information on dyslexia, please visit Dyslexia Scotland at dyslexiascotland.org.uk.
You can read Bella’s winning story “The Hatch” at the end of this article.
Thank you to our judges, and to the businesses who donated prizes: Ullapool Book Shop, The Ceilidh Place Bookshop, Lochinver Bookshop and Oldshoremore Retreats. We were very excited to launch this new event and delighted with the standard of entries and the uptake across the majority of categories. The only age group we didn’t receive any entries for this year was the S4-6 age group, so if you are in this age group, watch out for the competition next year and get writing!
Photo: Some of the winning and highly commended writers of the first North West Highlands MyGeoparkStory competition at the prize giving ceremony, in the Rock Stop
The Hatch
By Bella Macaskill
Kate was sixteen and living in an average townhouse with her parents, next to river Inver, in normal Lochinver.
Everyone who had ever met Kate had told her that she looked identical to her dad, deep big brown eyes and jet black wavy hair, faded freckles on the tip of her nose. Kate was an organised person but her best friend Meg wasn’t so much, she was the kind of person to always be late and half ready.
It was a Saturday morning and Kate was headed for a morning walk down to the book shop to see what new novels they had in, she often loved a good mystery.
Kate walked to Meg’s house on her way to the book shop.
Kate opened the gate, opening it slightly so that Meg’s dog couldn’t get out, since he liked to escape.
They usually go to the book shop first and then find a nice place to sit and read. They were about ten minutes in and Meg always dilly dallied, on and off the trails. Meg stopped and kept tapping her foot on something, Kate asked irritated “What are you doing?”
“I found something”, to which Kate replied
“What do you mean, you found something?”
“It’s metal”. Meg said, looking down at her banging. Kate walked over and started pulling the leaves off the top, Meg helped. “It’s some sort of hatch………let’s open it.” Meg said, intrigued.
“what…no its closed for a reason”. Meg opened it, it creaked, a cold mist covered them.
Meg laughed, “Whoa”
They looked down and saw a deep hole with ladders on the side, not being able to see the bottom, they went down. As they went down it got colder and more fog began to come up through the tunnel. They stopped “it’s getting colder, I think we should go back up.” Kate said shivering,
“No, let’s carry on, it’s probably just some old…”
“Some old what?” Kate said.
“Look” “I can’t see anything, Meg,” Kate replied. Kate looked down trying hard not to get anything in her eyes, Meg wasn’t there,
“MEG!” Kate shouted……no reply. Kate’s foot slipped on the ladder and she fell down. Kate woke up numb and covered in snow. She couldn’t feel anything, a hand grabbed her, Meg. She got up and stood half in snow. Kate looked up seeing nothing but white like a never ending blank.
“Where are we?” Kate questioned in her head unable to speak out loud. Behind them waiting were two people in head to toe gear, their faces covered. They grabbed them and they didn’t fight due to the cold.
Kate woke up, on a stretcher, a man spoke softly, “you’re gonna be okay.”
“W-what, where am I, who are you?!” Kate was now very disoriented. Only seeing a man wearing a white coat slowly pointing to a nearby window,” you’re in the ice age “we’re in the ice age.” He corrected himself.
MyGeoparkStory was organised as part of our Access, Connect, and Take-Part in the North West Highlands Geopark programme of activities. Find out more about the programme here. Thank you to our funders National Lottery Heritage Fund and SSE Renewables.
