Posts for December, 2025

For our Christmas special screening, as requested by our community, we bring you CINEMA PARADISO! Come and enjoy it on the big screen for our final event of the year.

Giuseppe Tornatore’s classic gem of nostalgic cinephilia from 1988. A celebration of youth, friendship and the everlasting magic of the movies, Cinema Paradiso won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and is considered a classic of world cinema.

The story of Salvatore, a successful film director, returning home for the funeral of Alfredo, his old friend who was the projectionist at the local cinema throughout his childhood.Soon memories of his first love affair with the beautiful Elena and all the highs and lows that shaped his life come flooding back, as Salvatore reconnects with the community he left 30 years earlier.

As usual, doors will be 6.30pm, with film on at 6.40pm.

Fiver tickets for all.
Run by the community, for the community.

We are very excited to bring back Indie Fridays, where we can celebrate independent businesses and crafters on the run up to Christmas. The Dell Grocer will be open as usual on a Friday until the slightly later time of 6pm, with an array of gorgeous gifts and decorations. Why not pick yourself up a custom made hamper, grab a glass of mulled cider and some of our tasty samples and just soak up the festive feels. We also have gift vouchers available to purchase, another great idea for a Christmas present!
If you aren’t able to make it along to our Grocer then everything is available to buy online and you can add a little note to your order if you wish for it to be packed up as a hamper. We are also offering free UK delivery for orders over £50.

Our Indie Fridays will be starting up on Friday 28th November and running through till 19th December. The Grocer will be open as normal every day (except Sundays) from 9 – 5pm with fresh sourdough from KJs Bakery available on Fridays.

Nestle in with us to watch this festive favourite for an afternoon filled with laughter, warmth, and the spirit of the season.
Doors Open 230pm, screening begins 3pm sharp.
Fresh home made popcorn, home baking and hot drinks available to purchase.
In the spirit of a reformed Scrooge, bring along an item to donate to Moray Food Plus – download the Bank the Food App to see which items are needed or email markjohnston2019@outlook.com.
Bring along your favourite puppet or cuddly toy to keep you company.

Join us at The Iona Gallery in Kingussie for a fantastic weekend filled with creativity and delicious cuisine. This weekend is all about celebrating culture, community and supporting a great cause.

We will be accepting donations on the door for Hope & Play, a UK-based charity supporting Palestinian children. All donations beyond covering event costs will be given to them, and 100% of each donation goes towards their projects on food and water, art and play, and education.

**Registration is needed for some parts of the event, marked below, due to venue capacity. Other parts of the event are drop-in with no registration required.**



Friday 28 November

Film night with mint tea!

7pm for a prompt 7.30pm start – please register

We are delighted to share two award-winning films: ‘Foragers’ by Jumana Manna (60 mins), plus another short Palestinian film.

‘Foragers’ depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. ‘Foragers’ captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law.

Suggested donation: £10 – cash or card on the night.



Saturday 29 November

A day of family activities, crafts and art, Palestinian food, and talks. We invite you to join some or all of the day!

We will have a quiet reading area with books and resources, and will also be selling Palestinian products provided by Highland Wholefoods (great as Christmas presents!) Payments by card or cash.

10.30am-12.30pm – drop in (no registration needed)

Crafts and activities, including:

Lego printing – with Colleen Coe, Timber + Stitch Studio
Kite-making
Storytelling – Palestinian folktales with Sarah Hobbs, Strathspey Storywalks
Colouring – Palestinian tatreez (embroidery) and Islamic patterns, contributed by artist Lizzie Hobbs

12.30pm-2pm – drop in (no registration needed)

A delicious home-made Palestinian lunch (and you can buy some of the ingredients afterwards!)

2pm-4pm – please register

Short talks about Palestine with local folk, followed by discussion. We are thoroughly delighted to welcome the following speakers:

Avigail Abarbanel was born and raised in Israel and served in the Israeli army. In 1991, at age twenty-seven she moved to Australia, and ten years later renounced her Israeli citizenship in protest. She’s beens speaking and writing about Palestinian human rights and against Israel’s Zionist settler-colonialism ever since. In 2010 Avigail moved to the Scottish Highlands, where she lives and works. She is a BACP Senior Accedited psychotherapist in private practice, a clinical supervisor, consultant and trainer. Avigail is a published author and the editor of Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists. (For more information please visit fullyhuman.co.uk and https://avigail.substack.com/).

Brendan Stephens is an international observer who represents ‘Friends of Madema and Burin’, having visited with other international volunteers to support farmers and harvest olives. Having spent time with Palestinians in both villages, he will share observations from his recent visit to the Occupied West Bank of settler and IDF activity and the impact of this upon increasingly isolated rural and farming communities.

Suggested donation: £5-10 – cash or card on the day.




This event is organised by The Olive And The Pine, a group of Badenoch and Strathspey residents who stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. The group is open to anyone who wishes to learn more about Palestinian heritage and culture, and who supports peace, justice and equal human rights in the region. The group includes a wide range of people of different backgrounds and beliefs.

We aim to raise awareness through learning circles, film screenings, arts and crafts, sharing Palestinian food, and fundraising.

The group chose its name because olive trees have long played a pivotal role in the cultural and economic life of Palestine, just as the pine tree is emblematic of Badenoch and Strathspey. As part of the systematic erasure of Palestinian life by the Israeli occupation, olive trees have been uprooted and replaced with non-native pines. The tree that symbolises natural abundance in our own region actually represents erasure and colonisation to Palestinians.

Something different for our November screening – we are bringing the theatre to the cinema, thanks to National Theatre Live “The Fifth Step”.

Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk) is joined by Emmy and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, The Responder) in the critically acclaimed and subversively funny new play by David Ireland.

After years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James becomes a sponsor to newcomer Luka. The pair bond over black coffee, trade stories and build a fragile friendship out of their shared experiences. But as Luka approaches step five – the moment of confession – dangerous truths emerge, threatening the trust on which both of their recoveries depend.

Finn den Hertog directs the provocative and entertaining production filmed live from Soho Place on London’s West End.

As usual, doors will be 6.30pm, with film on at 6.40pm.

Run by the community, for the community.

The New Groove Collective big band are thrilled to return to Strathspey this autumn. Expect a rich variety of instrumental pieces that showcase the band’s impressive musicianship, alongside songs that transport you straight back to the forties, brought to life by the captivating voice of Catriona Sutherland.

Join Cairngorms Connect and Fèis Spè for an evening of music and film, celebrating the involvement of young people in local music and landscapes.

The free event includes perfomances from young musicans and a screening of a new film Tha Sinn an Seo (We are Here).

Made throughout 2025 and featuring young people at work and play in landscapes of the Cairngorms, Tha Sinn an Seo (We are Here) is a poetic statement of presence, action and joy as young people participate in the habitat restoration work of Cairngorms Connect. Through a new Gaelic song score, created with Fèis Spè Gaelic singers, and playful and imaginative physical embodiment, the young people express notions of change and hope, investing and connecting themselves with other species and landscapes.


Light refreshments served on arrival and during the interval.

All ages welcome. Under 16s to be accompanied by an adult.

A walking workshop to collect the ‘living’ placenames of the high Cairngorms, as used by you – hill-goers, local residents, mountain enthusiasts – but which aren’t on any maps or recorded in any way. This workshop will be delivered by Sarah Hobbs. Please bring footwear and clothing suitable for a 1-2km walk.


This project will map, record and eventually share placenames used by many different folk who live or work in the hills, and the corresponding stories behind them. Aiming to highlight ongoing and varied human connections with mountain habitats in the Cairngorms, the project will create a snapshot of a point in time as the climate and land use changes.


Who it’s for: Anybody who lives, works or plays in the Cairngorm Mountains (the high hill ground), and who may have their ‘own’ names for places – from individual memories, to names made up by families or social groups.


What to expect: 2 hours max – a mix of outdoor walking (2km max, on accessible paths) and indoor mapping.


This workshop has been made possible with funding from the Cairngorms Trust and the Scottish Government in partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Authority and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

A one-and-a-half-hour workshop where we will draw using our senses and work with tree-based inks.

Using ink made from trees and employing tree branches and leaves as found tools, this session is a drawing meditation, exploring ways to perceive trees beyond sight.

We will begin with observing the sounds of being amongst trees, the feel of bark under our hands, and the scent of early autumn leaves. Drawing will not be about creating a finished outcome but about observing and responding to qualities discovered through our senses.

“The body is not negligible,” Shepherd wrote, “but paramount. The hands have an infinity of pleasure in them. The feel of things, textures, surfaces, rough things like cones and bark, smooth things like stalks and feathers and pebbles rounded by water, the teasing of gossamers… the scratchiness of lichen, the warmth of the sun, the sting of hail, the blunt blow of tumbling water, the flow of wind—nothing that I can touch or that touches me but has its own identity for the hand as much as for the eye.”

Participants will leave with a deeper awareness of trees and their own sensory engagement in drawing, guided by the textures, smells, and sounds of the natural world.

This workshop has been made possible with funding from the Cairngorms Trust and the Scottish Government in partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Authority and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

A walking workshop to collect the ‘living’ placenames of the high Cairngorms, as used by you – hill-goers, local residents, mountain enthusiasts – but which aren’t on any maps or recorded in any way. This workshop will be delivered by Sarah Hobbs. Please bring footwear and clothing suitable for a 1-2km walk.

This project will map, record and eventually share placenames used by many different folk who live or work in the hills, and the corresponding stories behind them. Aiming to highlight ongoing and varied human connections with mountain habitats in the Cairngorms, the project will create a snapshot of a point in time as the climate and land use changes.

Who it’s for: Anybody who lives, works or plays in the Cairngorm Mountains (the high hill ground), and who may have their ‘own’ names for places – from individual memories, to names made up by families or social groups.

This workshop has been made possible with funding from the Cairngorms Trust and support from the Cairngorms 2030 programme, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund – thanks to National Lottery players.