Transition Kintyre was born last Sunday at the Christmas Market in the Malt Barn, Campbeltown. We had two stalls at the event, showing films of inspiring projects and selling local produce in the form of cheese, oatcakes, chutneys, jams and herbal tea.
We’d decided to go public after our latest monthly meeting in the town’s Burnside Bar. Different names for the group had been aired before we settled on “Transition”, figuring that it does what we are seeking to do anyway, so why reinvent the wheel?
A feature of the stalls was the “Muasdale marrow,” donated by one of the group who’d grown it in his garden during our exceptionally good summer.
Transitioning fits seamlessly into bioregioning, for it is a bottom-up, self-organising movement based upon the concept of localisation. Folk look around them to see what their local resources are, what is missing (e.g. skills, young people) and come up with locally based solutions.
The possibility of Transition Kintyre was first mooted in 2009 when a discussion event on Transition was held in Tarbert under the banner of the Big Green Tarbert initiative. At the time it was felt that there was not sufficient capacity to start yet another group. 5 years later and Transition Kintyre’s time has come.
Ideas for 2015 include film screenings across Kintyre, progress towards setting up community woodlands and the production of more local veg and fruit. For progress and to get involved see our website http://www.transitionkintyre.org. Come up with new ideas, join the group and help get them implemented. Why let them rattle around in your head: join us and start “doing stuff”!
bioregioning 