Stonehaven Real Ale Festival Gives £8000 to Local Charities

Two seafaring charities are on the crest of a wave after an £8000 boost from the Stonehaven Real Ale Festival.

Stonehaven Sea Cadets and the Maritime Rescue Institute have each been handed a cheque for £4000, raised by the town’s hugely popular and successful celebration of the best in Scottish beers.

And for the cadets of TS Carron, the amount is enough to buy a new training boat and to boost the fund for their new headquarters.

Drew Lawson, sailing training principal for Stonehaven Sea Cadets, said: "This is an incredible amount of money and we can’t thank enough everyone who came along to the beer festival and gave us such a boost.

"A new rowing boat will be key to helping us offer young people in the town more training, more opportunities and more experiences. I’d just like to say cheers to the festival for this."

Drew said the new boat, which should be ready by April, will be called Seafarer after the specially-brewed ale which featured at the real ale festival, held over three days last November in Stonehaven Town Hall. The new vessel will also carry the festival’s distinctive logo.

Ann Laing, general manager of MRI, said she was delighted by the amount of money raised. "We depend on donations like this to continue our work of saving lives and keeping people safe at sea," she said.

"The money raised by the festival will be used to fund the pagers for our alert system, so our crews can respond quickly and we can meet our target of launching the lifeboat within 10 minutes of a call-out to an emergency.

"I know that everyone who attended the festival will be delighted to see their money going to save lives."

Festival organiser Robert Lindsay said everyone involved in the event was thrilled at the amount of money raised for good causes. He said: "Both of these charities contribute so much to the life of Stonehaven and we are delighted that we have been able to support them to this extent.

"This is due, of course, to the more than 2000 people who turned out to support the real ale festival and to the army of volunteers who made it happen.

"This was our third and most successful festival and it is now very much part of the calendar in Stonehaven, attracting visitors from across north-east, Scotland and even further afield.

"But it couldn’t take place without the support of the community of Stonehaven and we are happy to pay back that support to such good causes as the sea cadets and MRI."

Robert said that planning was already under way for the fourth festival. "We’re looking forward to seeing everyone back again this year, so please put it in your diary for three days, starting from 1st November," he said.

More information:

Stonehaven Real Ale Festival.

Looking to source real ale in Scotland? Use Scotland Food & Drink's Buyers' Guide.

More food and tourism news from Scotland.

More fine food and artisan news from Scotland.