by JOAN MACKENZIE
ULLAPOOL Harbour now has its 2012 calendars on sale. All the photos are from the Tall Ships Festival. I got a sneak preview of the calendar on Monday - the pictures are all quite stunning. There is a great front cover photo looking up the loch but my favourite is one of the tall ships lit up at night. It was taken by Ullapool High School teacher Mike Stewart. You can get your calendars (£6.50) either from the harbour office or from other places in the village.
I HEAR that Made in Ullapool, the social enterprise company that makes wonderful candles, is shortly going to move into their new premises - the former Calmac office that started life as one of Ullapool's first buildings (a fish store) back in 1788.
HAVE you got a spare 600,000 euros? If so you might like to buy a house and grounds in Sicily with an Isle Martin connection - Baglio Woodhouse, the birthplace of Marsala wine, built in 1796.
In 1775 John Woodhouse of Liverpool, who had played a big part in setting up the fishing industry in the Isle of Man, applied to the Commissioners for Annexed Estates for land at Isle Martin for a similar herring curing venture. Woodhouse features in the 1798 Militia List for Lochbroom.
But what is the Sicilian connection? John Woodhouse first visited Marsala in Sicily in 1773. After tasting the local wines he fortified them by adding alcohol so that they didn't spoil during the sea voyage to England.
Thus Marsala was born. It was received enthusiastically and John Woodhouse's three sons set up a wine importing company.
Marsala was Lord Nelson's favourite tipple and he was one of their customers; he put it on board his ships in place of the standard rum. The Sicily house advert starts with an extract of a letter from Admiral Nelson to his commander-in-chief, Lord Keith, 20th March 1800. It says, "I have agreed with Mr Woodhouse, at Marsala, for 500 pipes of wine the wine is so good that any gentleman's table might receive it, and it will be of real use to our seamen." A pipe held 105 gallons.
In 1805 Nelson ordered a consignment of Marsala to be put on to the Victory and it was shortly after this that he was killed at Trafalgar. The bill of £168 was never paid. The Times obituary of John's son Samuel Woodhouse stated that whenever he visited St Paul's Cathedral and went past Nelson's grave he would stamp on it and shout "pay up!"
