This year toasts the tenth anniversary of the Corbett Centre. The Centre which is used by adults with learning difficulties was opened by M.J MacKay, chairperson of the Social Work Department back in November 1989, and since then the Centre has seen some remarkable developments.

Offering a wide range of educational and recreational activities, with workshops in subjects as diverse as wood carving, metal work, embroidery, silk painting to woman’s groups, safety groups and a personal care group, the Centre is a hotbed of enterprise and energy.

One of the Centre’s roses in their crown has to be the garden, created from a section of disused land at the rear end of the building.

The garden is part of an on-going wild life project, it has taken over four years to get it to the stage it’s at now, and it’s seen a lot of blood, sweat, toil and tears from staff, attenders and project leaders. Highland Printmaker’s ( Art.tm.) have been involved in the setting up of the garden, advising and fostering the project, from the initial design ideas to creating the amazing totem poles that have been carved out of logs and painted by attenders and the scrap metal sculptures, which have been welded together with bits of scrap and then painted. The techniques have been taught to the attenders who are now sculpturing their own pieces in both wood and metal.

The staff and attenders would like the community as a whole to enjoy using the garden as much as the people at the Centre do and as Linda Moncur, tutor and scribe for the Attenders Committee states, "It is now 10 years since the establishment of the Corbett Centre and we would like the people of the community to get to know us. You know we’re a friendly lot given half the chance. What we are trying to do here is to improve not only our own surroundings but also improve the surroundings and environment for people that live in this area. It has to be said though, the community have, by and large, been really terrific, we get help from the kids during their school holidays and days off, they help with the digging and moving the gravel, and it really is appreciated. We get folks stopping for a blether, the garden is there for all to enjoy, we’ve incorporated a cycle path so the local kids can play there with their bikes."

The attenders and the staff’s idea was to bring a bit of originality to the garden, throwing away any idea of a conventional landscaped area, keeping it as wild and natural as possible with indigenous birds, wildflowers and plants. Everything in the garden will be in tune with nature, there will be nothing poisonous. The garden is used and worked in most days and has been designed to attract people of differing abilities and senses, with parts of the garden for smell, another for touch.

Billy Coghill, Day Centre Officer, takes real pride in the garden and loves people coming in and using it and he says "The next theme that we are going to go for is Some In Stone. We will make use of the diverse and amazingly rich history and culture of the area, some of the ideas so far include creating basic stone carvings out of sandstone. Tulloch Construction have been brilliant, they gave us the materials to start the whole thing off, and to be quite honest, without them we wouldn’t have known where to begin, and they gave us the incentive to carry on."

The garden is now starting to take shape. It has been a slow steady job over the last few years, but now the staff, attenders and the local community are starting to be able to enjoy all the hard work that has been put in to it.

Merkinch Enterprise wishes the Corbett Centre a very happy 10th Birthday, long may you continue.