Mo Dachaidh: Campaigners perform rap song to protest closure of Ullapool care home

An 85-year-old woman is rapping in protest against the closure of an Ullapool care home.

Mo Dachaidh shut permanently just seven months after the facility was taken over by a major private operator – leaving just three for the whole of Wester Ross.

Residents have been moved elsewhere – and a question mark hangs over primary health care in Ullapool.

The decision has shocked members of the community into a campaign with them giving a musical performance to highlight the loss.

Retired social worker Jill Beavitt, who lives off-grid on the nearby Scoraig peninsula, was joined by fellow campaigners for the stunt to vent frustration over the closure.

She told STV News: “I thought that it might appeal to younger people as well and I’m really passionate about communication between younger and older people.

“When I used to work as a social worker all those years ago before Mo Dhachaidh was built I used to have to send people all over the place when they needed nursing care and so when Mo Dhachaidh appeared it was a place that was desperately needed.”

NHS Highland confirmed the closure leaves just two NHS residential care homes and one independent nursing care home in Wester Ross.

The emergency is financial; the operator, Parklands Care Homes, posted its own online video, in the form of a message to the new First Minister.

The company, which is selling the building, currently leases the ground floor to NHS Highland for primary care use by GPs, district nurses and therapists, and for council social workers.

It is understood the contract expires in the autumn.

Loch Broom Community Council chairman Topher Dawson said: “I think that it would make good financial sense for either Highland Council or the NHS to buy the building because the NHS already pay £71,000 a year as a lease.

“They have other needs such as accommodating out of hours doctors and there are a whole load of other possible uses for the building, which would serve the NHS’s purpose.”