Pulteneytown Pupil Wins Young Ranger Trophy

6th May 2014

Mark Macadie, a P6 pupil in Mrs Ferrier’s class at Pulteneytown Academy in Wick, was the overall winner in the very first Young Ranger Trophy competition in memory of former Caithness Countryside Ranger Dieter Tuerlinckx.

Mark’s fairy story about Whiteheart Forest and its new fox king was chosen as first place entry in this new annual school competition. Second place went to Emma Sutherland from Halkirk Primary School and third place to Jay Barrett from Keiss Primary School.

Mark was awarded the Young Ranger Trophy and a certificate from The Highland Council Countryside Rangers Kirsty Rosie and Paul Castle. The trophy created by Keith Parks Studio in Brough, Caithness, is a polished section of elm mounted on a reclaimed oak plinth. It will go proudly on display at Pulteneytown Academy until a new competition in 2015.

Countryside Ranger Paul said: “We are so grateful to all the Caithness primary schools who took part in the first Young ranger Trophy competition in memory of our friend and colleague Dieter. The standard of story writing was excellent and it was a hard decision to pick an overall winner. Dieter loved stories and we thought a fairy story writing competition would be a great first subject. Future competitions will change each year to perhaps incorporate art, science, history, community work or many other topics to help reflect the very varied nature of a countryside Rangers job.”