ABOUT DASH

The annual DOONFEST festival is just one of the aspects of the activities of this East Ayrshire village's groundbreaking charitable community programme.

In 2015, a local landowner(Cassilis Estates) offered the village of Dalrymple the lease of 15 acres of rough grazing land, to be used for the benefit of local people. The Vibrant Communities Team from East Ayrshire Council brought local people together to discuss what they might want done with the land. Following this, a core group of interested, local people started to draw up plans to develop the land in keeping with the community’s wishes. This group became known as the Dalrymple Skeldon Hollybush Project (DaSH) and received charity status in July 2016. The charity has eight Trustees and fifteen members. DaSH’s charitable purposes are:

  • The advancement of citizenship or community development.
  • The provision of creative and recreational facilities, or the organisation of recreational activities with the object of improving the conditions of life for the persons for whom the facilities or activities are primarily intended.
  • The advancement of environmental protection or improvement
  • You can find out more about how the charity runs its business under “constitution”.

In October 2016, the charity hosted a community consultation event to find out what local people wanted the charity to do to facilitate social development, what recreational activities they wanted us to work on and in what ways might we improve the green environment. The event was attended by over fifty people and, based on their ideas and wishes, the charity started working on several projects one of which of course is DOONFEST. 

Achievements of the DaSH Project so far...

  • We now have a village food hub bringing reduced priced and free food items to the village. It is also open on a Thursday morning for free tea/coffee/cakes/chat/heat/advice /help. Some music is provided with a village legend on piano to mark special days like Burns, St Patrick's, Easter etc. 
    The shop is open several times in the week for people. Everything is run completely by volunteers from the village. 

  • The community garden with picnic areas, cycle paths, flower beds, tree planting.Christmas lights for the village

  • Christmas Carol singing event
  • Dalrymple Ukulele Orchestra provides Village Christmas concert
  • Doonfest brings 'Up-close and Personal' concerts throughout the year - these have seen some exceptional musicians brought to the village including Mercury Award nominees The Fergus McCreadie Trio. 
  • The concerts also give opportunity for local musicians to play and young musicians to experience a wide range of styles. Celtic trio Snuff Box made up from graduates from the RSC were outstanding and many of the young players from the Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra came to hear them play. 
  • The Dalrymple Ukulele Orchestra have also hosted a ukulele weekend with guest teacher Ken Middleton holding workshops. The Orchestra provides workshops and singalongs to join in with during Doonfest for both adults and children. 
  • The Up-Close concerts will be resuming in preparation for Doonfest 2023 with the 1st concert planned for  Friday April 28th. It will be hosted by local quartet Common Thyme and will have guest performers. 
  • There will be another Up-Close night with local favourites The Cafeorchestra and the Dalrymple Ukulele Orchestra towards the end of May / beginning of June. More details to follow. 
  • DaSH has also brought a unique Halloween walk round the village where people from all over the village dress up and prepare to make the walk an exciting experience for all the family. This really does include the whole community. 
  • Easter picnics, summer picnics in the community garden with entertainment provided by local musicians and singers. 
  • There are plans for more developments to enhance the countryside round and within the village.