The village of Laggan is situated in the Central Highlands of Scotland, surrounded by the Monadhliath and Grampian mountain ranges, it provides the opportunity to explore the peaceful countryside with the chance to see a wide variety of wildlife from Golden Eagle or Osprey to Red Deer Stag and Pine Martin.

The hit BBC drama series "Monarch of the Glen" is set in the Scottish Highlands in fictitious Glenbogle with much of the filming  done in Laggan and the surrounding area.

Lyneham, Wiltshire, has a very attractive and clean web site with regular news updates. The village diary allows locals to logon and enter details of their events themselves. A comparatively new site, the quality and ease of use will hopefully bloom into a very useful resource for locals and visitors alike.

Kircubbin, County Down, Northern Ireland, is a georgous site with many local photographs and items of interest. Kircubbin.com warmly welcomes visitors from all regions of the globe, with a primary goal of providing a useful service for members of the local community.

Newbiggin by the Sea, Northumberland. This excellent local community web site is very well presented with plenty of local information. Being one of England's Border Counties,Scotland is only a short journey, and Edinburgh is easily accessible within an hour.

Harberton Village, in Devon, is a superb local web site full of regularly (almost daily) updated content. In addition to a wealth of useful information for the local community, this features many interesting and unusual articles - how many times do you find photographs of two one-eyed smithies shoeing a one-eyed horse! This site must be a serious contender for the next Village Web Site of the Year award!

Kingsbarns, Fifeshire is a conservation village situated between St Andrews and the East Neuk of Fife. This relatively new site already hosts regularly updated local news plus useful information for residents and visitors, and the occassional golfer ;-) The excellent navigation system and friendly outlook make the Kingsbarns a welcome winner of this months award.

The official website of Tollerton Village, Nottinghamshire, the site contains news, contacts, events, village diary and a bulletin board.

Run by the local Parish Council, the clear, concise, and up-to-date details represent a site that is well looked after. With reasonably discrete advertising for local businesses, this site is well constructed and well supported - well done Tollerton!

Long Clawson, Leicestershire, caught our eye this month as it has an emphasis on allowing villagers to supply their own information. The site comes complete with a Calendar of Events, mailing list, discussion forums, games, a photo gallery and local information.

You can even access the web site using a WAP phone, with SMS and online messaging facilities for registered visitors, and a "Flash" virtual tour of the village. We feel that is a great example of just what can be achieved with technical skill and local dedication.

Groby, Leicestershire, is a unique village web site with many pages of facts, figures, photos and fun for you to discover and enjoy. With large sections of the site produced using "Flash" this allows for a lot more animation and interactive content.

A wealth of local information for both locals and visitors alike. Images and interactive content give Groby village web site a character and style all of its own, and one which it can justly be proud of.

Helmdon, Northamptonshire, is a lovely clear and clean site which is well presented with plenty of colour whilst remaining unspoilt by an overabundance of graphical content - spot on Helmdon!

Very well maintained with a great deal of up to date and relevant information, we can see that Helmdon has a web site to be proud of for a long time to come. The web site is created and maintained by members of the WEA (Workers' Educational Association) with sponsorship from the Helmdon Parish Council.

Scorton, North Yorkshire, has built up a grand web site since 1997 (almost as old as us!) promoting awareness of their village at home and abroad. The regular updates (we know not an easy task year after year) have kept the site interesting and informative for both locals and visitors alike.

Combined with the strong blend of local history and shear depth of useful local information, this makes Scorton stand out from the crowd. A deserved winner of the February 2002 award for Village Website of the Month and the final finalist for this years awards.

The three villages of Fritwell, Souldern and Ardley-with-Fewcott nestle in the heart of England, between Bicester and Banbury on the eastern edge of the Cotswold country of North Oxfordshire.

What caught our eye was not only the German, French, Italian, Spanish... welcome messages on the home page, but also the care and time taken to keep the news updated and current. We know how difficult this is to do and so it is with great pleasure we present www.3parishes.co.uk with our first award of 2002.