Author: Max Fletcher

by

Robert C. Marwick

In 1783 Hugh Marwick and his father Magnus took over the joint tenancy of the farm of Scockness in Rousay. Hugh was only seventeen years old but in all other respects already a man and ready to take on the responsibilities of the partnership. Ten years later he married Betsy Sinclair from a neighbouring farm and in the course of the next eighteen years she bore him ten children, every one of them a boy. In her old age Betsy was asked how many children she had had. Thinking, no doubt, of all these mischievous boys and never a girl to comfort a mother’s heart, she replied, “Ten devils.”

The two eldest devils, Magnus and Thomas, were married and still living at Scockness when their father died in 1820. They continued working the farm until evicted by the laird because of a dispute over kelp making. Thomas then took the tenancy of Banks for a few years before moving to Woo nearby. Tammy o’ Woo, as he was known, and his wife Ann Gibson from Broland had five sons and five daughters. All but two of them as well as Tammy himself would eventually emigrate to New Zealand.

The Free Church of Scotland in co-operation with a company in New Zealand organised large scale emigration from Scotland to Otago after New Zealand came under British rule in 1840. The city of Dunedin, named after the Scottish capital, was the creation of these early Free Kirk settlers. It is likely that the Woo Marwicks who were staunch members of the Free Kirk in Sourin took advantage of the sponsorship their church offered.

The eldest son Hugh who was a boat builder to trade was the first to go. He left in 1855 with his wife Margaret Sinclair from Swandale and their two children, Annie aged two and Elizabeth who was still just a baby in arms. The sadness of parting would soon give way to brighter thoughts of their future in a new land and it must have been a severe blow to this young family when baby Elizabeth died at sea, a victim of the cramped and harsh conditions of a sailing ship on a twelve-week voyage. Hugh and Margaret did not stay in New Zealand very long and soon set sail across the Tasman Sea for Australia. At their new home in Victoria they had four more children but Annie was the only one to marry. Her granddaughter who lives near Melbourne is one of my Australian correspondents. Another is a great granddaughter of William who emigrated about the same time as his brother Hugh and like him spent only a short time in New Zealand before trying his luck in Victoria where he married and settled down to raise a family of eleven children.

William’s eldest son, William Thomas, moved to Western Australia in the 1890’s  when the goldfields around Kalgoorlie were luring people from far and wide. After a few years he bought some land and set to the back-breaking task of clearing it to make the productive dairy farm it was to become within a few years. Of William Thomas’s nine children one still survives aged eighty-five. A recent family tree from Western Australia shows almost 300 descendants of William Thomas in less than 100 years.

Three more of the second devil’s family were to follow Hugh and William to New Zealand in the late 1850’s, namely lsaac, Betsy and Mary. Little more is known of lsaac except that he got married but there do not appear to have been any children. Betsy had married Hugh Yorston in 1842 and had six children when they left for Dunedin in 1859. They sailed from the Clyde on June 10 and reached their destination ninety-three days later after a voyage on which four babies had been born (one of them to Hugh and Betsy) and eight children under the age of three had died. The Yorstons had been allocated a stretch of land some miles south of Dunedin but instead of tramping to it along the roughly gravelled road the family followed an old Maori track over the hills with the father and the boys carrying all their possessions while Betsy and the girls took turns at carrying the infant. While the mother and younger children stayed with friends the father and the others set to to build a stone and clay house. Some years later it was replaced by an imposing wooden building giving its occupants, both past and present, a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. It still bears the name Mount Pleasant which the Yorstons gave it. It took many years of hard labour to clear the native bush to create the large farm Mount Pleasant eventually became. It has now been broken up into smaller units but some measure of its original size can be gained from the eight-horse stable that still stands.

When Mary, who had gone out at about the same time as the Yorstons, arrived in Otago she met up with Richard Craigie whom she had known in Rousay and who had emigrated with his parents some years earlier. Soon they were married. Their first child died in infancy but another, named after his father, arrived the following year. Tragically Mary died a few months after the birth.

Back in Rousay the mother of the Woo family died in 1861. By that time five out of the ten children were overseas. Of those still in Rousay John and Margaret were married and settled in homes of their own. Tammy the second devil was by then sixty-five years of age and at home with him were Thomas Jr., Isabella and Ann who at sixteen was the youngest of the family. After a few months it was decided that the four of them should join the others in New Zealand. They left Rousay in the summer of 1862. For some years Tammy had been an elder in the Rousay Free Kirk and the kirk session minutes of 25 May 1862 record his resignation and in a glowing tribute speak of the session’s “high appreciation of his Christian character and worth and their great esteem for him as a personal friend.” After recording their regret at his departure the session expresses the hope that Mr Marwick and those of his family who accompany him “will continue to adorn the doctrine of God in that distant colony.”

Tammy’s nephew, Hugh Marwick, who was a son of Isaac the ninth devil, decided to accompany his uncle to New Zealand. Hugh was twenty-one years old and after a few years down under working as a carpenter and boatbuilder he returned to Rousay to marry the girl he had left behind. With his bride he set off for New Zealand once more and their first child Betsy Ann was born there. Before long however the family returned to Rousay and settled at Guidal where Hugh carried on business as a shopkeeper, carpenter and boatbuilder, registrar, school attendance officer and amateur  dentist.  He was the father of Dr Hugh Marwick.

When the last of the Woo family reached New Zealand they met Richard Craigie, the widower of Mary who had died a few months earlier. Before long Isabella and Richard had teamed up and eventually produced a further ten Craigie children. No doubt their union was frowned on, as a marriage between a man and a sister of his dead wife was outside the limits of acceptability at that time. Old Tammy lived out the rest of his days with Isabella and Richard at their farm of Craigielea. In a letter dated 28 October 1869, to his son Hugh in Victoria, Tammy writes of the kindness of Richard and Isabella. He wants for nothing and Richard is referred to as his best friend. Thomas Jr. is mentioned in this letter as working as grieve on Richard’s farm.

James Knarston, who was to become the husband of Ann, Tammy’s youngest daughter, ran away to sea from Stromness at the age of fifteen. After several years service in both the Royal and Merchant navies he opted for a life in New Zealand. A spell at the gold diggings followed before he and Ann settled at Taieri Mouth, south of Dunedin, where James spent the rest of his life as a general merchant. Unfortunately Ann did not survive the birth of their only daughter Maryann whose daughter, now in her 80’s, is one of my New Zealand correspondents.

The Craigies held a family gathering in Dunedin in 1973 to mark the 125th anniversary of the arrival in New Zealand of Richard and his parents. In 1988 some of them decided it was time to have another and this was hastily arranged to coincide with the arrival in Dunedin of my wife and myself. (The writer is a great-great-grandson of the seventh devil). Through my interest in family history I knew about the New Zealand Craigies and it was a great thrill to walk into a gathering of 200 descendants of Richard and his two Marwick wives.

New Zealand is a very young country; man did not set foot on it till a mere 1200 years ago and no European settlement of any significance took place until after 1840. New Zealanders cannot see far back into their history without looking beyond their own shores to places such as Scotland from where their ancestors set out in search of a better life. They acknowledge the debt they owe to these courageous pioneers who laid the foundations of the pleasant place New Zealand is today.

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[Transcribed with permission from the editors of The Orkney View – issue No 42, published in 1992]

by

Kathleen Craigie

Crossing Eynhallow Sound on the little roll on – roll off ferry, the sun glinting on the turquoise sea like a thousand little mirrors, Tommy points to the sleek head of a selkie breaking through the shimmering shards of sea, eyes like wet, black saucers.

“lt’s good luck to spot a selkie,” he says and my heart lurches toward the sea as I recall the legend of the Seal People, so beautiful that whoever sees them falls instantly in love. Some, it is said, have shed their sealskins and mixed in with humans, so can never return to the sea.

We stand against the brightly painted railing and pose for photographs, leaning into one another awkwardly, new cousins, the island home of our fathers a green glow behind our backs.

And later that night as Tommy picks up his fiddle and I hear the first soft strains of music played with a delicate, articulate hand, it reaches a part of me that never understood my father’s dying, his leaving us so long ago on a cold, grey morning in November, childish face at the window, noticing the cars in the drive, knowing something, not knowing he was gone forever, leaving an ache and a longing like the sound a bow makes as it leaves the strings of a fiddle or the sight of a selkie, breaking through water like jewels, searching for the ones who are lost to us and will never return.

Kathleen’s father Hugh Craigie was born on December 19th 1899 at Deithe on Rousay. He emigrated to Canada in 1923, staying initially in Ontario then on to Owlseye Lake, Alberta, and finally settling just outside Vancouver, British Columbia.

Today there are 67 folk in the ‘Craigie Clan’ living in Canadian provinces and territories – 42 of whom are direct descendants of Hugh Gibson Craigie – youngest son of Hugh and Maggie o’ Deithe – who passed away on November 25th 1961.

Kathleen’s story won first prize in a ‘Flash Fiction’ contest in Monday Magazine, a local Victoria publication on Vancouver Island.

by

Robert C. Marwick

David Craigie was by all accounts a pleasant and well liked young man. His uncle described him in a letter to a friend as having a lightsome turn and as the best natured lad he had ever seen. Like his elder sister Christina and his younger sister Elizabeth, David was born and brought up on the small croft of Fa’doon with its buildings tucked in under a brae on the lower slopes of Keirfea Hill in Rousay. He attended the General Assembly school in Sourin which was situated across the road from the present school. When school attendance became compulsory in 1872 that building could not accommodate the seventy-five pupils attending and so, for the next few years until the new building was ready, the school was housed in the Free Kirk. A group photograph taken outside the kirk shows David, then about eight or nine years of age, as a well groomed boy with a pensive and wistful expression.

After leaving school David decided to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming an apprentice joiner. Writing to an Australian cousin at the end of his apprenticeship he complained, “We are working here in Rousay for ten shillings a week and if we had not other help that would not keep us.” In that same letter he bemoaned his inability to save any money, unlike his cousin Hugh Craigie who had served his apprenticeship at the same time. Hugh was later to become one of Rousay’s expert joiners, examples of whose meticulous work can still be seen on the island.

Emigration to Australia was very much on David’s mind as he reached his twentieth birthday in December 1883. For several months he had been in touch with a Tulloch family in Shapinsay, one of whose sons had been to Australia and was then back home. David had visited this young man in Shapinsay and from him had heard many tales of life down under. At this time, too, he was in regular correspondence with his aunt and cousins in Melbourne. Writing to one of them in January 1884 David expresses his hope of accompanying his Shapinsay friend when the latter “returns to Australia shortly.”

In that letter he also describes how he spent New Year’s Day. “We had a very beautiful New Year’s Day here this year and a very happy one. In the morning I went down to Swandale and Uncle Hugh and me went across to the island of Egilsay and spent most of the day there and in the evening we came back and I went to a dancing at Scockness at night.” At that time his sister Christina was a servant girl at Scockness.

David pushed ahead with his plans to emigrate. By the middle of March his passage had been booked on the P&O steamship Orient, due to sail from London on 16th April. He wrote to his cousin asking to be met at Melbourne “because I will be no ways acquaint there.”

Parting came a few weeks later. From his uncle Hugh, David received £5 with which to buy a watch and Christina gave him £6. 10s. which, by dint of hard saving, she had managed to accumulate from her meagre wages. He bade a fond and, no doubt, tearful farewell to his parents and sisters and left Orkney with the Tulloch brothers, arriving in London on 11th April. Next day he called at the shipping office to obtain his ticket on payment of four-fifths of the £21 fare, and in the evening he penned a letter to his sister Elizabeth who was then aged thirteen. “My dear Sister,” he wrote, “I now embrace the opportunity to write these few lines to let you know I am well.” He went on to explain that their stop-over in Aberdeen had been longer than expected due to the London boat having been delayed by stormy weather. David had used this time to equip himself with a waterproof coat thus enabling him to claim that he was then “as well fitted out as my companions.” He also gave his young sister an account of their visit to an Aberdeen music hall, no doubt his first experience of the kind. “It was just about as fine a sight as ever I saw. It was a very fine ornamented room and there was two most beautiful girls came out and danced and they could do it.” David asked Elizabeth to tell their mother that he had eaten the hen she had given him but he reckoned he had enough cheese to see him as far as Melbourne.

After five days in London in the cheapest lodgings they could find at half-a-crown a day for bed and board, David and his friends paid the balance of their fares and boarded the Orient at Gravesend. She was a ship of 5,386 tons plying between London, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. [Alan Grieve adds the following information:- David ran out of money in London and wired home for more. His father walked to Frotoft and rowed across to Evie, walked to Kirkwall, drew money from the bank and wired it off to London, walked back to Evie, rowed back to Rousay and walked home all in one day. (Frotoft being the shortest distance by sea to the mainland)].

£21 for a steerage passage did not buy much in the way of comfort and even less of high living. David’s ticket, now in the possession of his nephew, is a document the size of this page. It lists what the steerage passenger’s entitlements were, viz., not less than 15 cubic feet of luggage space, 3 quarts of water daily (not counting what was needed for cooking), and the following weekly scale of provisions:-

It was stipulated that various substitutions could be made at the master’s discretion, e.g. pressed meat for salted, or rice for oatmeal. Steerage passengers had to provide their own bedding as well as mess utensils such as cutlery, plates, and drinking mug.

The Orient made good time through the Mediterranean heading for the Suez Canal which had been opened fifteen years earlier. The relatively gentle warmth of the Mediterranean spring would no doubt have been a pleasant experience for the Orkney lads who were used to cooler climes. Once through the canal, though, they would have had to face the fierce, unrelenting heat of the Red Sea. The temperature in their cramped, uncomfortable quarters would have forced many of the steerage passengers to spend most of their time on deck. Perhaps the sleep that was denied David in the stifling conditions below decks at night overcame him while he was basking on deck during the day. Unaware of the dangers of sunstroke, especially for someone unacclimatized to tropical heat, he could have remained under these scorching rays until irreparable damage had been done. In a case of sunstroke the body temperature can rise to dangerous levels and this is coupled with severe dehydration. Unless these conditions are quickly and expertly dealt with, death will soon follow. For David, death came on 6th May, only twenty days after leaving London. The victim’s most obvious symptom, delirium, apparently led to the cause of death being given in the ship’s records as “brain fever”. This description is an indication that there was not a doctor on board.

A report of David’s death from sunstroke came first to his uncle, Hugh Sinclair of Swandale who had the task of breaking the tragic news to the lad’s mother who was working out in one of Fa’doon’s fields at the time. Letters that Elizabeth wrote to her aunt in Melbourne tell us that David’s mother collapsed on hearing the news and had to be carried back to the house. Christina was so distraught that she had to be brought home from Scockness in a cart.

Christina’s son, Jeemie Grieve, is the present owner of Fa’doon and spends an extended summer there every year. Now in his eighty-seventh year, he sees to it that the dwellinghouse as well as the outhouses at Fa’doon, all of which have flagstone roofs, are kept in good repair, an act of preservation that is its own reward, and a joy to see.

---

[Article reproduced by kind permission of the editors of The Orkney View
– issue No 47, April/May 1993]

During the 19th Century in Orkney press gangs were used to search for and provide men to join the ship’s crews of his Majesty’s Royal Navy. The gangs were hated and feared as much as the excise men and there are numerous tales from all over the county of how they were duped and how many men managed to get away from them by using particular hiding places.

Grithin on Rousay, where the above photos were taken, is the name of a boulder-strewn bay at the angle of the coast between the cliffs on the north-west of Saviskaill Head and those behind the old houses of Skatequoy, Stennisgorn and Grudwick. At this inlet there is a very steep beach, composed of huge boulders rounded by the action of the pounding waves. Another feature in the dramatic rock formation here is ‘15 Man Cave’ where, in 1825, that number of Rousay men hid from a press gang for two weeks.

Another such place is the ‘Clivvie of Heshiber up by the Hills o’ Glifter’ – or the Clivvie Stane, above Peerie Water and on the north-western slopes of Blotchnie Fiold, beneath which the young men of Rousay would hide from the press gang. The photos above show the Clivvie Stane – and are courtesy of Jo Inkster.

In 2013 Robbie Firth of Langskaill, Rousay, then a pupil at Kirkwall Grammar School, won the Marjorie Linklater Writing Award, funded by the Orkney Heritage Society, for a piece of original writing. His story – entitled ‘Hide’ – tells of a Rousay father and his two sons’ encounter with a press gang.

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HIDE

Tam flung a dried peat to his father Jim who stacked it onto the pile on the cart. An owl sat cat-faced, presiding over their progress from a nearby post. The sun had shone brightly all day and the peats were perfect for lifting. Jim’s humour had been good and barely a cross word had passed between father and son all day.

Tam’s younger brother Jock came spraggling over the heather like a panicked colt, before collapsing to his knees in front of them, furiously gasping air. The pair were unnerved by his startled appearance and when he had filled his lungs he began to tell them his important news.  

“Fither they hiv done hid again, Robbo and Billo o’ Langskaill hiv bin te’en fae Gairsay! Oot o’ the derk they came, the only warning wis the light o’ storm tillies walking up the green o’ each hoose. Then in they went makin a muckle mess, grabbing fur the men o’ the hoose, dragging them oot doon tae the boats and away.”

Poor Jock was so overcome he collapsed in a heap.

“Aye they hiv been worried that the dammed Press Gangs wid come fur the men,” replied the boy’s father.

Tam stood shaking with his fists clenched at his sides. “Bit fither we canna jist lay doon and tak it! We mist pit up a fight, tak back the men or the ferms will’na manage.” He was angry and frightened too. What if the gangs came for them? How would his mother and sister manage?

“Na beuy, we canna fight back, thur The Kings men. We can only hide fae the beasts and pray they dinnae come fur us,” explained Jim

“Bit Fither…,” argued Tam.

“Na Tam! That’s an end o’ it, come let’s go and brack the news tae yur mither an’ Maggie.” Jim grabbed his cap and with a grim look he led the two solemn looking boys off the peat hill.

The Mainland family sat limply around the archaic wooden table. Not a word was spoken of what had happened on the island of Gairsay. Muriel set out the meal of salt fish and tatties onto the table in no unusual manner. A sinister mood floated over the table mingling with the hot steam rising from the dinner. Jock, too young to understand the enormity of the situation, danced hyperactively on his chair, rabbiting away about the voles he had caught in the sheep park.

The noise of the door sneck awoke the diners and Maggie flew through the low doorway. The two brothers instantly leapt up to ask Maggie what the fuss was about. Tam had a feeling he knew already.

“Mags wit is thoo fluster fur? Has thoo seen a ghoul?”

“Hid’s the lights, they are coming ower the water noo, tens o them. You mist run fur the hidie hole noo! You mist run!” She blurted out, choking on her sobs and grabbing Tam by his shirt.

Tam looked across at his Father and he knew what Jim was going to say but Tam had a sudden overpowering anger towards these men coming for him and his family. He wanted to stay and fight, as Tam opened his mouth to protest he felt his Mother’s hand on his sleeve. It was her small, frail, frightened face begging him to run that made him hold his silence on the matter.

“Fither we mist run fur the hills noo,” Tam and Jock both chanted simultaneously.

“Had still boys, an tak supplies. We mist go queek and quiet. Mags, go git the supply bags fae the loft,” steadily replied Jim.  

Maggie dashed up to the loft like a ferret, she went straight to the spot where the hidden supplies lay. Slowly stepping down the wooden ladder, pausing for a moment to steady her balance she walked over to the table placing two big bundles of cloth down. Jim picked up the bundles placing them into the arms of each of his sons. The eerie silence put everyone on edge and a knowing looked past between them. Jim then kissed his wife and daughter and nodded to the door. All three departed out of the warmly lit croft and stepped out into the face of cold endless gloom, the full faced moon tipping above the edge of the hill.

Jim gave precise orders to his sons: “Boys we mist run noo, run fur the Clivvie of Heshiber up by the Hills o’ Glifter. Dinna stop running ‘til you get tae the Clivvie. Wance you get there yur no tae leave til yur Mither comes and tells us the besterds hiv geen.”

Both boys replied with a knowing nod. They all disappeared into the darkness, fleeing from the evil that spread over the fields below. Over the crisp sharp heather and over glistening burns they ran in silence. None of them slowed, the blood and adrenaline pulsed through their bodies. A sharp glance back and they could see the singular lights dotted along the peat road they had just crossed. As all three reached the tip of the hill they spotted a huge mass of sparkling waves made by the moon cutting through the clouds and dancing off the loch. They were near to the hide now and Jim paused for a moment to study the dark land below.

“See there lads, you can see the Clivvie Stane casting a small shadow on the heather in front. Run fur there noo, queek noo, queeker than afore,” Jim commanded the boys.

On they ran with determination, since their lives depended on it, the owl swooping silently above them. The ground before them grew deeper with heather which led Jock to trip more than a few times – once completely disappearing into the deep trenches. All the men arrived at the hide and one by one they slid through the tiny entrance into a deep, dark hole under the giant stone.

Not a light flickered across the hill, not a single sound could be heard. It was the silence that would keep them safe unless the devils of King and Country fell in their cave by mistake. This damp, dark hole was the best nest for keeping safe from the probing eye of the Press Gangs when they begun to hunt. Tam listened for voices but dared not to look.

Suddenly he heard the muffled voices of men coming near. He looked cautiously through the break in the overgrowth. All he could make out were five burning torches moving erratically down the hill. He frowned. Tam knew it was possible to tramp over the very stone he hid under and not be any the wiser that they were there, but only if they held their pact of silence.

As he watched, the lights crept nearer with every minute. The men lay packed in a sphere of fright and panic but Tam held his calm.

The torches disappeared only for a snap shot in time, then they burst over the mound right before the great stone. Tam could not make out the faces in the darkness of the night. The torches cut in two going either side of the stone and two planted right on the top of their fortress. Tam thought he heard a whisper in the wind saying his name but it was cut short by a scrabbling at the built up door.

A dirty hand clawed through the narrow entrance of their sanctuary silhouetted by a bright light. The captors shrank back in fear. Silence followed.  

Across the sparkling loch the cat-faced owl rose effortlessly from the heather with a tiny vole clasped tightly in its talons. Soaring over the Clivvie Stane it returned to its post by the peat bank.

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Robbie would like to express his thanks to KGS Principal Teacher English Simon Hall,
and his English teacher Ann McTaggart who helped with the early drafts and
correcting and also suggesting he submitted the story for the competition.

The two poems below were given to The Orkney View by Tommy Gibson of Rousay. The first was written by John Kirkness, jnr, tenant of Quoyostray, Rousay in 1853 to the laird, Frederick William Traill-Burroughs. At the time, Burroughs was serving with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders in this country.

Dear Sir forgive my boldness
For intruding upon you
Who have no sullen coldness
To give you honour due

But though unable for the task
You will excuse me when
Sincerity without a mask
Flows from your tenant’s pen

In Veira Isle and Rousay
You are held in high esteem
For your exceeding kindness
On which we had no claim

What favour can we show you
For your benevolence
I think the best we can do
Is to give no offence

A bonfire’s blaze is little
To exalt your fame
Cheering huzzas a trifle
In honour of your name

Though I give you a name-son
So I hereby propose
That we may daily mention
The name Frederick Burroughs

Yet these are all too little
We poor peasants can do
But as you are the mettle
To venerate the plough

Therefore as I know your wish
I shall not recoil
But try to give an extra push
To improve the soil

And thereby beautify your land
To my utmost extent
And that I plenty may command
For family and rent

I hope you will an answer send
If this you think expedient
Wishing you well Sir I remain
Your tenant most obedient

~

The second poem is Burrough’s reply to his tenant.
Unfortunately the writing in one place is indecipherable.

John Kirkness I have got
Your very welcome letter
And never has it been my lot
To see or hear a better

And truly am l glad indeed
To learn you’ve got a son
I trust sincerely you’ll succeed
In getting many a one

And if you call him after me
Of which l’m unco proud
A soldier you must let him be
To fight our foes abroad

For Scotland calls on all her sons
To resist the invading foe
To draw the sword and man the gun
And strike the avenging blow

And when our time of service spent
Our battles and our sieges o’er
Our wandering steps will then be bent
To Veira and to Rousay’s shore

No more we’ll follow fife or drum
Or plough the raging deep
But jolly farmers we’ll become
To speed the plough and reap

Then farewell, John right glad was I
To hear from Rousay’s isle
It …… me many a thought and sigh
Tho’ distant many a mile

Now farewell John l herewith send
A sovereign good for my young friend
And hope the Muses will inspire
Him with his Pa’s poetic fire.

~

There was an ironic twist to the story of the baby named after the Laird. In 1892 Burroughs took Frederick Kirkness (the name-son) to court to try to have him evicted from Quoyostray for bankruptcy but Kirkness applied to the Crofters’ Commission to have the proceedings halted. When the Commission heard his case, his arrears of £52 were cancelled and the £30 rent reduced to £19. Burroughs was not amused!

[My thanks to Tommy and the editors of the Orkney View for allowing this transcription]

Tommy Gibson of Rousay writes of boats and men lost in his area over the years.

[Taken from the pages of issue No.83 of The Orkney View published in 1999,
and reproduced with kind permission of the magazine’s editors
and the author, who also supplied the photos]

The parish of Rousay, Egilshay and Wyre is not renowned for its shipwrecks, unlike for example, Hoy, Sanday, Westray or Stronsay. In the nineteenth century fishing was a main industry, with a lot of men making a living from the sea. Despite this, the number of casualties was remarkably low. There were more losses among the non-fishing population. In common with other islands, however, there are graves along the shoreline from long ago, particularly on the Holm of Scockness and on Rousay at The North Sand, and on the land of Faraclett at Hunber and the Clett.

The first story is of a body of a man which came ashore in the North Sand. He was supposed to have been a cattle dealer on his way to Westray. His body was found by one of the crofters who had land on the farm of Faraclett. Another story I heard about was of a large ship partly laden with dried tea-leaves, which went ashore in the Leean. The people of Wasbister and Quandale did not know what to do with the cargo. They tried to feed it to the cattle, with no success. They even tried to make porridge out of the tea and they also tried to smoke it. In the end they used the tea for bedding for the cattle and pigs!

Another ship, the Atlantis, ran aground on the point of Grory on the Holm of Scockness, and the tide took her to below Finyo where she sank. She was about 60ft of keel, with a general cargo, mainly crockery. The next story concerns a Westray skiff laden with meal from the Sourin Mill on route back home to Westray. They were sailing past Axnigoe, Scockness, and missed a tack and the boat ran aground on the sloping rocks of the Clett. The boat filled with water and two or three men were drowned. No written record of any of these incidents was found.

Fishing for ‘kuithes’ and ‘sillocks’ from the Rocks or Craigs in Rousay was a needy and pleasurable task on a fine summer night. There are lots of ‘fishing places’ or points around the coast. One is Hunber, which lies east of the head of Faraclett, with a strong tide running past. At Hunber is a place called ‘Koldeross’, a dangerous ledge over deep water, where sometimes due to lack of space, people had to fish. John Gibson, of Broland, fell into the sea from this ledge. The men around him cast their ‘waands’ at him, and caught him on the collar with their ‘flees’ and saved him.

A stone in the Westside Churchyard reads; “Here lies the body of James Sinclair, Newhouse, husband of Madie Hourston, who was drowned on the reef of Skebray (Scabra) on the 20th Dec. 1825 aged 41”. Also in the boat were two Mainland boys from Tratland, Alexander and his brother whose name is not known.

In the Scockness Kirkyard there is a headstone to John Gibson of Pow, a Sourin fisherman and crofter of 6 acres who died in his boat on the 1st October 1854, possibly of a heart attack. His son, James, would not set foot in a boat after his father’s death.

In 1861 four Wyre men were tragically lost off the point of Ha’breck. This followed a visit to the registrar and the Off Licence in Rousay about the wedding of Annie Sabiston, a sister of the men who drowned, due to the upsetting of an open boat. They were John Sabiston, 32, farmer of Ha’Breck, Alexander Sabiston, 25, seaman in the merchant navy, James Baikie, 26, shoemaker, (the groom) and Hugh Craigie, 41, farmer married to Mary Louttit. There is in the Wyre Kirkyard a headstone with the inscription “Erected in memory of John Sabiston who was drowned Jan. 2nd 1861 aged 32 years. Also his son Alexander who died 19th Dec.1882 aged 23 years, together with his wife Mary Corsie who died at Paplay House, Eday, 5th May 1908 aged 86 years”. The same year Robert Inkster aged 8 of Swartifield fell over the Blue Goes and was killed. His body came ashore on Eday and was buried there. On the 26th August 1875 Robert Gibson of Langskaill, aged 36, and his son David, aged 8, were drowned in an open boat. This was due to a heavy land sea below Saviskaill when they came ashore. On the 19th January 1877 four were lost off the Isle of Eynhallow; William Rendall, 54, John Corrigall, 44, David Hourston, 3 and John Brown, 51. Nothing is known of this accident, nor why a three year old child was on the boat in the middle of winter. In another accident Thomas Shearer aged 15 was drowned while bathing in the sea near Saviskaill on the 4th August 1878.

On a headstone in the Wasbister kirkyard we read “In loving Memory of Hugh Inkster, of Brittany, drowned in Westray Firth on the 14th May 1879 aged 29 years.” It is thought that the boom hit him and he was knocked overboard.

Alan Gibson, a ploughman of Scockness, found a body at the North Sand on the 20th June 1882. In the Scockness Kirkyard a headstone bears this inscription, “In loving memory o f Alexander Henderson who lost his life accidentally by falling off the cliffs at the Blue Goes, May 14th 1883 aged 15.” The local story of this incident is that two lads on a trip from Kirkwall were walking to Wasbister and came to the steep braes at the back of Swandale where they both took to rolling down to the shore. One fortunately came to a standstill; the other went over the cliffs. The other boy took to running down the Sourin valley towards Hurtiso. He would stop and shout the boy’s name, run on and stop again, and continued shouting. Nothing more is known of this incident.

An extract from The Orcadian, March 22 1884, tells of another disaster. “A small yawl boat, between 11 and 12 o’clock on Tuesday morning, manned by 2 men left Westness for the purpose of procuring medicine from the doctor in Evie. The weather rough, flood tide, and a nasty sea. The crew comprised of two men, William Louttit and John Kirkness. When about half a mile from the shore, the boat was seen to ship a sea on the weather bow, which threw the bow off, when it encountered a heavy sea on the weather quarter, and immediately went down with both the men, who were lost. A boat put off from Rousay, but was too late to render any assistance. About one hour later the unfortunate boat was driven ashore, but with no trace of the men. The sad loss cast a gloom over the Island.” William Louttit, 31, a fisherman, The Manse, Wasbister, was married to Margaret Gibson, and had three children. John Kirkness, 27, mason, Grain, Wasbister, was married to Isabella Mainland, Gorehouse, and had two children. The bodies of the two men were never found. William’s son William, aged eighteen months, was ill at the time with appendicitis. He died at Broland aged 12.

On the 2nd December 1890 Hamo Gregerson, of Christiansund, Norway, aged 21, was swept overboard from the ship Iolle. He was the second Mate. His body was not recovered.

In a sad accident in Eynhallow Sound on Wednesday 11th October 1893 six lives were lost. James Sinclair, aged 75, a boatman, of Newhouse (his father was drowned in 1825, see above), John Reid, aged 56 from Tratland, Lydia Gibson, (Craigie) aged 35 from Turbitail, later Lochend, Stenness and her family David 9, Maggie Jessie 6, and Mary Ann 4 were all drowned. The crew is buried in the Westside Kirkyard. Lydia is in the Wasbister Kirkyard, and the children are in Stenness. Part of a report in The Orcadian dated Saturday 14th October 1893 runs; “Later information regarding the accident is to the effect that when the ill-fated boat left Evie on Wednesday, it was close reefed. All went well while it was under lee of the land, but immediately it rounded Aikerness Point it was struck by a squall and was upset. The two boatmen – Reid and Sinclair – were seen clinging to the boat for a minute or two, but it partly righted itself throwing them in the water and they were never seen again. A small boat manned by Wm. Wood, Wads, and John Mowat, Woodwick, Evie, was at that moment within 150 yards of the scene of the accident, but owing to the terrific gale, then blowing, had great difficulty in getting to the place, and by that time, men, woman and children had disappeared. A boat manned by David Miller, Merchant and Magnus Mowat, Evie, also put out from the shore, but could get no trace of the unfortunate people who were on board the mail boat. The boat was seen to turn several times over, and was carried away past Rousay towards the Atlantic”. This was the worst boating disaster in the parish.

The SS Actif foundered somewhere to the East of Stronsay in 1915. Two bodies came ashore in Rousay and they are buried in the Glebe Kirkyard. An inscription on headstones reads; “In Loving memory of James Scott Jamison, who drowned through the Foundering of the SS Actif on the 25th December 1915 aged 37. Son of Andrew Jamison, Longhill, Shetland”. The other headstone reads; “Erected in loving memory of our dear Father Peter B. Brymer, Engineer, SS Actif who was drowned on the 25th Dec.1915.” The one body came in near the Kirkyard, the other was found by Edith Gibson on the sloped rocks below Avelshay. It is not known if the date is of the foundering, or the find, or the burial. On the 11th August 1920 Robert Scott, a seaman of Hurtiso was drowned aged 39.This was not in the parish. The Phyllis Bellman, an Aberdeen trawler ran aground on the point of Ridden on Kili Holm. She was going north, out to the fishing grounds. There were no casualties, and she was safely towed off. In the following years up to 1936 four trawlers went aground on Kili Holm. The Vest Havit, a Norwegian, went on the point of Pitten on the Northwest corner and sank. The Birkhall went on the point of Ridden, the Northeast corner. The Lord Wymburn went on below the Quoy and the Marina hit the skerry, Marlow and was damaged. She was towed off but the tide took her and she ended up on the Haas. There were no casualties. In the Brinian Kirkyard there are six headstones for seamen who came ashore in the Second World War. Only one name, that of “A. Rasmanus, a sailor, SS Chelsea, 30. 8. 1940, aged 33” is on the headstone. Sunday the 24th of May 1953 saw the Aberdeen trawler Unitia aground on Oullis, the skerry south of the Holm of Scockness. Again there were no casualties and the SS Earl Sigurd towed her off on Sunday the 8th of June. The people of the parish went out to the trawler with baking, milk and eggs and were given lots of fish, which were salted down. In these days the fish were large and good. Many a good dinner was had. In the early 60’s William Darling, an art teacher and keen amateur photographer, was lost over the cliffs at the back of Purse, at Hellia Spur, while taking photographs. His body alas was never found.

These are most of the tragedies that have occurred around the waters of the parish. Finally it is also interesting to note that I have only found one fatality in the farming community and none on the roads, in spite of many accidents and the many, many more narrow escapes ……….

by

HUGH MARWICK

KIRKWALL, 8th NOVEMBER, 1923.

Though undoubtedly one of the most picturesque islands in Orkney, Rousay is not, in the eyes of an antiquary, by any means the most interesting. Even to-day the greater part of its surface is covered with heather and in early days it can have offered but few attractions to the primitive agriculturist in comparison with the lower-lying and more fertile islands of the group. Round the skirts of the isle, however, there are signs of cultivation from very far-off days; nor are indications lacking that the island was inhabited thousands of years earlier still for how long exactly it is impossible to say until we have learned to read more intelligently the memorials left behind by these nameless folk of long ago.

STANDING STONES AND CHAMBERED MOUNDS

Of these memorials, the standing stones and the chambered mounds form two groups that are among the oldest of all. The relative antiquity of each I shall not attempt to determine; suffice it to say that both are supposed to date back to the early Bronze Age of this country, if not to the still earlier Neolithic. Today, only two of these standing stones remain erect – one on the roadside in Frotoft beside a house named after it – Longsteen, the other on the south-east slope of the hill to the north-east of Faraclett. The Long-steen [below left] is about seven and a half feet high by two feet three inches broad at the base, tapering to slightly under two feet at the top, and varying from about eight inches to eleven inches in thickness. That at Faraclett is about seven feet high, with a fairly uniform rectangular section of five and a half feet by one and a half. It is known as Yetnessteen [below right], i.e., O.N. Jǫtunna-steinn, ‘ stone of the giants.’ Obviously the stone was as mysterious to the Norsemen when they came over as it is to us, and they ascribed its erection to the giants who figured so largely in their mythology. But there it still stands, and an old island tradition tells how on each New Year morning, immediately after midnight, it is wont to take a trip down the slope for three hundred yards or so to the Fresh-water Loch of Scockness – covering the distance in two steps – have a drink, and then return once more to resume its lonely vigil.

In his Tour Through the North Isles of Orkney (in 1778) Low makes mention of this stone and another at Westoval. He does not mention the Longsteen in Frotoft, and, hence, in the Old Lore Miscellany, Vol. VIII., Pt. 111., where the Tour was published, an attempt was made to identify the Westoval stone with the Longsteen. On the northern slope of Blotchniefield, however, just above the fence near which most of the Sourin peats are now cut is a ridge known as Steenie Vestifal, and, though no standing-stone is apparent now, there is no doubt that this is the place to which Low refers.

Indication of a fourth stone may be found, I think, in the farm name – Stennisgorn. Gorn represents O.N. gardðr, a farm, and though the first part of the name may be a personal name – Stein(s), it is more probable that the reference is to a standing-stone near. This is supported by the same name in Birsay – now pronounced Stanger (sténdzer). In the 1595 Rental this is spelt Stansgar (in Peterkin’s edition), and Stainsgair (in the copy in the Sheriff Court House, Kirkwall). Close to this house is the solitary standing-stone of Qweebuin (hwibon). The earliest form I can find of the Rousay house name is Stennisgar, which occurs in a deed of 1578 – for a note of which I am indebted to Mr. Storer Clouston. In the Uthell Buik of 1601, we find a Stevin Stennisgair in Wasbister, Rousay, who was evidently the farmer in this house. Hence the presumption is that both the Birsay and the Rousay name arose from a similar reason – the proximity of a standing-stone.

What the original purpose of these isolated stones has been no one can now say. They may not all even have had the same purpose, but, in some cases at least, there seems no doubt that they have been connected with the worship of what Dr. Craven, in his History of the Church in Orkney, Vol. I., p. 3, has termed the ‘generative powers in Nature.’

[The images above show the location of the Taft o’ Faraclett at the northern end of the Loch of Scockness.
The lower photos show the Taft, and a rope to aid the adventurous in exploring its subterranean chamber.]

Of chambered mounds, or picts houses as they are called, it is difficult to say how many specimens are to be found. There are several mounds still unopened which may be of this class, but, so far as I know, only three have been opened. One of these is at the north end of the above-mentioned fresh-water Loch of Scockness, in a small park known as ‘The Taft of Faraclett .’ An account of this, by Mr. John Loutitt, may be found in the O.L. Miscellany, Vol. IX., pt. I.

[The original entrance to Taversoe Tuick. Once inside from today’s ‘modern’ entrance one has the ability to clamber down into the lower chamber…..]

Another example, discovered on the top of a hillock called Taiverso, near Trumland, showed the usual features of a relatively long entrance passage and central chamber. Opening off this chamber were small recesses in which were found the remains of human skeletons. On the point south of Skaill on the Westside, a third specimen of this class of mound is said to have existed.

BROCHS

The next group of antiquities – that of the brochs – is generally reckoned now-a-days to be much younger than those we have just mentioned. Into that vexed question, however, we need not enter here; I shall merely indicate the sites in Rousay where brochs have stood. On the Frotoft shore, a few hundred yards west of the Longsteen, stand the ruins of one still bearing the name Burrian (i.e. O.N. borg-in, the broch). This has  been  dug  into  but  never  properly  excavated. At Brough on the Westside is the site of another, from which the house has its name. A few hundred yards west of this, on the edge of the cliffs – flanked on each side by a long narrow geo – is the Midhowe, a mound that pretty certainly conceals a third. Then, on a small islet, called Burrian, in the Loch of Wasbister, we have the site of a fourth, which has been approached from the shore by means of a causeway or stepping stones.

Besides these, there are other mounds that look like broch-remains. One at the shore, between Nears and Hunclett, called the Knowe of Hunclett, is almost certainly such. A very similar mound is to be seen at Viera Lodge, and the Knowe of Lairo – near Hullion – is very likely a third.

None of these sites has been properly excavated, though one at Brough has apparently been opened at one time. In an account of a pleasure-trip from Kirkwall to Rousay recorded in The Orkney Herald of 26/7/1870, some mound is thus referred to: “About the same locality (i.e., the Westside) are a couple of mounds commonly designated Picts Houses or Broughs. One of them having been partially-explored, we were able to enter what seemed to be the principal apartment, from which there were at least two entrances to other passages or chambers, but from neither of which the earth and other debris had been cleared.”

The distribution of these broch-sites is also instructive. They are all at or near the shore, and are surrounded by the best land in Rousay. This in itself suggests that the broch~builders were cultivators of the soil, and to support this view one has but to point to the quern-stones found in practically every broch which has been excavated. It may be argued quite well that these querns have been used by inhabitants of much later date than the builders, but one is still left with this noticeable coincidence of the sites with the best land.

GERSTY

In my Paper last session on Sanday, I dwelt at some length on these puzzling structures known as Treb Dikes. In Rousay that name is not known, but one at least of these earthen rampart-like structures is to be seen still, running down from the public road to the shore a short distance up from the Leean Slap of Langskaill. It is strikingly green as compared with the adjacent ground, and goes by the name of the Green Gersty, i.e., ON. garð-stœdi, dike-steethe. The land around is not cultivated, now at any rate, and no tradition of its use or origin is extant. Hence, and also on the analogy of the Sanday Trebs, one is disposed to regard it as a memorial of the pre-Norse population.

CELTIC NAMES

As I have dealt elsewhere with the Celtic element in the place-names of Orkney, I shall not linger here on those Rousay names which seem to me to have been given by that earlier race which the Norsemen conquered and assimilated. These names are among the most difficult that exist, and certainty about them is hard, if not impossible, to attain. But such names as The Camps of Jupiter Fring – a ridge on the northern slope of Blotchniefield, Marlaryar – a hill above Hullion, and Cannamesurdy – a well on the beach in Frotoft – seem to have no Norse semblance at all, and may with tolerable assurance be ascribed to the earlier Celtic race.

EARLY NORSE SETTLEMENT

It would have been intensely interesting if the writer of the Orkneyinga Saga had given us an account of the first settling of Orkney similar to that we have of the first colonisation of Iceland. The fact that he does not, suggests that the settlement had been made so long before his day that he knew nothing about it. In Nordiske Minder isœr sproglige paa Orknøerne, Dr. Jakobsen mentions a Rousay legend, which he was told by Mr D. J. Robertson. According to this, when the first Norsemen came to Rousay they were confronted at landing by strange elf- or troll-like beings who marched down against them – armed with glittering spears. In such a curious fashion has been perpetuated the first meeting of the Norsemen with the alien Celtic race.

Who the first Viking to set foot on Rousay was, we do not know. One would fain like to identify the Rolf (Hrólfr) whose name is commemorated in the name of the island – Rousay, Hrólfsey – with Torf Einar’s half-brother of that name – the famous Rolf who founded the Norse power in Normandy, but for that one has no justification at all. It is known that he went from Norway to the Hebrides and must thus have visited Orkney en route, but it is probable that the Orkneys were settled some generations at least before the great Viking age, and that had begun nearly a hundred years before his day.

Besides the unknown Rolf, the names of a few other early settlers may be deduced from the farm names. The present farm-name Innister appears to be a corruption. The name does not appear in any of the early rentals, but in a deed of 1664, recorded in David Forbes’s Protocol Book, we find Rowland Insgaire in Insgaire. In the Valuation of 1653, thls gentleman evidently appears again as Roulland Ingsgarth. In a deed of 1671 the name appears as Ingsgair, and even as late as 1799 Innisgir in Wasbister is found in the Register of Births. By some strange accident the house name has now become Innister and the surname Inkster. The original form is doubtful, but almost certainly the first syllable represents a personal name.

A clue to the original form of Hurtiso, a farm name in Sourin, is to be found in the 1492 Rental where Hurtiso, in Holm, appears as Thurstainshow, i.e., Thorstein’s mound..

The first syllable in Knarston is almost certainly also a personal name. In most cases in Orkney tunship-names, the termination -ston, which represents the dative plural of staðr, a stead, settlement, ‘tun,’ is suffixed to a man’s name, and this is unlikely to be an exception. There are two names suitable Knǫrr and Narfi – and, as old forms of the name regularly show the initial K-, the former is to be preferred – Knarrar-stǫðum, the settlement of Knorr.

Avalsay appears in both the 1500 and 1595 Rentals as Awaldschaw. The first part of the name represents a man Augvald, and judging from the analogy of Horraldshay in Firth, which the 1500 Rental spells Thorwaldishow, and the 1595 R. Horraldsay and Horraldshay, we conclude that the Rousay name has been Augvaldshaugr, Augvald’s mound.

Lastly, in Frotoft we have a form that points to an earlier Froða-topt, the site of a house of a man Froði. Munch suggested that the word must have been Freys-tupt, the site of a temple to the god Frey, but that is not in accordance with the phonetic development.

These four men – Froði, Augvald, Knǫrr, and Thorstein – were in all probability among the earliest Norse settlers in Rousay; they may even have been among those who were challenged at landing by the ‘glittering spears’; but to us to-day, none of them is other than a pale shadow of a name.

A few place-names still remain to show that in these days Rousay was not so devoid of trees as it is at present. Scockness is most probably an O.N. Skogar-nes, the ‘shaw-’ or forest ness, and the old house name Skuan in Sourin and the field Skuanie in Wasbister point unmistakably to the same feature. Probably it was rather brushwood than real forest, but these names show conclusively that there was something of the sort.

SIGURD OF WESTNESS

In the Orkneyinga Saga, only one Rousay family – that of Sigurd of Westness – figures at all largely. If, as has been surmised, the author was Bishop Bjarni, we need not be surprised at the prominence given to Sigurd, for his wife was Bjarni’s grandaunt – a niece of Jarl Hakon Paulsson, and grand-daughter of Jarl Paul Thorfinnsson. Nothing is known of Sigurd’s own ancestry, but he was one of Jarl Paul Hakonsson’s closest friends and supporters – his wife being a cousin of the Jarl. They had two sons, Hakon Pik and Brynjulf.

SITE OF OLD WESTNESS

Whether the Westness of Sigurd’s time was at the site of the present Westness House may be doubted. For one thing, there is no ness at the present house to justify the name. It is probable that the whole promontory on the west side of the island – terminating at the south-west corner in the bold and majestic Scabrae Head – formed the original West Ness. At all events, Scabrae was included in the old Outer Westness of the early rentals. Approximately half-way between the present Westness House and Scabrae Head stands the old house of Skaill – quite close to the beach, with the old parish church adjacent. Just outside the church-yard wall are the ruins of an old building, and a few years ago, Mr. Storer Clouston discovered here the remains of a square tower or keep with walls about eight feet thick, enclosing a room nine or ten feet square. Excavation would be necessary to reveal the exact size, but these figures are approximately correct. The stones used in the building are massive, and have been well laid in lime.

In a charter of 1556 of the sale of the lands of Brough in Rousay by Magnus Cragy to Magnus Halcro, specific mention is made of a fortalice which went with the property. In all probability, the present ruin represents that building.

Old people on the Westside knew of this ruin by the name of the Wirk (i.e. 0.N. virki, a fortification), and a legend existed that it was built as a stronghold in which to keep a beautiful woman whom the builder had taken a fancy to and carried away forcibly from her friends.

What element of truth is in this legend we cannot say, but the very close correspondence of the building with that of Kolbein Hruga’s fortress in Weir is striking. According to Wallace’s account of the latter building, it also was not more than ten feet square inside, had very strong walls about eight feet thick and was built with lime. Mr. Clouston is thus strongly of opinion that both buildings are more or less contemporary. We know that Kolbein built the one, and the great probability is that the other was built about the same date by his kinsman Sigurd. If that be so, we have another weighty argument for locating Sigurd’s home at Skaill.

CAPTURE OF JARL PAUL

More than ordinary interest attaches to the site of Sigurd’s house, for it was while on a visit to him that Jarl Paul Hakonsson was suddenly kidnapped by Sweyn Asliefson and borne away to end his days – no one knows how or where.

At this stage the Saga narrative becomes very puzzling, and is not in accord with known facts. It is stated that Sweyn came round the west of the Mainland and by Evie Sound towards Rousay. As Evie Sound, nowadays, is applied only to the sound inside Eynhallow, one would be led to believe that Sweyn came inside also. But we are then told that Sweyn sailed towards the ‘end of Rousay’ where there was a big headland (hǫfði), underneath which was a mass of stones where otters were often to be found. The ‘end of the isle ’ and the ‘big headland ’ can only refer to Scabrae Head, which, be it noted, still retains the name Head. This, however, is outside – to the north-west of Eynhallow, and to approach it from the west one would not pass through the present Evie Sound at all.

Another difficulty arises when we read that the Jarl and his men had gone ‘south along the island’ that morning, to hunt otters at the place just referred to. Now, whether Sigurd’s house was at Skaill or at the present Westness, the way to Scabrae Head would be north rather than south.

This confusion regarding the scene of the Jarl’s capture is a strong argument against Bjarni’s authorship of the Saga, for he, having been bred in Weir, must often have visited his relatives at Westness and been perfectly familiar with the place – especially a place associated with such an event as the capture of the Jarl.

At the head of a small bay a little bit south of Skaill there is a mound known as Swandro, around which, according to Barry, are to be seen graves formed with stones set on edge. From this fact, and the apparent similarity of Swandro to Sweyn, Barry and others have thought that this may have been the scene of the fight. For that view there seems no justification. In Vol. X. of the Proc. of the Society of Antiquaries, Dr. Joseph Anderson gave an account of a Viking sword and shield boss found near here, but he was disposed to think that they dated from a century or two before Sweyn’s time. The place, too, is over a mile from Scabrae Head, and if any man’s name were to be attached to the scene of the struggle it would be Paul’s rather than Sweyn’s. And by that time also, when Orkney had been Christianised for over three generations, burials would have been more probably made in consecrated ground. The Bishop visited Westness immediately after the event.

SWEYN’S VENGEANCE

One other vivid Saga scene in which Sweyn figures is laid in Rousay. After the death of Jarl Erlend, Sweyn, it is told, went to Rousay. With five men he climbed the hill and went down to the shore on the other side – where exactly we should dearly like to know. In the dark “they concealed themselves at a certain farm where they heard a great talking going on. Thorfinn and his son Augmund were there, and a son-in- law Erlend. Erlend was holding forth to his kinsmen that it was he who had given Jarl Erlend his deathblow, but they were all of them of opinion that they had borne themselves well. When Sweyn heard that he leaped into the house at them, his fellows coming behind. Sweyn was quickest and dealt Erlend his deathblow forthwith. They took Thorfinn away with them prisoner; Augmund, too, was wounded.” It is a commonplace tale enough – told without any form of embellishment, and yet how the scene lives for one down the centuries!

URISLANDS

At what period exactly, the skat tax was imposed on Orkney is not known, but, for that purpose, we learn from the old Rentals that Rousay was divided up into 6½ urislands or ouncelands. These were as follows :- Scockness ½; the rest of Sourin, north of Knarston 1½; Knarston (including Avalsay), Trumland, Over and Nether Hunclett, Frotoft, Corse and Inner Westness were a ½ urisland each; Outer Westness (Skaill & Brough). Whome, & Quandal was 1, as was Wabister (excluding Langskaill), and Langskaill itself was a ½. Total urislands 6½.

PRESENT DISTRICTS

These divisions do not retain their individuality as of old. Scockness, Knarston, and Avalsay are now all reckoned in Sourin; from Avalsay to Trumland is known as the Brinnian; Frotoft now includes the whole district between Trumland and Westness; Westness to Quandal – both inclusive – are sometimes referred to as the Westside, though Quandal – now a sheepwalk – still retains its separate identity; Wasbister now includes Langskaill also.

Thus, in each of the three chief districts of to-day – Sourin, Frotoft and Wasbister – there has been an extension of the districts originally included under these names. Wasbister seems to have swallowed up two others at least. The termination ‘bister’ (O.N. bólstaðr, a settlement) is very common in Orkney, applied sometimes to a single farm and sometimes (as probably originally) to a whole tunship. In the present Wasbister there is a house up in the hill still called Everybist, i.e., yfri-bólstaðr, the ‘upper bister.’ But there was another bister in the district formerly – Libuster – a name which appears frequently in old documents, but is quite forgotten locally. It probably included the present Langskaill, as the park to the east of that house is still called the park of Lee, and the whole long slope east of that is called the Leean, i.e., O.N. hliðn, the slope. Hence we have a ‘bister’ on the slope, an upper ‘bister,’ and a West- ‘bister’ all included in the present Wasbister. Besides this, we know that the farm of Tafts went along with Wasbister Tunship, and thus a fourth district is added.

Sourin is a puzzling name. The old word was Sowrick or Sourwick, which means a muddy or dirty bay, unless Sour- be a contraction of suðr, south. But why this should have become Sourin, and the old form be totally forgotten locally, I cannot explain. It is just possible that the -in termination represents an O.N. vin, pasture, and that both words were current formerly, but that is very doubtful. What seems to have been in old days the main tunship or farm in Sourin has now disappeared altogether as an independent farm, but the name still survives, applied to a stretch of land on the farm of Hurtiso, and up on the top is a patch still called the Taft o’Husabae. The house nearest to this – Essaquoy – sometimes is referred to still as Husabae.

The site of the old Frotoft is also forgotten, but the probability is that it was somewhere about the present Hullion.

OLD CHAPELS

Mr. Clouston, in one of those invaluable papers contributed to the Scottish Historical Review, has pointed out how the old Orkney chapels are intimately connected with the old tunships. After the introduction of Christianity in the 11th century a considerable period elapsed before any regular system of parish churches appeared. The rise of these is wrapped indeed in considerable mystery. But, during the intervening period, well-to-do odallers built chapels for themselves, and one or other of these tunship chapels seems frequently to have developed into the parish church. Many of them, too had consecrated burial-grounds attached. When parish churches were established the sites were not always dictated by the general convenience of the parish. In some cases it would seem that the chapel of the most important tunship or the most prominent odaller became the chosen site. In any case that is what seems to have happened in Rousay where the old parish church was situated at Skaill. The church was dedicated to the Virgin, and there is a well close to it still known as Mary Well.

At the opposite extremity of the isle there was another old chapel in what is still the graveyard at Scockness. I have been told on good authority that in former days this was a place to which child-bearing women were wont to repair and pray. I can find no record of the dedication, but from the above practice one may suspect, this also to have been dedicated to the Virgin.

At the shore below Knarston is another graveyard called simply ‘The Cheppel,’ and at the shore near the pier of Hullion is yet another chapel site. These three sites thus represent the chapels pertaining to the old half-urisland tunships of Scockness, Knarston and Frotoft.

Wasbister is a nest of chapel-sites – no less than four being still known. One stood on a small peninsula called the point of Breetaness which juts out into the Loch of Saviskail on the east side. This name strongly suggests a dedication to St. Brittiva, Bridget, or Bride – which name in Norse is shortened to Brite. On the opposite shore stands the graveyard and chapel site known still as Corse Kirk – a dedication to the Holy Cross. A third chapel has been built, as so often elsewhere, on the site of an old broch on the islet in the Loch called Burrian. On some old maps of Orkney a dedication to St. Peter is marked in this part of Rousay, and one may suspect that this has been the spot. For the fourth site is an older dedication still. It is called Colm’s Kirk and is pointed out at the very verge of the shore down below Langskaill. This site must date from the old pre-Norse Celtic mission, and is thus by far the oldest church site in Rousay. Nothing of the walls is now to be seen, but stumps of stone are still visible and indicate a truly venerable spot.

GRANGE

In addition to these old chapel sites, there are a few other place-names that carry us back and give us a peep at the religious customs of our forefathers in pre-Reformation days. Just to the east of the house of Stennisgorn there is a field known as the Grange. This name is not Norse, but a borrowing from Latin through Scots or English. It was the regular name given to a farm or lands attached to a monastery or other religious house, and it appears twice elsewhere in Orkney – in Eynhallow and Paplay in Holm. We have no indication of the monastery to which this pertained; it may have been an outlying farm attached to the monastery of Eynhallow, visited and supervised by ‘outriders’ such as Chaucer’s monk. But as we have no information about it, speculation is idle.

PRAYER SITES

Praying crosses by the wayside were a familiar feature in old days and particularly at spots where the traveller came into view or lost sight of a church or holy place. In Rousay we have two, if not more, of these praying-sites commemorated in place-names. Corse in Frotoft is one of these, a house built near an old Corsegate or road to the church. In this case the church has probably been the parish church of Our Lady at Skaill, but it is not impossible that the spot to which pious eyes here turned was the more venerable church on the Holy Isle of Eynhallow. The house name Cruisday may have had a similar origin, but that is not so certain.

On the western slope of Mansmas Hill, the northern spur of the Ward Hill, a park just above the public road still goes by the name of Bonie Hole. This looks like two Scots words, but the name has no connection with either ‘bonnie’ or ‘hole.’ There is no hole there – bonnie or otherwise. It is the Norse bœnar-hóll, prayer-hill, the ‘Bonie’ being the same word that occurs in the common Rousay phrase for prayers – especially a child’s prayers at bedtime – bonie-words.

Thus, here again, we have another example of the same custom as we saw at Corse, and the church in this instance has also been apparently the parish church at Skaill. Somewhat farther on in Wasbister the old road to the church is remembered in the house name of Kirkgate.

MANSMAS HILL

Mansmas Hill is an interesting but puzzling name. It signifies the ‘hill of the feast of St. Magnus.’ No house bears the name to-day, but in the parish registers in the General Register House I discovered the name of a house in Rousay – St. Magnus Hill. I have heard no scrap of tradition about this hill, but it would seem that St. Magnus’s day, the 16th of April, was celebrated here in some fashion. As a local saint St. Magnus was held of course in the highest veneration in Orkney, and doubtless many ceremonies attended his festival. From the top of the hill, looking down the Sourin valley, one may see the famous old church in Egilsay that bears his name, and no doubt the exact spot of his martyrdom would have been well known and revered for many a long day. But beyond the name of Mansmas Hill itself, there is nothing left us to-day to tell us how the festival was celebrated.

GALLOWS

The methods of administering law and order in the old Norse days are very obscure but, arguing from what is known of other Norse lands, there were local assemblies or ‘things,’ as well as a central ‘thing’ for the whole group. In Rousay this would appear to have been held at a. place half-way up the Sourin burn, where a rocky knoll deflects the course of the burn and is half encircled by it. This place is called the Gallows. It is practically in the centre of Rousay and its name testifies to the summary methods of punishment in these downright times.

BAILIE COURTS, etc

After the islands came under Scottish rule, bailies and lawrightmen looked after local affairs. From old Bailie Court Records in the Sheriff Court Record Room we learn that about 1690 the Sourin district of Rousay, together with Egilsay, and Work and Carness in St. Ola, formed one bailiewick with Douglas of Egilsay (the owner of these lands) as bailie-principal. From one record we get a peep into local matters in that year. “At St. Magnus Kirk in Egilsay…..The Balzie (name not stated) continues James Craigie in Avilshay, Patrick Yorstone in Banks and John Allan in Faraclet as former Lawrightmen of Sowrick, and adds to them Magnus Banks in Cudraw.” There follow edicts requiring everyone to “keep their own cornland”; no one in Egilsay or Sowrick to take sheep “without the sheepman”; the people of both districts to pay a herd; the officer of Rousay has to keep an account of all beasts in Sowrick, and all dogs above a hundred are to be killed, except with special permission.

The following document, from the Sheriff Court Record Room, also casts some light on the duties of these officials and the need for such regulations:-

2/ Nov./ 1700

Proces and Judgement of Theift [blank] and John Brown writer in Kirkwall, Proc Fiscall of the Justiciar and Stewart court of Orkney for his Majesties interest contra Thomas Craigie in Suandall in the Island of Rousay.

That quhair by the Lawes and acts of Parliament of this and all other weill governed nationes the crymes of Stouth, pyckrie theift and reset of theift are abominable crymes, etc., etc. Yet true it is and of veritie that ye the said Thomas Craigie pannell Commone notorius theiff are guiltie of and have committed the said crymes In sua farr as about the space of twa yeires bygone or thereby George Craigie in Skoknes and Thomas and Patrick Allanes in Farraclett ransell men within the foresaid ylle Having at the direction of the Baillie gone in ransell anent several goods that have been stollen and having come to the pannells house and after ransell made there they did find about foure or fyve merks of gray whyt and black wooll which ye the said pannell could give no proof that the wooll was your owen or from whom ye had it.

Item ye are Indyted and accusd that about the space of a moneth bygone or thereby John McKindlay Patrick Yorstone and Thomas Allan in Farraclett thrie ransell men having Lykeways at the directine of the Baillie gone in ransell for some tedders that was stolen and having come to the pannells house as the person suspect and after ransell made be them they did fynd lying hidd in your kaill yaird ane kessieful of wooll and having enquired at you who hidd the same there ye told them that your wyfe had done the same and which ye the said pannell commone notorius theiff cannot deny. Item ye are Indyted & accusd that upon the same day when John McKendlay and the rest of the ransell men abovenamed were in your house ranselling for the tedders Margaret Robertsone spouse to Magnus Craigie in Sowrick was standing at the back of your barne keeping her kyne she did sie you the sd pannell come from your corne rigg upon great heast and did enter your barne and open the door thereof being locked and there did carrie out in your airmes ane lairge bound whyt sheep belonging to Hugh Marwick and did louse the sheep and put it to the fields at libertie for fear of being apprehended by the ransellmen knowing them to be ranselling in your house.

Item ye were Indyted and accusd that about the space of Twentie yeires bygone ye did goe to the hill and take ane sheep in the daytime and did bind the same and putt it in ane Swyne sty in the hill a little from our own house and in the evening ye desyred Magnus Banks now in trumland then your servant to take ane of your horss and to go to the sty and bring home the said ship to your house and when the fd. Magnus hadd come there and haveing looked to the mark of the said sheep he found the same did belong to some other person and not to you qrupon he came home agane and left the sheep lying in the same place.

Item ye are Indyted and accusd that when Sir William Craigie of Gairsey was Stewart and Justitiar of Orkney ye were enacted in the (Court ?) books for your good behaviour in all tyme therefter under the paine of Banishment.

Item ye are Indytted & accused That notwithstanging of severall acts made against you be the Baillie of Rousay dischargeing you to keep a sheep dog knowing you to be a man sub mala fama yet in contempt of authoritie ye still did keep ane or two sheep dogs and makes use of them as if the said acts had never bein standing in force against you. A—nd generallie ye are holdine and repute a commone notorius theiff be the whole Inhabitants of the Ille of Rowsay who has knowen you from your Infancie And therefore ye ought and should be adjudged to the death and your haill goods and gear both heretable & movable be escheate and Innbrought to his Majesties use in example and to the terror of others to committ the lyke in tyme comeing.”

………………

In spite of these terrible thunderings Thomas was only fined £30 Scots – to remain in prison till paid.

LEGEND

As in my former Sanday paper, I shall conclude with a few scraps of island tradition. You may remember that in that paper I mentioned the legend of “Cubbie Roo’s Burden” – a hillock said to have been formed by the stones that fell out of his kaisie when the fettle broke. Another legend is sometimes also fathered on Cubbie Roo. He is said to have been the giant who, from the top of Fitty Hill in Westray, threw a huge boulder at another giant on Kearfea in Rousay. The stone, however, failed to carry the distance and is to be seen near the shore in the Leean still. What are said to be his finger-marks are still visible in the stone which is known as the Finger-steen. As children we were told that unless we laid a small stone or some such object on the Finger-steen as we passed it, we should meet with trouble on our way back. An older name for this stone is, I think, preserved in the name of a fishing spot just below – Beya-steen. So far as I know, -steen is not used elsewhere as a name for a jutting crag such as this, and Beyasteen has thus, I fancy, simply been named from the stone above.

Another legend survives about a witch called Katho. This lady is said to have been churning in the house of Savaskail one day. She churned away harder and harder until at length the milk foamed up over the lid. She then stopped and exclaimed: “Tara gott, that’s done; Saviskeal’s boat’s casten awa on the Riff o’ Saequoy.” Sure enough at that time the boat was wrecked. The interest in this story attaches to the strange opening words. They are an old Norn phrase pat er gort, ‘ that is done,’ and it is curious to note how in the telling the phrase is immediately translated. Strangely enough, I have heard the same phrase used in connection with a Birsay story of a man who pushed his wife over the crags.

My last story is of interest to the naturalist as much as to the antiquary. On the top of the Brown Hill is a small tarn called Loomachun. This is O.N. lóma-tjǫrn, the tarn of the loom or red-throated diver. This bird in Orkney is known as the rain-goose. Some years ago I asked an old man if he had even seen a rain-goose. “ Yea’m I, boy, an’ I’m seen the eggs o’ her, too.” “Where?” I asked. “On the Loch o’ Loomachun.” The same year a friend of mine told me his son had found a nest of that bird at the same place a few weeks before. Thus, year after year, down the ceaseless procession of the ages, amid the tumult and change of human affairs, instinct has brought back this bird to nest by the lonely shores of Loomachun as it did when first the name was bestowed, and doubtless for long centuries before.

[Hugh Marwick ‘Antiquarian Notes On Rousay’,
Proceedings of the Orkney Antiquarian Society, Vol II, 1923-24, pp 15-21
(Kirkwall: Orkney Antiquarian Society, 1924)]

Rousay Millionaires

Weel here we are foregathered in a vast and happy throng,
And here I am tae deu me best tae cheer yi wi a song,
Wir here tae hiv a jolly time and cast aside wir cares,
The poor hard up musicians and the Rousay millionaires.

For music’s no the kind o’ job that brings the money in,
An we a’ come fae The Mainland whar the soil is poor and thin,
But Rousay is a wealthy place, yi’ll see hid at a glance,
Hid’s kent throughoot the county as a seat o’ high finance.

And Rousay men are brainy, thirs no doot o’ that whatever,
Hugh Marwick is yir postie and he’s mighty cute and clever,
For roond aboot the New ’ear time he aye survives the crisis,
The more he pits the spirits doon, the more his spirit rises.

You’ve got a lovely hall here and Ah’m led tae understand,
Your worthy County Councillor supplied the piece o’ land,
His name is Robbie Seatter and he works both night and day,
And his wife’s so good wi poultry she can mak the rooster lay!

And Robbie Johnston is a man that everybody knows,
He ferms the ferm o’ Trumland and he’s aafil keen on shows,
And he’s a Justice o’ the Peace, I ken that for a fact,
And if his stots begins tae doose, he reads the riot act.

And the Marwick man o’ Falquoy is a plooman o’ repute,
At feereens and at feenishes he kens whit he’s aboot,
He’s surely been tae Africa or some way for a tour,
For he’s merried tae a Lyon and her dad’s a champion brewer.

And the Mainland men o’ Westness are most aafil go ahead,
And John’s the famous bachelor that never goes tae bed,
And his brither James they tell me is as good as any two,
At amateur dramatics or the biggeen o’ a skroo.

And at Woo the worthy Inkster brithers cultivate their acres,
And Tommy wooed and won the nurse while Willie plays at chequers,
And everybody tells me they’ve got an aafil dose,
O trophies that they won wi calves and horses at the shows.

The Dickey man o’ Langskaill is a hero, that’s the truth,
He even flitted north when ither folk were flittan sooth,
He thinks the Rousay folk the wisest folk he’s ever seen,
Since them that hidna muckle sense cleared oot tae Aberdeen.

And a song aboot the Rousay folk wad never, never do,
Unless I made some mention o’ the famous wife o’ Too,
The worthy Annabella whom you love so tenderly,
In aal yir joys and sorrows whit a tower o’ strength wis she.

And Tom Sinclair is the fellow whar commands the Rousay Navy,
He seems tae be the man that brings the mails across fae Evie,
He his a muckle pocket book that’s always getting fatter,
He says deep litter’s payan even better than deep water!

And yi a’ ken Willie Marwick, he’s a most terrific wag,
His shop’s doon at Brinian whar the steamer dumps hids slag,
He’s aye prepared tae tak ye roond the island in his ker,
And his yarns’ll had yi laughan till yir very sides are sair.

And aal the folk in Rousay noo are healthy and weel fed,
Because they eat terrific fills o’ Dave o’ Hullion’s bread,
No winder a’ the Rousay people traet him wi respect,
They always thowt that loaf wis green till he began tae bake!

And the men o’ Brough they tell me are the worthiest o’ pairs,
Thir caught so many lapsters that thir multi-millionaires,
They both believe the Harray folk’s a lot o’ cheeky swabs,
So Ah’m very, very glad thirs no demand for Harray Crabs*

And the Gibson man o’ Avelsay, they tell me his a flair,
For trace-an back the pedigree o’ every horse and mare,
He’s absolutely certain that he kens the pedigree,
O the fither and mither o’ the Horse o’ Copinsay.

I ken tae see yir faces noo yir saired o’ a’ this blether,
So seean hid’s wir evening oot we’ll a’ rejoice taegither,
We’ll hiv a jolly time and be as chummy as you please,
The millionaires o’ Rousay and this bunch o’ refugees!

---

Rousay Concert

Good evening tae you each and all, hid fills me wi delight,
Tae see so many Rousay folk assembled here the night,
And yir happy faces tells me that there is no doot whatever,
That the Reel Society and you are happy here taegither.

We ken the Reel Society are happy tae be here,
And plaised tae entertain you wi thir music sweet and clear,
The musicians all declare a Rousay audience is prime,
For yir that weel aff in Rousay that yir happy all the time.

And fine we ken that Rousay folk can fairly go thir dinger,
And as me song continues noo I don’t intend tae linger,
Ah’ll mention twa three bits o’ news Ah’m heard aboot yirsaels,
So I hop yi’ll a’ hiv patience while I mention some details.

I’ll start wi Mansie Craigie, he’s a man that’s worth the mention,
As soople as a two year old, he always draws attention,
A pensioner that’s happy as a lark and full o’ beans,
Can tak the floor and dance like any laddie in his teens.

And Heddle Omand is a man that everybody kens,
A baker he delivers bread and feeding stuff for hens,
Wi a’ the added vitamins on which the poultry thrives,
And extra currants in the baps tae plaise the Rousay wives.

And we ken that Ian Craigie is most aafil tired noo,
Wi runnan back and fore atween his sweetheart and his soo,
Poor chap, hid’s aisy understeud that he wis in a swither,
Post Offices and piggeries just dinna go taegither.

Roderick Marwick and Hugh Sinclair at the special sale o’ kye,
In Kirkwall wir inclined tae think the price wis kinda high,
So they did a bit o’ dealing whar the price wis no so siccar,
They went doon tae the “Albert” tae a special sale o’ liquor.

They tell me Roderick’s a man wi talents rich and rare,
He keeps the Rousay clocks and cars in excellent repair,
Bit Willie Inkster’s compass seem tae hiv him baffled clean,
For Willie sailed for Shetland and arrived in Aberdeen.

And Ah’m sure yi’ll aal agree this is the proper time tae speak,
O Peggy Corsie’s prize she won at Stromness Shopping Week,
At Stromness Shopping Week, thirs alwis prizes big and small,
Bit tae win the owner o’ the shop’s the finest prize o’ all.

And the Rousay Youth Club seems tae be a most unique affair,
For they tell me Mansie Wylie is the youngest member there,
For Mansie tae be there at aal is gey valiant wark,
For many a boy o’ Mansie’s age is frightened in the dark.

And George Sutherland is thinkan that he must be gittan owld,
For when he goes tae bed at night he shivers wi the cowld,
A hot water bottle as we ken can serve a worthy caas,
Bit whit he needs aside him is a cuddly Orphir lass.

And Mr Nelson seems tae like the Rousay atmosphere,
His family and transport is increased since he cam here,
We a’ hop that in future ’ears hid will continue thus,
Until he his tae swap his fine Land Rover for a bus.

And judgin fae reports I feel I safely can deduce,
That yir very prood indeed o’ the new laird o’ Trumland Hoose,
He’s very popular indeed so generous is he,
That Rousay people daily drink his health in Brooke Bond tea.

I doot the Rousay lads are findan life a wee bit drear,
For ootsiders cam and merried a’ the bonny lasses here,
Bit Edward Seatter says that he’s no gan tae sit in sorrow,
He wants an import licence for a lass fae Edinburgh.

Jack Craigie o’ the ferm o’ Corse is lukkan gey dejected,
His wife’s that trang amang her hens, he’s thinkan he’s neglected,
She talks aboot her poultry in her sleep – hid’s hardly fair,
Jack’s feelan that concerned, he’s faered he’s gan tae loss his hair.

And I hear that yir exponents o’ the game o’ badminton,
Are in a owlder age group than the youth club everyone,
If that’s the case I doot they must hiv lived a middling whiley,
If the youngest member o’ the Rousay youth club’s Mansie Wylie.

And noo I must confess tae you me song is nearly ended,
I hop that everybody’s plaised and nobody’s offended,
Hid wis very, very kind of you to listen till hid’s doan,
So Ah’ll just git aff the stage and let a better turn come on.

~

by

The Reverend Thomas Alexander

Come when l’m lying
Restful at last:
Come when I’m dying
ls all over past.
With bearing-trees come
Down from the hill
All silent and still.
Carry me home
Where the breakers roar,
For l’m wishing to be
By the sound of the sea
For evermore.

Over the streaming
Rush of the Sound,
Sea-birds screaming
In circles around,
Over to Rousay;
I know l will feel
The lift of the keel
As you sail me to Rousay
Again as of yore;
For I wish to be laid
Where my forefathers prayed,
Near the shore.

Sailing from Rousay,
Leaving her there;
Leaving her sleeping
In hallowed ground.
By the edge of the Sound,
Where billows are leaping
And breakers roar,
We have laid her to rest
In the dust she loved best
Till time is o’er.

---

Mr Alexander wrote that poem in his Manse at Evie one January day in 1926. He had just returned from the funeral of Annie Leonard of Lowlands, who had been taken by boat to Rousay to be buried beside her husband in the Wasbister kirkyard. The verses were simple and spontaneous, and one can sense in them the deep impression that winter journey made on the sensitive mind of the author. The very rolling of the boat, getting nearer and nearer the island and then returning, worked itself into his poem.

[Thomas T. Alexander was Minister of the Free Church of Evie and Rendall, 1923-1926]

Inscription on the family tombstone in the Wasbister Kirkyard:

Erected by the Leonard family in beloved memory of their father
John Leonard who died 12th March 1912 aged 31 years,
their mother Annie Gibson who died 2nd Jan. 1926 aged 43 years,
also their brother James Marwick Leonard
who died 6th Oct. 1908 aged 4 months.

---

John Leonard was the son of James Leonard of Quoygray, later Cruannie, and Ann Marwick of Tou. Born in 1879 he married Annie Gibson of Langskaill, daughter of David Gibson, latterly of Hullion and Ann Sinclair of Newhouse. John and Annie had six children: Ann; Estelle; John, who died in infancy; Rose, who went to America; Peggy, twin of Rose; and James, who died at the age of 4 months.

=====

My thanks to Tommy Gibson, owner of the original poem, for allowing its reproduction.