Memories – Rousay Remembered

Doll and Archer’s Waddeen

Max Fletcher — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 20:54:32 +0000

The following poem was posted by Morag Russell on ‘Orkney Reevlers,’ a Facebook forum for all interested in the Orcadian dialect, and is reproduced here with her permission. Morag says the poem was…..”Written by Minnie Russell for her sister Doll’s golden waddeen. There’s no many fokk left that wis there. I wis a babe in airms and Isobel o Testaquoy wid hiv been a young lass. Ian…

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Alexander Munro – General Burroughs’ Ground Officer

Max Fletcher — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:57:01 +0000

Alexander Munro – 1841-1916 Ground Officer to Lieutenant-General Frederick William Traill-Burroughs, Rousay Compiled by W. Nicol Manson and forwarded to Rousay Remembered by Janis Munro, Stromness, Alexander’s great grand-daughter. Alexander Munro was born in Lyth, in the Parish of Bower, Caithness on the 19th of April 1841, to Angus, (born Kildonan, Sutherland, 1809) and…

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Fraserburgh Lifeboat Loss 1970

Max Fletcher — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 07:49:09 +0000

THE LOSS OF THE FRASERBURGH LIFEBOAT AND ROUSAY-MAN FREDERICK KIRKNESS 21 JANUARY 1970 The Fraserburgh lifeboat, Duchess of Kent, was a good sea boat, but incapable of withstanding the conditions she met on Wednesday January 21, when she went to the rescue of the Danish fishing boat Opal, about 35 miles off Fraserburgh. Launched at 7.43 a.m., after Wick radio relayed a Mayday signal from…

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Steel Rousay Diary 1952

Max Fletcher — Sun, 24 May 2020 14:41:51 +0000

Ernest & Elenora Steel’s Rousay Diary ~ 1952 The diary was written by Ernest Steel in 1952 and is an account of his holiday in Orkney with his wife Elenora, and within the text are some photos taken at the time. Ernest and Elenora fell in love with Orkney and in the early 1960s they bought a croft on Rousay called ‘Langstane’. They would come up regularly to their croft and would spend many…

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Craigie Homecoming 2004

Max Fletcher — Sun, 24 May 2020 09:39:14 +0000

In the summer of 2004 a party of eight Canadian and American descendants of James and Mary Craigie visited Rousay to explore the island and see the remains of the houses where their great grandparents lived, Mount Pleasant in Frotoft and Greysteen in Wasbister. Their guide and informant was the late Robert Craigie Marwick, who prepared the attached pamphlet, handing them each a copy as they…

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Pict’s Hoose and Phonebox

Max Fletcher — Sat, 23 May 2020 17:05:47 +0000

A couple of diverse ‘memories’ from our old friend Bertie Gillespie. I have a story from the early 1950s. We were living in the cottage next tae Faraclett called Pow. Me aunty Maggie Anne was married tae John Gibson o Faraclett; he told me a story of a workman using a pinch bar doon near the North Sand beach above the high water mark near the Faraclett side o the Loch o Scockness.

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Sillicks and Cuevs

Max Fletcher — Sat, 23 May 2020 16:27:21 +0000

My name is Adele and I lived at Woo, Sourin, Rousay. Tommy Inkster ran the farm and Adeline Inkster was the district nurse. We would visit many people and as a child it seemed exciting that we would go to so many folks houses. I remember that I hated going over the Lean, still do, but to get to Willie and Mabel o Hammerfield’s house that was the quickest way.

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Sourin Sea Rescues

Max Fletcher — Sat, 23 May 2020 16:04:50 +0000

Two ‘sea rescues’ – the first of which involves the dramatic rescue of a young fisherman in 1911, and secondly the retrieval of a sum of money in 1880. The first account was mentioned to me by Anne Paterson of Aberdeenshire. She wrote as follows: “This is about an incident in Rousay around August 1911. My father, Alfred Alexander was in Rousay for holidays and his cousin (don’t know his…

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Wilson Family Memories

Max Fletcher — Sat, 23 May 2020 15:29:52 +0000

Margaret Wilson from Edinburgh has been kind enough to share a few Rousay memories – together with a fine set of photographs and their captions: “My granddad, David Wilson, was an Edinburgh draughtsman and was asked by Walter Grant [then owner of the island’s Trumland estate] to draw up the plans of Midhowe Broch during the excavations in 1932. Grant gifted my granddad two cottages to…

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The Joiner Shop

Max Fletcher — Sat, 23 May 2020 13:28:30 +0000

by Anita Thomson The joiner shop at Ivybank in Wasbister, Rousay, started out as a school. It was built in the 1840’s or thereabouts under the auspices of the Rousay Free Church. It remained a school until the School Board built a new one, across the road, which was opened in 1881 by General Burroughs. My great-grandfather, William had been out working in the Hudson’s Bay…

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