Category: Wasbister

Moan – a croft in Wasbister high up on the northern hill slopes outside the tunship dyke, was the home of the Clouston family in the mid-1800’s.

David Clouston, born in 1801, was a weaver and farmer by trade. In 1831 he married Janet Alexander, the eldest child of James Alexander and Barbara Marwick of Breckan, who was born on October 11th 1811. They had eight children; firstborn was William; John was born on August 12th 1831; Magnus on May 17th 1833; James on September 8th 1835; Betsy in 1838; Mary; David in 1839; and Ann in 1846.

By 1861 Janet was a widow and she continued working Moan’s six acres, assisted by her 39-year-old unmarried son John. The annual rent at this time was 5s. In 1872 it stood at £1, and the acreage at Moan had risen to 26.5.

In 1880 Janet paid £3.0.0. rent. After she died her son John was head of the household and his sister Betsy and her husband William Borwick lived in new buildings erected at Moan in 1893. Betsy died at Moan on June 30th 1931 at the age of 93 years.

Innister is a farm in Wasbister, now incorporating parts of older farms such as Gorn and Hammer. In 17th century records and land charters the farm is mentioned as Ingisgarth in 1606; Ingisgar in 1624, 1627, and 1631; Ingsgar in 1633, 1634, 1771; Insgar in 1814; and Inisgar in 1816.

17th century records abound with references to this as a personal surname also; Rowie (i.e. Rowland) Ingisgar alias the ‘Laird’ was an ‘outstanding’ Wasbister man, c. 1630. The present family name Inkster is undoubtedly a corruption of this name.

The Rousay Birth Register of 1834 records the birth of a daughter to James Inksater in Inisgar. In these old Rousay parish registers the present-day family name Inkster was usually spelt Inksater, and later Inksetter.

In 1841 farmer James Inksater and his family were living at Inisgar. James was the son of Thomas Inksater and Isabel Marwick of Deith and he was born on August 27th 1798. He married Betty Craigie and a daughter, Sarah, was born on August 2nd 1832.

The census of 1841 records another family living at Innister. John Mowat, born c.1791, originally lived at Breckan but later moved the short distance to Innister. He married his second wife, Katherine Inkster [b. 1785], in 1814. They had six children: Christian was born in June 1815; Thomas in December 1816; Elizabeth in June 1820; Mary in September 1822; Hugh in December 1828; and Isabella in November 1830.

Hugh was 22 years of age when he signed on with the Hudson’s Bay Company in December 1850, sailing from Stromness the following year bound for the York Factory in Manitoba. From there he crossed Canada and was employed as a labourer at Fort Vancouver , a fur trading outpost and supply depot along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Columbia Department. Hugh worked there from 1852 to 1854, and was then was listed as a steward at the Vancouver depot from 1854 to 1860.

Going back to James ‘Inksater’, he married a second time. His wife was Janet Craigie and on December 5th 1834 a daughter, Mary, was born. They were to have four more children; Jane, Janet, David, and John, between 1836 and 1843.

James’ third marriage was to Elizabeth Mowat in 1844. They had three children; Margaret, born on November 17th 1844; John, on November 18th 1849; and Betsy, on March 25th 1845.

The census of 1861 gives another spelling – Inesgair. By then James was 63 years old and the size of the farmland was given as 36 acres. In 1854 James was paying rent of £22.0.0. which had risen to £25.6.0. by 1863.

Ten years later and another spelling – this time Inisgear. By this time James had retired, and his 30-year-old son David had taken over the running of  the  farm  with  his  wife, 25-year-old Ann Gillespie of Canisbay, Caithness. At this time the rent was £30.0.0. per annum.

The farm of Gorn was incorporated in 1879, as were parts of Tou, Breckan and 120 acres of Brings pasture. In 1882 David paid £85.0.0. rent, plus £15.0.0. rent charge on improvements. In 1883 the farmland of Hammer was added, and in 1889, with the inclusion of 129 acres of grazing at Brings the rent was £77.0.0. David and his family moved to Nigley, Evie and in 1894 William Learmonth from Faraclett took over the tenancy. Storms unroofed the farmhouse in 1895 and 1899, and by the time William moved to Orphir Innister comprised 62 acres arable and 146 acres of pasture land.

James Marwick, son of Robert Marwick and Isabel Mainland, was born in September 1831. He married Mary Baikie of Evie in 1856 and they had five sons; James, born in January 1857; John in April 1858; Robert in October 1862; George Ritchie, born in February 1860; and David Baikie in November 1865

George Ritchie Marwick was christened after the Rev. George Ritchie, at whose manse his mother worked before she married. George and Betsy Gibson of Knarston had a son John Gibson Marwick, born in July 1885. John married Anna Logie Craigie, whose father was the Postmaster at Hullion, and between 1910 and 1932 they raised a family of eight sons and five daughters at Innister.

Eleven of the thirteen Marwicks: James Craigie, John Craigie, Robert Craigie, William Lyle, Sydney Sinclair, Donald Gibson, Roderick.
Jean [Mary Jane], Phebe Marshall Traill Foulis, Nettie Orr Gibson, Anna Logie.
Missing from the photo, taken in 1954, are David Gibson and Betsy.

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Gorn was known as Gore in the Rental of 1503. John Inkster, born c.1770, lived there with his wife Jean Craigie and their three sons; John, born on August 9th 1802, James, on June 12th 1804, and Robert, who was born on January 2nd 1807.

By 1841, brothers James and Robert were earning their livings as fishermen. They were both married and they and their families were all living at Gorn. In 1838 Robert married Mary Craigie, the daughter of David and Mary Ann Craigie of nearby Hammer, who was born on April 3rd 1809. They had one child, James, born in 1840.

Robert’s brother James married Margaret Inkster, daughter of Hugh Inkster and Isabel Craigie of Tou, who was born on August 10th 1805, and between 1829 and 1845 they had seven children; James, Jean, John, Margaret, another Margaret, Mary, and Hugh. They later moved to Midgarth, near Knarston, but when his father died James returned to Gorn to farm the 18½ acres of land.

The census of 1861 records the facts that James was in his 54th year, and wife Margaret was 53. Daughter Jane was a dressmaker, and 24-year-old son John was a seaman in the Merchant Service. The annual rent for Gorn at this time was £17 15s 0d

James died in 1874, and his widow Margaret moved to Hammer, where her son Hugh lived with his family, and Gorn’s 21.4 acres were added to the farm land of Innister.

Quoyostray was a farm in Wasbister, occupied by three tenants and their families in the early 1800’s. In 1841 the oldest of these, at the age of 85, was farmer John Kirkness, the son of John Kirkness and Christy Inkster. He married Barbara Craigie, the daughter of George Craigie and Janet Brand, who was born in 1781. They lived up on the hill at Pliverha’, where their five children, John, Isabel, James, Janet, and Mary, were born between 1817 and 1824.

They then moved to Quoyostray, and by 1841 their eldest son John, born on April 26th 1817, was living there with his 25-year-old wife Mary Alexander. She was the daughter of James Alexander and Barbara Marwick of Breckan, having been born at Cutclaws on February 24th 1815. Between 1840 and 1859 John and Mary had nine children, the youngest of these dying at the age of three weeks. Mary herself died in 1862 at the age of 47.

The other tenant at Quoyostray in 1841 was 60-year-old farmer Henry Craigie. He was the son of Hugh Craigie and Janet Marwick, and he married Mary Craigie in 1815. She was the daughter of Hugh and Janet Craigie of Skaill, Westside, and was born on July 28th 1794 at Lerquoy, an old house in Wasbister. Henry and Mary had eight children between 1816 and 1837. They later moved to Blackhammer where Henry died in 1862 aged 84, and Mary died there in 1873, at the age of 79.

In 1861 retired farmer John Kirkness, now a widower, was in his 100th year according to the census of that year. He was still living at Quoyostray – his 36-year-old unmarried daughter Mary looking after him.

Ten years later his son John, himself now a widower and in his 53rd year, was farming the 48 acres at Quoyostray with the assistance of his children. In 1873 the extent of the land was 151.5 acres, for which the annual rent was £20. John’s eldest daughter Mary had married grocer and fisherman Peter Yorston of Oldman, Sourin, and they too lived on the farm before moving into Oldman.

In 1891, second oldest son Frederick and his sister Eliza Robson were joint tenants at Quoyostray. The annual rent at this time was £30, and the total acreage was 181.096, plus 130 acres of grazing at Twelve Hours Tower. Frederick, then 35 years old, had married Betsy Mackay, who had been housekeeper to her brother William, the school-master in Wasbister. They had five children; Mary, who was born in 1876; Frederick in 1878; Mark in 1879; James in 1880; and John in 1887. Mary died in 1894 at the age of 18 and her brother Frederick died in 1898, aged 20. Between these two years, in 1896, their father Frederick died, at the age of 43, though his wife Betsy reached the age of 82, before dying herself in 1935.

Eliza Robson Kirkness, who was born in 1850, married Hugh Inkster, the son of David Inkster and Janet Gibson of Saviskaill and later Brittany, Sourin. Eliza and Hugh were married in 1878 and they had a son, David James, who was born on December 31st of that year. Five months later Hugh was dead. He drowned in the Westray Firth on May 14th, at the age of 29 years.  Eliza continued to live at Quoyostray where she had a shop for many years. She died there on May 20th 1927, aged 76 years.

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Quoygray was a house in Wasbister adjacent to Quoyostray. In 1738 William Yorston was the tenant, and in 1799 William Marwick lived here. Between 1841 and 1851 William McInlay was the tenant, paying £5.10.0. rent. William came to Quoygray from the Wash-house at Viera Lodge, and before that from Upper Quandale.

James Kirkness was the son of John Kirkness and Barbara Craigie of Pliverha’, later Quoyostray, and he was born on October 9th 1820. He married 21-year-old Grace Craigie, the daughter of Hugh and Isabel Craigie of Brough, Westside. James and Grace lived at Quoygray, where they brought up their five children.

By 1871 they had moved to Grain, and James’s nephew Magnus Kirkness, who was a blacksmith, lived at Quoygray with his wife Isabella Gibson of Vacquoy. Magnus was the son of John Kirkness of Quoyostray and Mary Alexander of Breckan, and was born in 1840. Isabella was the daughter of John Gibson of Vacquoy and Barbara Craigie, one of twins born at Grithin. Magnus and Isabella married in 1869 had four children; John, born in 1871; Frederick, who was born in 1872; Isabella, born in 1877; and Mary, who was born in 1881. The census of 1901 revealed that young Isabella was a dressmaker, and her sister Mary was an art student.

Furse, was a farm in Wasbister, so named due to its proximity to a ‘force’ or waterfall. The earliest known tenant was James Wishart, his son William on record as being born there c. 1713.

In 1841 Hugh Marwick farmed the land and paid an annual rent of £18.0.0. He was the son of David and Janet Marwick who lived at ‘Force, Wasbyster’ before him, and he was born on May 15th 1802. He married Katherine Craigie of Claybank in 1826, and they had six children; Margaret, born on December 23rd 1826, Mary, on July 3rd 1831, James, on November 14th 1833, David, on August 13th 1836, William, on November 24th 1839, and John, born on December 1st 1842.

The size of the farm built up over the years and by 1871, 69-year-old Hugh had 40 acres to cope with, the rent by this time having risen to £20 14s 0d. His wife Katherine died in 1864 at the age of 62, and by this time son William was employed as a farm servant at Furse.

Hugh retired and his unmarried daughter Mary, who was then in her 49th year, acted as housekeeper, her 41-year-old brother William running the 80-acre farm at Furse. In 1868 he married Janet Craigie, daughter of Henry and Jane Craigie of Greystane, who was born at Mid Quandale on December 13th 1847. Between 1869 and 1891 they had 12 children, six boys and six girls; Jane was born on February 24th 1869; Mary Catherine Craigie on June 15th 1871; Janet on April 7th 1873; William on May 3rd 1875; James on April 13th 1877; Margaret Ann on March 28th 1879; Elizabeth on May 17th 1881; Hugh on March 31st 1883; John on May 25th 1885; Isabella on September 3rd 1887; David on September 24th 1889; and Frederick who was born on August 22nd 1891.

The photo below, courtesy of Orkney Library & Archive and dated 1875, shows William and Janet Marwick of Furse with three of their children, Mary, Jane in the foreground, and Janet on her mother’s knee.

In 1879 William paid rent of £60.0.0. (plus interest on a £300 loan), and the following year £75.0.0., which included 129 acres of grazing on the Brings and also a charge for improvements.

William’s wife Janet died in 1895 at the age of 47. At the time of the 1901 census William was a 61-year-old widower, and living up at Shalter with three of his children, Margaret Ann, Lizzie and Frederick. They later moved a short distance to Whitemeadows.

Furse at this time was occupied by the Inkster family. David Inkster was the son of William Inkster of Cogar and Mary Gibson of Langskaill, and he was born in 1862. David married Isabella Sinclair, daughter of Hugh Sinclair of Stennisgorn and Isabella Gibson of Langskaill, and she was born in January 1866. David and Isabella had a large family – three sons and eight daughters: William, Hugh, Robert, Annabella, Lydia, Margaret, Mary, Ethel, Violet, Lilla, and Minnie.

The above photos show Furse as it is today, the two-storey building dating from the late 1800’s. The location of the original farm buildings can be seen just above and to the right of the top of the ‘force’ in the image on the right.

The original school in Wasbister was known as the Free Kirk School. Rousay minister, the Reverend George Ritchie, was one of those who ‘came out’ along with almost the whole of his congregation in the Disruption of 1843 – a schism within the established Church of Scotland in which 450 ministers of the Church broke away over the issue of the Church’s relationship with the State, to form the Free Church of Scotland. It came at the end of a bitter conflict within the established Church, and had huge effects not only within the Church, but also upon Scottish civic life.

Education throughout Scotland benefited greatly from this development because within a few years the Free Church had opened 500 new schools, many of them in districts where no schools had previously existed.

Just two years after it came into being, the Rousay Free Kirk, under the Rev Ritchie’s leadership, was granted an acre of land at Feolquoy in Wasbister on which to build a school. The land was gifted by George W. Searle who, along with a fellow landowner, Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland, also contributed £5 per annum towards the teacher’s salary. Shortly afterwards, the school and adjoining schoolhouse were built, and the first teacher, William Linklater from Stronsay, was appointed.

Following a dispute over money which he alleged was owed to him by the Deacon’s Court of the Church Linklater resigned in 1862. He was succeeded by James Campbell Bruce from Glasgow who was given £1 to cover his travelling expenses to Rousay. He remained in the post for nine years, leaving when parents began to complain to the church authorities about the way he was running the school. [Mr Bruce subsequently opened a grocer’s shop in Victoria Street, Kirkwall]. Local divinity student, William M. Craigie of Cogar, took over temporarily until the appointment of William McKay in 1871. Then, two years later, the Free Kirk School in Wasbister was taken over by the Rousay School Board. General Burroughs, who owned almost all the island, was the chairman of the Board, the other members being James Sinclair of Newhouse and the three local ministers, the Rev. James Gardner of the Established Church, the Rev. John McLellan of the United Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Neil Patrick Rose of the Free Church.

By 1881, William McKay he had been replaced by 30-year-old schoolmaster William Cooper. He lived at the schoolhouse with his wife Mary Jane Gibson, daughter of John and Jane Gibson of Langskaill, who was born on April 14th 1855. Over the years William and Mary Jane had seven children, the youngest of whom, Anna May, was a teacher at the school 30 years after her father.

A new school in Wasbister was officially opened by General Burroughs on November 1st 1881. Designed and built by Alexander Gibson of Vacquoy at a cost of £495, the Rousay School Board was pleased with it, there being ‘nothing to match it in Orkney or any rural area.’ To mark the occasion, Mrs Burroughs made a gift of fruit and a bun to each child.

Although William Cooper was regarded as a good teacher, he was dismissed when he fell out of favour, at a personal level, with members of the School Board in the late summer of 1886.

When the census of 1891 was carried out 24-year-old teacher William Horne from South Ronaldsay lived in the Wasbister schoolhouse with his 55-year-old mother Mary.

At this time the Old Schoolhouse was occupied by the Craigie family. 24-year-old Hugh Craigie was a carpenter and joiner by trade and he was married to Margaret Inkster of Upper Cogar. They eventually had five children, Maggie Jessie, Mary Jane, James Campbell Bruce, Hugh Gibson, and Barbara. The family later moved up the hill to Turbitail and from there across to Deithe.

Living in the Upper Schoolhouse was 70-year-old widower William Craigie. William was a fisherman and in his younger days he worked for the Hudson Bay Company. On his return to Rousay he married Margaret Inkster of Cogar in 1853, and with his savings he set up a shop there. Between 1854 and 1875 they had seven children, the oldest of whom, William M. Craigie, who was a minister, died at sea at the age of 24. Margaret died in 1876, and the shop was later transferred to the Old School, later re-named Ivybank. William lived there in 1891 with his 61-year-old sister Mary, a spinster, who was housekeeper, his son James G. Craigie, who was then a 28-year-old fisherman and Clerk to the School Board, 25 year-old daughter Mary, and youngest son Hugh, who was then a 16-year-old pupil teacher at the new Wasbister school.

James G. Craigie, who was born in 1863, married Annabella Chalmers in 1900, the daughter of James Chalmers and Ann Flaws of Stronsay. They had three children; Annie Flaws, who was born on February 21st 1901; William Marwick, on April 18th 1902; and Margaret F. (Rita), who was born on July 5th 1908. After the death of his father James ran the shop at Ivybank and as well as being Clerk to the School Board he was also Clerk of the Parish Council and Inspector of Poor. Daughter Annie was the teacher in Wasbister for a few years in the early 1920s before marrying George Scarth of Kirkwall and emigrating to Canada.

[Reference was made to Robert C. Marwick’s book From My Rousay Schoolbag]

Saviskaill is an ancient farm between the Loch of Wasbister and the beach at Saviskaill Bay. Mentioned in the Early Rental of 1503 as Savirscale, the name comes from the Old Norse sœvar-skáli, ‘sea-skaill,’ i.e. hall or house by the sea. The presence of two skáli names in this part of Rousay – Saviskaill, the skáli or hall by the sea, and Langskaill, the long skáli – is significant, pointing, it may be suggested, to early Norse settlers of chieftain or semi-chieftain class.

The very situation of the former – not in the heart of the old Wasbister tunship, but on its outskirts on the seashore – would seem to imply that the head of the settlement was not unmindful of his responsibilities, and wished to be as near as possible to his longship in case of need.

An old Rousay legend survives about a witch called Katho. This lady is said to have been churning in the house of Saviskaill 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 casten awa on the Riff o’ Saequoy.” And sure enough at that time the boat was wrecked.

It would seem that ‘Katho’ – the notorious Orkney witch Katherine Craigie – was a healer in the Rousay community. According to the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland during the Orkney Witchcraft Trials in 1643, almost half of the accusations made against her by her neighbours were to do with healing someone and curing them. With this in mind it would appear that Katho was a relatively ‘good witch’. Her case was similar to many other witch trials in that she was accused of cursing animals and people which resulted in their deaths. Although she was accused of having the devil as her master, there were no suggestions in the proceedings that she ever met him. – Katherine Craigie was sentenced to death on 12th July 1643 “for airt and pairt of the using and practeising of the witchcraftis, sorceries, divinatiounes and superstitiounes…”. She was then taken by the lockman “hir handis behind hir back, and caryit to the place of execution and thair wirreit at a staik and burnt in ashes”.

A ship was wrecked close to Saviskaill in 1783. Subsequent occurrences on the island must have aroused suspicions in official quarters because a man with seafaring experience was sent from Stromness to Rousay to make enquiries and to report. He found the stranded vessel to be one of 33 tons, which had been carrying a cargo of brandy, gin, and tea. All the cargo had been removed from the vessel before his arrival but he saw about 50 casks, which were still on the scene. Some were offered to him for sale but he declined to buy. In the house of Alexander Marwick of Saviskaill the investigator saw two books lying on a window ledge. Both books were soaking wet from seawater and he suspected they had come from the stricken ship. Not so, replied Marwick. Both books were his and had got wet when they fell into a tub of water. Marwick did admit having some casks of spirits and the captain’s chest in which he found six ruffled shirts, a half guinea in gold, a pair of silver buckles and a silver watch. Taking possession of these items from the ship must have troubled him less than having the water-soaked books.

Nigh on a hundred people were busy breaking up the ship, and among them were Alexander Marwick, his son William and his cousin David. The investigator warned them that they would be called to account for their actions but he was told that the wreck was God’s send and that coming between them and such divine providence was no business of his. He considered it prudent, ‘being a stranger in the place,’ to say no more. Several people told the investigator that Alexander Marwick was the first to discover the wreck and that one member of the crew, although found floating in the water, had still been breathing. ‘For the sake of the wreck,’ it was alleged Marwick gave the man no assistance and allowed him to die.

Another inhabitant of Saviskaill was John Inkster. Originally from nearby Innister, he was married to Barbara Marwick and they had seven children, born at Saviskaill between 1794 and 1810; Margaret was born in 1794/5, James in 1796, William on January 24th 1799, Robert on December 7th 1801, Janet, on July 19th 1803, Hugh on October 20th 1807, and another Janet, who was born on November 13th 1810.

The rocky shore of Saviskaill Bay claimed another victim in late October, 1811. The German registered barque Juliana Catharina, Capt. Wallis, carrying flax and hemp, came to grief with the loss of eight of her crew.

James Inkster born in 1796 was the tenant of Saviskaill according to the census of 1841. He married Barbara Mainland, daughter of David Mainland and Margaret Sinclair of Tratland, who was born on December 27th 1799, and they had four children. The three eldest were born when they lived at Lerquoy in Wasbister; John was born on November 8th 1821, James on February 4th 1827, and Margaret on April 3rd 1831. David was born on September 21st 1823 after they moved to Saviskaill.

By 1851, a 23-year-old farmer named Samuel Seatter from Evie was head of the household at Saviskaill. 56-year-old John Flett was farm overseer, and they employed four farm servants – David Inkster, William McKinlay, John Craigie and Margaret Craigie. Margaret Baikie was the housekeeper, and Janet Craigie was a servant in the house.

In 1861, 34-year-old William Seatter was farming the 236 acres at Saviskaill. His wife Jane was 28 years old and they had a one-year-old son, Frederick. They employed four domestic servants; Margaret Baikie (77), Margaret Flett (26), Margaret Cerston (18) and Janet Kirkness (12). John Flett, was a 67-year-old farm servant, and there were also three ploughmen; Hugh Inkster, Malcolm Leonard, and John Yorston, all in their early 20’s.

By 1891 William had died and the land at Saviskaill was farmed by his widow Jane and her 18-year-old daughter Emily. They employed three servants; Jessie Taylor (27), Alexina Sinclair (19), and Samuel Marwick (18). They also had two boarders staying with them who existed upon private means, Robert G. Gordon, and William Wotherspoon.

At the turn of the century Saviskaill was occupied by 26-year-old Walter Muir, who was born at Lady, Sanday. With him was his sister Isabella and four farm servants: Jane Muir, a 30-year-old dairymaid; Robert (25), and Thomas Muir (22), who were horsemen; and John Grieve, who was a seventeen-year-old cattleman.

The 1911 census was carried out on April 5th, and it tells us that Walter was married and had a family, and that they had moved from Saviskaill to nearby Breckan. He and his wife Bella had been married for eight years and by that time had raised five young children. Walter’s sister Isabella lived with them, and was employed as a domestic servant.

Meanwhile, Saviskaill was occupied by the Moar family. William Moar was a sixty-year-old farmer from Birsay, and his wife was 55-year-old Jane from Rendall. With them were their children: David, a 27-year-old ploughman (foreman), Mary, a 20-year-old lass who assisted on the farm (dairy), and her 16-year-old sister Maggie who also assisted on the farm in a domestic capacity. Another sister, Lizzie (12), was at school, and with them was William Velzian, who was a 24-year-old servant and employed as a ploughman carter and general worker.

A much later occupant of Saviskall was Hugh Grieve. I came across him as he was repairing a stone dyke near Grithen in 1975. Hugh was originally from Fa’doon, but moved to Saviskaill after marrying Janet Mainland of Hurtiso.

The last of my photos shows Hugh’s son Colin in 1999, beaching his boat at Saviskaill after another successful day at the fishing.

The photo below is courtesy of Athol Grieve, and shows his uncle Colin doing what he liked best – fishing for lobsters in Saviskaill Bay…..

…..and below is a photo of a very young Athol, pictured at Saviskaill with his ‘first set o’ wheels’!

Finally, below is a fine family photograph taken at Saviskail, kindly supplied by James Grieve. His caption runs as follows:

‘This photo was taken at Saviskaill circa 1996. From left to right: Myself (cough, cough…), Linda Grieve (granny), Kirsty Grieve (sister). Back: Ellen Grieve (mum), Hugh Grieve (great grandad – photographed above building the dyke near Grithin), Athol Grieve (dad), and Colin Grieve (great uncle – photographed above landing creels)’.

Sketquoy used to be the most outlying farm on the north side of Wasbister. Years ago it incorporated the old farms of Stennisgorn and Grudwick. Pronounced sket-wi, or more formally sket-kwai, it appears in a Brough charter of 1608 as Skataquoy, and in another 17th century charter as Skitquoy – but on the Ordnance Survey map of today it is spelt Skatequoy.

James Craigie was tenant in 1737 and Hugh Gibson in 1799. The latter was married to Janet Inkster and between 1794 and 1812 they had seven children. The second oldest of these was Hugh, born in 1795. He was 30 years old when he married Janet Craigie, daughter of Hugh and Janet Craigie of Skaill, Westside, who was born on May 1st 1797 at Saviskaill. The wedding was at nearby Cogar in 1825, and they had seven children between 1826 and 1843. Hugh farmed the 30-odd acres for many years, but eventually he died in 1861 at the age of 66, and his wife Janet died in 1863, also at the age of 66.

In 1863 son John was tenant of Sketquoy, paying £26 rent. In 1872 he paid £30, and the size of the farm was then 46.4 acres. John was born on January 21st 1839 and was 28 years old when he married 19-year-old Margaret Louttit, the daughter of William Louttit and Christina Cormack of Faraclett. Between 1869 and 1884 they had eight children. In 1888 the rent was £24, having been fixed by the Crofters Commission. John gave up Sketquoy and took on Hurtiso and the Mill of Sourin, and they later moved again, to Faraclett.

Above left: Sketquoy in winter – a snow-capped Fitty Hill on Westray across
the firth. To the right is a view from the cliffs behind Sketquoy – from
Sacquoy Head to the Lobust, with Costa Head on Mainland
and the Brough of Birsay in the distance.

Hugh and Isabella’s son Robert, born in January 1864, took over the running of the farm at Sketquoy. He married Margaret Flaws, daughter of David Flaws and Margaret Louttit of Hammerfield, and she was born in 1872. They had four children; Robert, born in 1891; George, in 1893; Annabella, in 1906; and Hugh, who was born in 1903.

Grithin is the name of a boulder-strewn bay at the angle of the coast between the cliffs on the north-west of Saviskaill Head, Rousay, and those behind the old houses of Skatequoy, Stennisgorn and Grudwick.

Grudwick was recorded in the 1503 Rental, consisting of a 1d. land. Its name and situation was long forgotten, but from its relative placing in the Rental it must have been near Grithin, and had its name from the bay or ‘wick’ of which the upper end is now Grithin. The Old Norse word grjót-vik means ‘stony-wick’, which refers to the boulders on the beach at Grithin.

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.

Grithin, or Quoygruithen, was the name of a house that stood nearby dating back to about the year 1500. Hugh Craigie is on record as its tenant in 1739.

Another Hugh Craigie lived at Lerquoy, Wasbister, and in 1808 he married Sicilia Gibson of Langskaill. They had five children; Mary was born on January 6th 1810; twins William and Barbara were born at Grithin on April 27th 1811; Hugh was also born at Grithin, on May 1st 1813, and Isabel was born on April 20th 1815 at Hillhouse above Claybank.

In the Rousay Birth Register of 1817 the house Greethen is mentioned, and in later years, although with alternative spellings, the same house is recorded; in 1819 and 1822, Grithen; and in 1829, Gruthen.

John Inkster married Betty Marwick of Force, the old name for the Wasbister farm of Furse, on February 4th 1814 and between 1815 and 1842 they had ten children. The first of these, Janet, was born on September 3rd 1815 at Force. The next three children were born at Grithin; Jean, on June 21st 1817, John, on August 8th 1819, and Ann, on July 16th 1822. Then another Ann was born on February 6th 1825 at Tou. David was born on May 20th 1827 at Quoygray. The other four children were born back at Grithin; Bella, on August 8th 1829, James, on December 25th 1831, Robina, on November 7th 1834, and finally Mary, who was born on July 16th 1842.

Grim tales are told of some dark times in Wasbister’s past. This one concerns a shipwreck at the Bay of Grithin many years ago. A man from Westray, who had taken some cattle to the market in Kirkwall, was sailing back home feeling well pleased with the prices he had got for his beasts when a storm arose. It is not known whether the boat was lost and he managed to scramble ashore to die shortly afterwards, or whether he was drowned and was later washed ashore. Near the Bay of Grithin are two stones, which are said to mark the head and foot of the Westray man’s grave. At the nearby house of Grithin there lived a man who never had two pennies to rub together. It is said he was never short of money after the unfortunate Westray man came ashore, almost on to his doorstep.

As no evidence of Grithin, Stennisgorn or Grudwick remains I have attached some photos of the Bay of Grithin, and its surrounding coastal features.

Quoys was a farm in Wasbister, the buildings of which now stand as ruins on the west bank of the Burn of Quoys and situated between the lands of Quoyostray and Cogar.

In 1841, the land was farmed by 35-year-old William Gibson and he was paying £10 a year rent. He lived there with his wife Janet Craigie, daughter of Hugh and Isabel Craigie of Brough, Westside, who was born on July 20th 1808. Living under the same roof was Ellen Craigie, a servant, and 13-year-old Hugh Marwick who was an agricultural labourer. Lerquoy was added in 1847, as was Deithe in 1849 [or Quoydeithe as it was known in those days, and sited some 250 yards east of the smiddy above Quoyostray], and at that time William paid £15 14s. 7d. rent.

In 1851, William and Janet had three servants; John Clouston, a 19-year-old, working on the farm; 22-year-old Jane Craigie, who worked in the house; and 13-year-old Betsy Clouston, a cowherd.

Another tenant at this time was widowed farmer William Marwick, who lived there with his 20-year-old son David, a shoemaker.

By 1861, the previously mentioned Hugh Marwick was joint tenant of Quoys with William Gibson. At this time he was a 33-year-old fisherman. On December 1st 1858, he married Mary Inkster, the daughter of James Inkster and Janet Craigie of Innister, born on December 5th 1834. While living at Quoys they had four children between 1859 and 1866.

They then moved to Whitemeadows, a small croft high up on the west side of Kierfea Hill, and between June 1869 and October 1880, Mary gave birth to another six children there. James Mowat was born on June 3rd 1869, William on July 10th 1871, Thomas on June 23rd 1873, John on November 26th 1875, Alexander on December 10th 1878 and Magnus, who was born on October 14th 1880.

Both Hugh and his wife Mary died in 1882, within a month of each other. He was aged 54 and she was 46. Seven of the ten children were younger than 18 when they were orphaned. The following is the inscription on their gravestone in the Wester kirkyard:-

Erected by their family in loving memory of
Hugh Marwick, who died 22nd March 1882, aged 53 years,
and Mary Inkster his wife, who died 17th April 1882, aged 46 years.
“Weep not for us our children dear:
because we died and left you here:
Our heavenly Father thought it best:
to call us home and give us rest.”

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In 1871 James Kirkness and his wife Margaret Inkster lived at Quoys. He was the son of James Kirkness and Grace Craigie of Quoyostray and later Grain, and he was born on March 28th 1843. In 1864 he married Margaret, daughter of James Inkster and his third wife Elizabeth Mowat, and she was born on November 17th 1844. They had four children; Janet, James, William, and David, born between 1865 and 1878.

In 1873, William Gibson, who still owned the 58.8 acres of land at Quoys, paid an annual rent of £20.

The 1891 census of Rousay was carried out on April 5th, and at this time head of the household at Quoys was 23-year-old John Gibson, son of Alexander Gibson and Margaret Learmonth of Vacquoy. It was Alexander who designed and built the Wasbister school, which opened in 1881. He passed away in 1887, and it was then his wife, son john and three of his five daughters moved to Quoys.

The next occupants of Quoys were the Marwick family. David Marwick, son of Robert Marwick and Bell Mainland, his wife Ann Leonard, daughter of George Leonard and Margaret Clouston, and their seven children moved there from Essaquoy, Sourin. Robert was the oldest, born in February 1877; George was born in January 1880; Bella in January 1882; Mary Ann in September 1886; David Baike, was born in November 1890; William Leslie, in May 1895; and John Houston, who was born in April 1897.

Robert Marwick, born in 1877, married Jessie Dearness and had five children; David, Jessie Ann, Christina, Annie, and Ruby. His brother George was unmarried, and the youngest brother, John, was killed in action during WWI. Private 138391 John Houston Marwick served with the 58th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), and fell on September 18th 1918 during the Battle of Épehy, fought between the British Fourth Army and enemy outpost positions in front of the Hindenburg Line, Germany’s last line of defence on the Western Front during World War I. John Houston Marwick is commemorated on Panel 10, Vis-en-Artois Memorial, between the communes of Vis-en-Artois and Haucourt in the département of Pas-de-Calais, France.

The three Marwick brothers mentioned above: Robert [left], George, and John [right]

These photos are from the Tommy Gibson collection

Cogar, in the above photo, is the central modern building with its associated older outhouses, and is surrounded by the old Wasbister school to its left, the farm buildings of Quoys below, and Ivybank to the right.

In an Early Rental printed in 1503 Cogar was known as Calgir. It was occupied in 1733 by William Craigie, in 1740 by Gilbert Craigie, and 1799 by George Marwick.

William Inkster was born in 1799. In 1827 he married Rebekah Marwick of Negar, near Falquoy, and they had two children, William and Margaret. In 1851 they lived at Cogar, 19-year-old William helping his father on the farm and 17-year-old Margaret helping her mother in the home. By this time they had another son, 11-year-old John, who attended classes at the nearby school.

An inscription on a tombstone in the Wester kirkyard records the passing of the three young members of the Inkster family. It reads as follows:-

Erected in loving memory of John Inkster, Cogar, born 11th
May 1863, died 20th September 1864. Robert G. Inkster
born 3rd April 1869, died 6th September 1878. Alexander
M. Inkster born 8th October 1873, died 5th August 1878,
beloved children of William and Mary Inkster.
“Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

==========

William Inkster, now a 61-year-old retired farmer, still lived at Cogar with his wife Rebekah. The third family was headed by William Craigie, a 40-year-old general merchant. He married William and Rebekah’s 20-year-old daughter Margaret in 1853, and between 1854 and 1875 they were to have seven children. William Craigie was a fisherman, working for the Hudson Bay Company in his younger days, and with his savings he set up a shop a Cogar.

In 1873 the extent of the land at Cogar was 43.9 acres, for which farmer William Inkster paid an annual rent of £16. When the census of 1891 was carried out he and his wife Mary were still living at Cogar, as was their son David, now a 29-year-old fisherman, with his wife Isabella Sinclair and children Annabella, William and Lydia. Oldest son William, now 31 years of age, had married Jean Learmonth of Innister, and they had three daughters, Lilla, Annie and Ruby. He married a second time, to Sarah Folsetter of Dale, Evie. William, who was Fire Master in Aberdeen, was known as ‘Fiery Bill.’

A number of years ago Robert C. Marwick heard a news item on the radio to the effect that the government was scrapping the requirement for people who brewed ale at home to have a licence to do so. It was stated that in the previous 12 months only 495 licences had been issued in Scotland, 492 of them in Orkney. He did not know whether this surprising statistic indicated that Orcadians had a greater fondness for home brewed ale than people elsewhere, but he did not know a single Rousay person, let alone 492 in Orkney as a whole, who would have let the need for a licence stand between him and the brewing of a kirn of ale.

Quite a lot of brewing went on in Rousay when he was a boy, and he once heard a Wester worthy remarking after a drink of ale, ‘Man, that stuff’s both meat and drink.’ His mother brewed once a year, in time for the peat cutting. It must have been thirsty work for several dozen bottles, carefully packed in a bushel measure, were taken to the hill on peat-cutting day. Bobby of Cogar was said to brew a very potent ale. It was claimed to give those who drank it what in modern jargon is called a ‘high,’  but they invariably discovered later that Bobby’s brew also produced a ‘low’ in the form of its highly unpleasant purgative effects!

Upper Cogar was where 40-year-old farmer William Inkster and his family lived in 1841. In 1827 William married Rebecca Marwick, daughter of William and Elizabeth Marwick of ‘Heatherhall, Wasbyster,’ and later at nearby Negar, and she was born in 1797. They had four children; John, born on October 26th 1828, William on August 14th 1831, Margaret on June 5th 1833, and another John on September 11th 1840.

The youngest John married Janet Craigie, daughter of Alexander Craigie and Ann Murray of Falquoy, who was born on October 7th 1838. They had one child, a daughter Margaret, born on January 26th 1866. She later married Hugh Craigie of Turbitail, and was known by one and all as ‘Maggie o’ Deithe,’ having moved to the croft of that name further up the hill.

John’s second marriage was to Betsy Marwick, the widow of John Marwick of Essaquoy. When the census of 1881 was carried out they were living at Upper Cogar. John was a 40-year-old fisherman, Betsy was 35 years of age, and by that time they had three children; Elizabeth, born in 1873, John, born in 1875, and James, who was born in 1877.

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‘Fiery Bill’ Inkster, with daughter Lilla and her husband George Sinclair. On the right are George’s parents, Robert and Maggie Sinclair. Sketquoy.

Taken at Cogar on July 21^st 1931, the photo above shows, from left to right:
‘Fiery Bill’ Inkster, Cogar; Annie Craigie, Ivybank; Maggie Craigie, Deithe; Margaret & Robert Sinclair, Sketquoy; Hugh Sinclair, Bellona; Mary Ann Inkster,
Cogar. In front: Sarah Sinclair, Bellona; woman & two children unknown.

Black & white photos, unless otherwise stated, are courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection