Wilson Family Memories

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 live in during the time he spent there – Sjo Brekka and Avils. He would take the whole family up for two-to-three months at a time. He planned to retire to Orkney but following his trip up to finalise his retirement plans in 1961, he sadly died of a heart attack coming home on the St Ola. My dad, Darney Wilson, was only six months old the first time he went and there began a lifelong love of Rousay and Orkney. He was there every year until he died in 2008. Both his and my mum’s ashes are scattered at Hullion Pier.”