Shetland Trip #3, 18th & 19th May

After landing we drove over to see our good friends, Catherine and Finlay and we spent most of the day catching up and being fed!

We had a meeting arranged with Susan Cooper from the Family History Society and explained the reason behind our visit. Both her and her husband were very interested in our story and suggested where might be a good place for the plaque to be displayed. Then we drove over to inspect the rental house that Ian had booked. It's really impressive and could easily be a comfortable family home with all mod cons and beautiful views over Walls and the voe.

View as we drive over to Skeld

Sunday started wet so we delayed moving the caravan until it was a bit fairer in the afternoon. We're now settled in the site at Skeld with a view over the marina and down the voe out to sea

Shetland Trip #3

After two days travelling ...

via Edinburgh, the Forth Bridge and Aberdeen...

..under blue skies

 and overnight ferry crossing..

..we finally arrived in Shetland on Saturday. A very grey and misty Lerwick, 12 degrees cooler than the previous day!

Although I have been to Shetland twice before, and met new relations and made friends, my brother had never made the trip. As a 70th birthday treat this is being put right!  With much excitement we have planned this adventure for the last 9 months. The idea started in August last year when Ian showed me a picture of a plaque he had made, entirely from wood, as a tribute to men of the Merchant Navy lost during WW1,  our 2 great uncles among them. He decided that Shetland, their birthplace, was the most suitable repository but whereabouts and how?

We both agreed that we needed to make the journey together and spend a week visiting sites on the islands where our ancestors were born, lived and died.

We have built a tragic story from the meagre facts that our mother knew and subsequent research, that our grandparents met in South Shields, he a Shetland sailor and she working in the lodging house he used during spells on land. Originally we thought that after George left Shetland he had no further contact with his family and, after speaking to relations here, they thought the same. The first clue to dispute this assumption was noticing one of the witnesses to the wedding was James Harrison, probably George's brother. This seemed even more likely when we found that his ship was berthed in Tyne Dock and sailed the same day. Sadly there was no further contact from the Beeswing and it was presumed torpedoed and lost. George's other half brother Arthur was also lost at sea later in the war and we feel lucky to exist as my grandfather survived until 1939.

Caravan trip to Hoddom Castle - In search of Bell roots

For our 1st excursion with our little tourer we decided to visit Hoddom Castle, a site John had used before and knew was fine.

We set out yesterday morning with our two boys and collected the caravan from storage. 

After an uneventful journey we arrived here at around 1.30 and began the mammoth task of unloading the car and finding homes for all the paraphernalia we obviously thought was essential for our new home from home. However, we underestimated the size and overestimated our needs and had to leave a lot in the car!

The weather was fine and the boys appreciated their new surroundings before a shower of rain started. It faired up in time for the short walk across to the bar for a nightcap.

Saturday morning was dry but cloudy and we set off in search of clues to my Bell roots. I knew that my great grandfather Thomas Bell was born near our site in Tinwald and that his family had lived in Dalbeattie shortly before they moved to South Shields so we started in Dalbeattie with a visit to the museum, I wanted to know if there was an obvious reason for the move and the guys there were interested but could offer no explanation. 

I knew the address where they lived in 1881 and checked but the original house had been replaced, hopefully the one I pictured could have been similar.

What I did see in the town was a butcher named Carson [the maiden name of Thomas' mother]

Our next site of interest was a house by the road out of Dumfries where Thomas' father, Samuel Bell, had worked as stable boy when he was 18. The address was listed as Curriestanes and it seems it still is.

Finally we went to Tinwald near Dumfries, the birth place of Samuel. I know from the census that at 5 years old he was living with his maternal aunt's Kirkpatrick family so can only assume that his parents had died. Another researcher has posted a photo of a gravestone belonging to a number of this family and said it was taken in Tinwald churchyard. By the time we started looking the rain had returned and we couldn't locate more but got the one I was looking for.

A New Chapter Begins "A Hoos wi Wheels"

Now we've bought a second hand tourer we're set for a different sort of holiday.

For the past few weeks we've been buying bits and bobs to kit out our new home on wheels; from essential items like a gas bottle, water roller and kitchen items, to touches that make it our home from home, a TV, card games, jigsaws and puzzles and rugs and, of course, beds for our two lodgers, Max and Paddy.

Our first trip is booked and we're off to Hoddam Castle site in Dumfriesshire on 6th April to get to know our caravan and hopefully do some research on my Bell ancestors who moved, as a family, from Dalbeattie in Kirkcudbright to South Shields, sometime between 1881 and '84. Let's hope the weather is kind!

Shetland 2016, Epilogue

On the last day I decided to walk up the hill behind the croft to get the best possible view before going home and Catherine and Cory joined me. This was just as well as I had no idea how treacherous hill walking can be in Shetland. Catherine pointed out the boggy areas to save me from getting wet feet but more relevant was her advice on quicksand and it's dangers. Poor Cory nearly succumbed but, with his four paws and light weight, he scrambled out.
We clambered on over heather and sphagnum to almost reach the water tower which is easily visible from many points in this part of Shetland.

View back down the voe to the sea

Catherine, perched on a rock.

Cory, enjoying the exercise

On the way back we encountered some of Shetland's famous natives and saw the sheep patiently awaiting clipping (or clubbing as I misheard earlier in the week!)

Luckily we just had time on the drive into Lerwick to snap a couple of views from the outside of the croft where my grandfather grew up. There would have been less houses then but I doubt the scenery has changed much in the 100+ years that have passed.

Shetland 2016 Day 6

As Catherine was planning a barbecue for tonight we thought we would be having a quiet day around Bruntiskerry but a surprise invitation to go out on the boat with Jimmy was too good to turn down.

He keeps his boat at Walls so a short drive down the road and we were there and off out into the voe.

Surrounded by the sides of the inlet it was calm and peaceful. We went right up to Reesthness where we had visited Robert's house last year and saw the activity in the salmon enclosures.

It was a little choppier as we reached the open sea and stopped to try our hand at fishing.

Jimmy had the only success of the day with  his 1st line, pulling in 4 mackerel. Despite trying a couple of his favourite spots, putting on the music and the faith of our accompanying seagull we failed to get any further fish.

Nevertheless we had an enjoyable couple of hours and David got promoted to 1st mate and steered us successfully home while Jimmy cleaned the catch.

Later, despite the weather, Catherine had a lot of friends and family over for the BBQ. Sadly it's the end of our trip and we set off for home tomorrow.

Shetland 2016 Day 5

After an unusually late start David and I got dropped off in Walls to do some separate relative visiting. David went to see his cousins, Loretta showed him her award for carding and spinning yarn from sheep's wool and David has a vast collection of old family photos and his research.

 I called into the care home to catch up with Mattie, my mother's first cousin.

She is so like my Mam that I spent quite a bit of the visit in tears. She is so lovely and bright, she was telling me about her work in Southampton during the war, about her brothers and where she had lived and what she is planning for my Christmas present!

The other residents were also chatty and I got talking with them about the current proliferation of Lucky Minnie's Oo (Oo is the Shetland for wool. We know it as Bog Cotton) The older folk here are saying it is an omen for a severe winter!

For a change we took the bus from Walls into Lerwick and had a browse round the Archive and shops then had a pint waiting for Jamie to catch the ferry. We finished the day with a meal at the Ghurka Kitchen and popped in to see Wilma and Jimmy before heading home.

Waiting for the bus at Walls