Transcript:

Shepherd of the Cabrach

A story by Willie Sinclair about his time as a shepherd on the Cabrach

Well, we used to walk the sheep at Kennethmont right up to Cabrach in the spring. We lambed them down at

Kennethmont and then walked them up to Cabrach.

We took them down about some time in January – depends on the roads and that. There used to be a lot of

snow at that time and roads were blocked and that. Often couldn’t get them down – we just had to leave them

there until the road was clear. Then we took them down and they lambed at Kennethmont. He’d a farm there

as well. So we lambed there and then walked them up to Cabrach. Maybe 100 at a time, or 120. Just a few at

a time. Ewes and lambs.

“And how long did you work up there?”

I think I was with him – I left in the winter time and then went back to lambing again. I worked with him in the

summer time.

“Was this when you were a young man?”

Just about 20 odd.

“And you had your sheepdogs for that as well?”

Oh aye – and they’re good dogs for keeping them on the road and that. And for letting cars past with the

young lambs.

“So you’d walk up there in the spring and the summer as well?”

Oh aye – I was there in the summertime and the clipping time and all that.

“Did you have to walk long distances?”

Oh aye – well there was a lot of sheep walked on the road at that time, through here, big lots of sheep. There

used to be a guy used to walk them from Rhynie right up to Braemar. Three or four days it took. The man

Cooper – he used to walk them right to Braemar. It took a few days.

“And did you ever walk for a couple of days?”

No, that going to the Cabrach, we did it in one day. A lot of us in one day.

“It’s quite wild up there isn’t it?”

Aye – wild in the wintertime.

“And how did you get from here to the Cabrach to start your work? Or did you used to live up there as well?”

I lived there. There was one summer I went back to Kennethmont every night and went up through the day.

“And you would drive to Kennethmont?”

Oh aye – there was a Landrover. But there were lots of sheep walking the road at that time.

“And was that the old drove roads?”

Aye. Oh there were lots that went through. There was another lot from Cabrach used to come down here a

lot. Smith, he had a good lot them – three or four hundred. They came down here to pastures all around the

back end and that.

“So you were moving them on to new pastures?”

Well, there isn’t much for them in the Cabrach in the wintertime. There wasn’t enough for them to eat there so

they came down to onto different ground.

“It’s pretty sparse up there, isn’t it?”

Aye, it’s alright in the summertime.

“So did you prefer working up there when it was summer?”

Oh aye, I liked it alright.

“Maybe a bit harsh in the winter, was it, for you? Just had to get dressed up warm.”

You had to walk! Especially when the road was blocked, from Kennethmont up to the Cabrach. If the road

was blocked.

“And how long would that take you?”

Oh, it took nearly all day. You went out and left in the morning before eight and went up there and fed the

beasts and walked back again.

“Gosh – just to feed them?”

Aye – and some days it was as windy and what you were feeding them on blew all over the place. But I didn’t

often have to walk. It was just if there was a bad storm. Used the Landrover most of the time.

“Well it could get over some snow, I guess. So did you ever take them to market as well?”

Well they were sort of selling in the Cabrach at that time. They sold the lambs up in the Cabrach at that time.

“It’s pretty quiet up there these days.”

Oh aye but the pens are all down now. There used to be a market in Rhynie as well but that’s all gone as well.

And they used to have a market in Strathdon – that’s gone. And Alford – that’s gone.

“The Mart?”

Aye – that’s gone too.

“And of course, that’s the Heritage Museum now, isn’t it?”

Aye.

“So was the Cabrach a busier place? More people?”

Well, it was just one sale in the year. I think Rhynie was the same – just cattle at Rhynie. A one-day sale in the

year. And they walked the cattle from round about here down to Rhynie and sold them there.

“So they had no way of transporting them on the road – you had to just walk?”

Just walked them slow down the road. There’d be maybe a good few farmers would put half a dozen each or

eight or four and put them all together and walk them down the road.

“With the dogs as well?”

Well there was a lot of folk buying the beasts. There was a lot of them not accustomed to dogs and they just

had to walk them without dogs.

“That sounds tricky.”

Aye. But the cattle was easier managed at that time. Was nae near so wild. Oh, they’re different breed of

cattle.

“So they just use different ones now?”

They’re all different breeds nowadays. Limousins and that are wilder.

“So were they just more accustomed to people?

No – they were just a different breed of cattle – they didn’t allow Aberdeen Angus crosses at that time. that’s

crossed with Aberdeen Angus cattle.

“So when people talk about the local Aberdeenshire cattle they mean the Aberdeen Angus, do they?”

There’s a few shorthorns too at that time.

“And of course they were bred quite near to here, weren’t they?”

Oy aye, they’re all – well there’s a lot of folk going into them again now, and the shorthorns. And the Aberdeen

Angus. They’re a lot easier managed, not that wild beasts.

“So when you stayed at the Cabrach, when you were walking there, where did you live? In the farmhouse?”

There was a house there at that time, a steading. It’s away to the left, as you over the Cabrach, a grey place

to the left, maybe a mile away across. You just see the steading and that now. The Laird, he burnt the house.

He didn’t want folk up there so he burnt the house.

“Which folk did he not want up there?

He didn’t want folk living in the houses up there. He burnt two or three houses up there.I think he burnt

another one at Bogie Bay, that was burnt as well. But he got into trouble for that. But there’s nobody would

live up there now.

“Just a bit too far out, isn’t it? Too remote. So this was the Laird that was the Laird when you worked there?”

It’s still the same Laird as burnt the houses. He’s still there now.

“So were people coming and camping out in them without his permission?”

No, no – I dinnae ken – he just didn’t want them. It would maybe have been the poll tax – I don’t know what it

was. The community charge you call it now.

“Oh – he didn’t want to pay for it. And what kind of man was he?”

Well, I’ve never, ever seen him but he’s not a very good man, I’ve heard. He’s doesn’t get a very good name.

“Oh, I see. So you were working up there for a farmer – it wasn’t for the Laird?”

No, not for the Laird – for a farmer that rented it. He had two or three fields – all into one.

“So you must have been quite fit and healthy if you were doing all that walking?”

Aye – no bother …

Transcript:

Soldiers from afar

A story by Willie Sinclair about the soldiers from overseas

“Well, the army used to come down here and train. Oh aye, soldiers come all down that road. Down past

Edith’s and there used to be mules coming over the hill there. They were foreign folk. They came over the

hill and they camped out just down from Edith’s. Oh, maybe about 20 mules and there was folk on

horseback and all that – foreign. Not Gurkhas but something like Gurkhas.

“Like Gurkhas? What – like the Nepalese guys?

Aye – kind of dark men, they were.

“What were they doing?”

They were training at time of war and they come right over the top of the hill there and through the village

and went away up Strathdon, right over there.

“And that was all training?”

Aye. And then they went away to over them foreign countries. It wasn’t Malaya but one of those foreign

countries. They went away over there. Burma, I think it was.

And sometimes they come this way – up the way – the captain – just down from Edith’s and they were right

there at night – they went in there with the horses and that.

“And did they ever speak to you?”

Never spoke, no no. No.

“Just kept themselves to themselves?”

We heard they were there and I went down to see the horses and mules and that.

“Had the horses and mules travelled from overseas as well?”

Oh, I think they took the mules with them, oh aye. Must have taken them all with them.

Transcript:

Stranger at the farm

A story by Willie Sinclair about the night a stranger turned up at the farm.

“It was about 9 o’clock at night and Peter had took the tilly lamp (there was no electric at that time) Peter

took the tilly lamp out of the house and was away down to the byre – and Pat and me – we slept together –

we went away to our bed – and Pat’s mother, she said ‘There’s somebody shouting’, she said.

And they said “Show that light – I’m lost” at 9 o’clock at night and it was pitch dark – no lights round about us

at that time and we were in our beds just down the stair and she came through a wee while later and she

said “There’s a man at the door” and he got ………..

And just a wee while after that Peter came in with the light and then a man was found up at Deskie the next

day this side of the village – over there.

“So what was he doing?”

Nae idea and I never, ever found out but we didn’t think anything about it. Didn’t ken if he was a tramp man

or what he was but he was found up at Deskie the next day. He must have walked over through the village

and right up to Deskie.

“Through the night?”

Aye

“So was this after the war?”

Just after the war, about 1947. Just almost the end of 1947, about October or November maybe.

“And this was your family home? Where you stayed?”

I worked there, that was Peter Dunn’s, aye. I just worked there. Pat was just starting school – five and a

half younger than me.

“So he was working out of school hours?”

I was left the school but I worked for Peter Dunn. It was a bigger farm at the start and then I went on to the

big farm at Auchinleith. I just worked there for a while.

“So you got this strange visitor one night?”

Mrs Dunn she was terrified of him. And everything was dark, you see. Peter, he was away down to cattle

with the big tilly lamp.

She came through and said a manny’s at the door and just after Peter came through with the lamp. But she

was feared like. Aye, there was a lot of folk on the road at this time – tramps and that.

Transcript:

The beekeeper’s hood and the corkscrew

A story by Jill Pratt about a beekeeper’s hood and a corkscrew.

One of the weird requests I had was a gentleman I didn’t know came in and asked me if I had a

beekeeper’s hood and I said, “Well no, I didn’t have a beekeeper’s hood but I did have a midge net that I

could lend him if he thought that would be enough.”

And I had this midge net that had been made for me by a company that I’d seen advertised which was solid

material at the back and the net across the face and I said to him he would need to wear it over a hat to

keep the net away from his face. “Yes, that would be fine.”

So I went up from the shop to the house and got the net and took it down and gave it to him and off he

went. And he said his bees were swarming and he didn’t really want to get stung but this would be fine.

And a few weeks later he came back and he came back with a bunch of flowers and a pot of honey and he

said he was the only one that didn’t get stung – of all the people that were helping him with these bees.

But the flowers and the honey I thought were such a nice thank-you because I had lent him this net and

that was what happened all the time. People would come in for something and I didn’t have it but maybe I

had it up in the house and I would go and get it and give it to them and the same thing happened with a

corkscrew.

People coming through going to the Lonach Games in Strathdon had found their wine had corks and they

didn’t have a corkscrew. I did sell corkscrews but the only things left in the box were tin openers.

So I went up to the house and got our corkscrew and said ‘There you go, have the corkscrew. If you’re

coming back this way just drop it off.” And I thought well, if I get it back that’s OK and if I don’t, it’s only a

corkscrew. But, sure enough, they came back quite late that night, with the corkscrew, with profuse thanks,

so that was another thing that helped to make the shop the place I wanted it to be.

And another case was a German boy – well a young man – who had been camping. He had one night to go

and he had an egg to eat and he couldn’t eat the egg without salt and the only salt that we had was

obviously in the big household packets so I just nipped upstairs, put some salt in a little bit of paper,

screwed it up and said “There you are”. And he was so touched. I think he was on the verge of giving me a

hug – but didn’t. But I thought – that was normal. That was what you did if somebody needed something you

gave it to then – and what was a little bit of salt?

So it was good.