• Karen Millen
• Herve Leger
• Karen Millen
• Hermes
• Soccer Cleats

The Golspie Fishertown Project

The inspiration for The Golspie Fishertown Project came from a meeting at the Golspie Heritage Society in Spring 2023 over tea and biscuits. Golspie Heritage Society holds a wealth of information on local history and on its walls hang some amazing photographs of scenes from Golspie Fishertown’s past. One particularly evocative photograph is that of the Grand Opening of Golspie Pier in 1895 which shows the majority of the population of Golspie out in their finest clothes celebrating the opening of this pivotal addition to Fishertown.

Following much discussion (and tea), it was decided that in order to celebrate the key part Fishertown played in the history of Golspie, a community heritage project should take place to share this wonderful story and capture memories from people who remember Fishertown as it was.

After successfully securing funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project, led by ARCH Development Officer, Tessa Till,  kicked off in March 2024 with an introductory talk by historian, Malcolm Bangor-Jones (which was so popular it took place twice in one day) on the fascinating and rich history of Fishertown from the 18^th century to the early 20^th century.

Having set the scene, the actual delivery sessions (16 in total) started 2 weeks later held at the newly renovated YMCA building in Golspie. These sessions initially focused on people’s memories of Fishertown. We were very lucky to have a few people attend these sessions who were either born in or remembered Fishertown very well and were able to share first hand stories of Fishertown, the people who lived there and their culture. The group also included people new to the village or those just simply interested in local history. There was much laughter, great stories and always good tea/coffee and cake.

Once these amazing memories had been recorded the group then turned their attention to researching some of the stories of Fishertown. To do this the group relocated to the Golspie Heritage Society building once known as The Welcome, where local fishermen met to have coffee and read the papers etc when not at sea. There the participants were able to access primary research resources such as the Golspie Heritage Society archive and the physical archive of The Northern Times. They were also able to access online resources such as the National Library of Scotland Maps, the Highland HER, Am Baille, Scotland’s People and the British Newspaper Archive. This allowed the group to research aspects of Golspie Fishertown which particularly interested them such as sea accidents, who lived where and when on Shore Street and its demolition, the opening and history of the Golpsie Pier and the Golspie Gasworks to name but a few.

The final aspect of these delivery sessions was the creation of a physical community display. Having discussed and researched many different aspects of Golspie Fishertown, the group had to choose the topics most important to them and disseminate the information they had uncovered into information suitable for a display with relevant photographs. The resulting display really tells the story of Golspie Fishertown from about 1900 onwards and covers aspects of life such as births, death and marriages, religion and superstition, fishing related accidents, Fishertown in the World Wars, the demolition of Shore Street in 1976, Golspie Pier, Golspie Gasworks and some of the well-known individuals from Shore Street and their personal stories. The group were extremely proud of the display and in August 2024 it formed part of the annual Golpsie Heritage Society display as part of Golspie Gala Week. The display was also shown at the Highland Archaeology Festival Conference, and a poster talk was given there about the project by the ARCH Development Officer.

In order to try to bring part of the Golspie Fishertown Project to life, two free public workshops were also arranged: one exploring the Gaelic Songs and Stories of the time delivered by Aileen Ogilvie, and the other demonstrating the skills of the fishermen in basketmaking hosted by Tim Palmer, Basket Maker allowing people to get hands-on with this artisan practice. Both workshops and were well attended and very well received.

In November 2024, a school visit took place to Golspie Primary School to show the children what had been found. The ARCH Development Officer and a member of the group went from class to class showcasing the results of the project and engaging with the children, some of whom were descended from Golspie Fishertown families and some whose families still did some sea fishing. The children were fascinated to hear what life would have been like for them as a child of Fishertown and how people lived. It was a really nice connection to make for them, the teachers and the project participants.

To showcase the results of the project, an Open Day was also held in November 2024 where members of the public could come and speak to the project participants, hear about what had been uncovered, add to what we know with their own knowledge and enjoy some fine home baking. It was a lovely celebration with optimized the ethos of the project and has inspired new ideas for how to further explore Golspie Fishertown in the future.

This project was also about the legacy that could be left for the local community in terms of Fishertown. A booklet has been produced recording the story of Fishertown from the 1700s onwards and incorporating the findings and stories from the project itself. This booklet is available from the Golspie Heritage Society. An online version of the community display has also been created. This will allow descendants of people who emigrated away from Fishertown in the early 20th century to countries such as Canada, America and Australia, to learn what life for their ancestors would have been like. A link to this online display can be found here.

The final output from the project will be an information board sited at Golspie Pier, possible with funding from teh SSE Gordonbush fund. This will tell the story of Golspie Fishertown for residents and visitors alike. It is likely that this information board will be erected in Spring 2025.

This has been an inspiring and fulfilling project and ARCH would like to thank the funders, National Lottery Heritage Fund and SSE Gordonbush for their support, and all the participants, workshop facilitators, and especially the Golspie community  and Golspie Heritage Society, for all their contributions and enthusiasm.