Frequently updated web files presented as a comprehensive one-stop online Gazetteer on  Blairgowrie and Rattray. It focuses on accommodation options, activities, art, aviation business, cycling, commerce, community, culture, cuisine, customs, disability accessibility, economy, education, employment, entertainment, environment, fauna, flora, food, gardens, geography, getting around, golf, government, history, homes and housing, internet access, local groups and organizations, media, motor vehicle options, music, politics, public transport, religions, sports, traditions, tourism, vacation planning, vital statistics, walking, wildlife, winter sports, etc. For tourists, business visitors, employers, employees, newcomers, researchers, retirees, scholars.

Blairgowrie and Rattray E Mails Guest book

From wherever in the world you visit this lovely part of Scotland or plan to, your comments and/or experiences are welcomed for publication

By disabled travel writer Keith A. Forbes at keithaforbes@sky.com. Keith lives in Rattray with his wife Lois.

How you rate our town, its services, environment and facilities is important to us. We will publish your comments below with the flag of your country (where you live, not where you are nationals, if different). We show your comments by date of receipt. Send in plain text please, no html, no attachments - with subject "Blairgowrie and Rattray Guestbook"  - to this author at keithaforbes@sky.com . To confirm your authenticity give your personal name and where you live ( name of town or city and zip or postal code) and own email address. Your comments may be edited, if more than 10 lines, for space conservation purposes. The methodology is not instant e-mail, it may take a day or two to show.

Comments for this Guest Book

Too bad the Blairgowrie and Rattray Regeneration group did not succeed in its bid to get Scottish Government funding. It will be great if something positive can be done at long last to get the town buzzing again and regenerated. In the meantime, could town councillors and the community council please look into doing something about improving the traffic flow in the centre of the town? It is so irritating when it takes so long to cross the bridge because of roads going every which way and vehicles parked along Rattray High Street. I go by there every working day on my route to and from Alyth and Forfar and grind my teeth over the unnecessary wait.  John Patterson, Perth, October 31, 2011. 

As a former resident of Blairgowrie I'm one of those who have had good reason to be grateful for the kind attention of and competent services provided by the staff at the Blairgowrie Community Hospital. For a while, I was a regular visitor there for treatment. I'm glad you at this website have taken an active interest in ensuring and enhancing how it plays such a vital and unique community role. I'm pleased - and I know others are too - with the establishment of the Strathmore Focus Group specifically to take an enhanced community interest in the hospital. Thanks for linking to it in the way you do and giving it the attention it deserves. Please keep up your interest and involvement. I hope other local and regional websites do the same and the Blairie can take an active interest too.  I encourage you to help get more local folk involved. Having a facility like that in the town is so important in ensuring that unnecessary and expensive trips to PRI or Ninewells don't have to be made, especially when parking at PRI is so difficult and at Ninewells is so expensive, even for the disabled, despite what the Scottish Government claims re free parking at major hospitals. Elizabeth Campbell, Edinburgh, 25th October 2011.

With the Scottish General Election now finished and with the Scottish National Party having obtained a majority, I implore it to keep the goodwill of the Scottish people and not fritter it away. I refer specifically to an earlier attempt by the SNP, defeated shortly afterwards thank goodness, to impose minimum pricing per unit of alcohol despite the fact that government taxes on alcohol in the UK are already the highest by far in the world. Scotland, especially the Highlands and Islands, already suffer from far higher prices than much of the UK, for petrol and oil, to the huge disadvantage of prospective tourists. Don't damage their tourism prospects further. Then there was the SMP initiative, again defeated when there was decent opposition, to levy a super-tax on major supermarkets of the Tesco ilk. Had it been approved we'd all be paying higher prices. People foolishly forgot these when casting their votes. MSPs who don't pay these taxes themselves because they can write it off in their expenses should not be allowed to impose such taxes on others. If the SMP try to ram these proposals through now they've got no real opposition, they will have their voters up in arms. Joseph Smith, Edinburgh, May 11, 2011.

It's great you have written about disabled parking abuses. I can sense your anger and frustration. It deserves to become an international issue. As a severely disabled user myself of a disabled parking badge I was told by a relative in Glasgow about the 15th January 2011 BBC Breakfast report and disabled-friendly guests comments. I was hugely interested and then greatly dismayed. What more can and should be done as a matter of urgency to prevent further, constant abuse of badges? Plenty, if only your Scottish government, the equivalent in London, your Scottish Law Commission and your local regional authorities - councils -  would do it. Bring penalties for deliberate abuse up to international code, not the pathetic £60 in your country now. Make it a minimum of £160 - the average in every state of the USA, for first offence, double that for the second, triple plus impoundment of vehicle for the third. Only when scofflaws realize it carries a heavy penalty will they stop. Councils urgently need to make more money. Here's one way to give them the incentive to create enforcement. It is not fair to the truly disabled who have been deprived of a disabled parking space by a miscreant that persons with dogs visiting graveyards can be fined up to £500 by their council for allowing their dogs to foul a graveyard, but for disabled parking miscreants to be fined only £60 - if at all - for a human rights abuse. Stop immediately this absurd - and in other countries such as USA and Canada illegal - practice of disabled parking abuses in public places only. The Government and councils should require them to be in shopping malls also. They are where the majority of offences occur, not just in public parking places or on streets. Make all UK police law enforcement officers, as they are in USA and Canada, with powers to ticket offenders specifically including disabled parking scofflaws. Here, police seem to be totally indifferent in sad comparison. It's a terrible indictment of the UK for disabled visitors from abroad. Yes, there should be a better way of ensuring that only the truly disabled get a badge, with no central register. Merely putting the price up from £2.50 to £10 in your currency won't do it. The USA and Canada have central registers and always issue free badges. They work well. Disabled people are treated so badly in UK compared to in USA and Canada.  David J. Jones, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 02903. February 16, 2011. 

It's great to see that Blairgowrie has a regular community market held when seasons allow at Wellmeadow in such a nice central locale, complete with musicians and so well-attended. I was there last weekend. I have only one criticism of the town. It is that the town's present traffic layout is awful, with constant unnecessary delays caused by traffic lights. It makes motorists want to escape the town as soon as possible instead of wanting to linger to enjoy the many neighbouring and regional attractions with Blairgowrie as a base. Improve the way the roads are structured and Blairgowrie will indeed be a unique Scottish place to enjoy at leisure. Fred Thorpe, Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, September 1, 2010

Good to see that a town of your calibre (well, apart from your crazy roads that so frustrate people) finally has a decent website - yours. I used it extensively to find out more far more about Blairgowrie than I could on the Visit Scotland website or any other local website when I was a Blairgowrie visitor recently. Blairgowrie has a nice selection of shops and you list quite a few. I'm a passionate believer in community councils and what they could and should be doing to actively promote their towns and villages instead of being passive. It's good that the Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council has a website and that it links to certain websites - including yours. But I just can't believe there are only about fourteen businesses or entities or civic groups in Blairgowrie with websites. According to the information on your website there are about 200 businesses and civic entities with websites. I recommend your community council follow your example instead of just showing 14 of them including those that won't link back. (I also recommend you de-link those that don't reciprocate the link). David Sullivan, Palmers Green, London N13, England, July 18, 2010

Too bad your English correspondent from Birmingham got annoyed about the "anyone but England" slogans on tee shirts being sold for the World Cup. It is not a racial or ethnic slur, merely a preference under free speech. Most Scots, perhaps all of them, have enjoyed the sight of those tee shirts and agree with the sentiment. Don McKay, Edinburgh, June 18 2010.

Editor's note. True, but would we like it if the English suddenly started to publicize tee shirts saying "anywhere but Scotland" in retaliation? They too could claim it is not a racial or ethnic slur, just free speech, and Scottish tourism needs them far more than they need us.....

I write to you as a leading website for Blairgowrie and one of the very few in Scotland to welcome and publish comments from visitors. I want to express my dismay over how it has been reliably and widely reported in the English media that 78% of all Scots don't want the England football team to win in South Africa this month. I urge you Scots to stop biting the hand that feeds you financially and instead become more neighbourly and genuinely friendly. If you want our tourism business and tax benefits then support us. Other countries have lovely scenery, not only Scotland. We can fly to those countries for less money than it costs to drive to Edinburgh, Perthshire and further north and get far better value for money plus guaranteed better and warmer weather in France or Germany or Spain or Portugal or Greece or Italy than we do in Scotland. Nick Bates, Birmingham, England, 11th June 2010

So the 6th May 2010 voters have spoken, with a hung parliament. I'm a periodic visitor to Blairgowrie and glad to see a new and up-to-date website running public feedback, I'm hoping the MP of the SNP of your Blairgowrie and Perthshire area who was re-elected will take due note of the reasons for that hung parliament. One was the huge blunder by Nick Clegg of the Lib Dems in wanting to give an amnesty to illegal immigrants. Another was the outrageous recent hikes in Air Passenger Duty enacted by Labour but also on the manifestos of the Tories and Lib Dems and not revealed by the latter as their way of financing no income tax to all who earn under £10,000 a year.  I hope there will be no further rubbish from any political party on replacing annual vehicle licensing taxes with taxes on a mileage basis. I'm sorry but the Lib Dems completely spoilt their chances with their daft ideas about immigration amnesty, doubling yet again the APD and more.  Changes would have been much more understood if they had meant savings to taxpayers, not further expenses. I believe all the political parties should be airing and sharing their manifestos with the public at large, in referenda, instead of keeping them secret, as lame-brained ideas of their political leaders. It's time also that the myth of proportional representation is revealed. It achieves no laudable purpose, only a significant reduction in efficiency of the political system and a doubling or tripling of the expense of having three MSPs replacing one MP. As an example of this waste check the numbers of MSPs representing the Highlands and Islands north of Blairgowrie. I count not one but six. There's also a solemn warning to all the parties in Westminster and the SNP at Holyrood to clean up your acts or be voted out. William Grant, Inverness, May 7, 2010

I write to express my hope our MPs and MSPs of all political parties will learn from, inwardly digest and apply to amended legislation at Westminster and Holyrood, the ramifications of the eruptions of volcanic dust that to date have stopped all flights to and from the UK for many days. I believe it should be seen as a warning of divine retribution for their recent actions that have hugely inflated the costs to all visitors like me in getting to Blairgowrie by road with the recent hikes in fuel duty and the further massive government rip-off in the outrageous increase of Air Passenger Duty. These have hugely affected both residents and visitors but not MPs or MSPs because they can write them off as expenses while the majority of us cannot. I believe it's high time for a French or US-style revolution against outrages in political governance. Personally, I hope that all MPs and MSPs who have supported these monumental rip-offs so against the public interest get turned into volcanic ash in the forthcoming polls. Despite like sheep meekly paying these new petrol increases and Air Passenger Duties in hope of having a good, safe holiday abroad, our folk have been shafted yet again by paying these costs our legislators do not. Voters who manage to get home OK from their ruined and involuntarily-extended holiday abroad should take out their misery on the latter. Sending warships to collect a few is not the answer, getting rid of the people who cost the public so much money is. David Ramsay, Polham Lane, Somerton, Somerset TA11 6SP, 19th April 2010.  

Nice job you did on creating your Gazetteer on Blairgowrie, to add a valuable additional service to the town! I'm booked to see Scotland as part of my UK trip in June. Lots to look forward to, including seeing Blairgowrie, so near to so many aspects of Scotland. Unfortunately, it's going to be a very expensive trip, caused mostly by your government's huge Air Passenger Duty, outrageous gasoline costs when renting an automobile due solely to government taxes of 73% and the prospects of your Scottish Government imposing minimum prices on already too expensive Scots whisky and other alcoholic beverages. At least by staying in Blairgowrie at your suggestion I'll be able to avoid traveling long distances at those absurd gasoline prices. There's been a huge bad reaction to the news of all these Scottish price hikes here in the USA.  Let's at least hope your government will have gotten the trams running in Edinburgh by then, to make the Edinburgh part of my trip worthwhile. I've been reading what an unholy mess the city is in with the delays and cost overruns in the tramlines. Look forward to meeting you in Blairgowrie and talking to a travel writer with US connections. Sincerely, Jack Stewart, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, USA. March 12, 2010

It's wonderful to know you've moved from the Far North Highlands to Blairgowrie and Rattray. It's a nice town despite its traffic jams and the ideal place to see the best of Scotland. I can personally say I know this for a fact, as a fairly frequent visitor to Scotland for the Lonach Highland Games at Bellabeg, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, to see the land of my origin. I've found out for myself and family that staying in Blairgowrie is a much more practical proposition for attending not only the Lonach but seeing so many other nice places as well. Well done on seeing that although there are many websites in Blairgowrie none until your came along actually publish comments from visitors, to make our visits feel appreciated and give us some "come-back" or haste-ye-back" sauce. Kenneth D. Forbes, Crystal City, Virginia 22202 USA, March 9, 2010

Just a short note to thank you so much for your superb concise explanation on the most economical way to have a functional website, shown in your Links. As someone seriously considering the merits and demerits of both living in the Highlands of Scotland and operating a web-based business, I've learnt a huge amount from your revelations. Clearly, you're an insider in the business. Well done, keep up the good work of providing insightful information other sites do not. Wish there were more websites like yours that gave all the facts, not just some, so that people could receive a fair overall impression. Patricia Buchanan, Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3BD, England, 20th November 2009.

In her 28th August 2009 column "Tourism Matters" in the newspaper Northern Times, columnist Joan Campbell, who I gather normally writes some excellent and thought-provoking tourism-related articles, wrote about a new website the Scottish Highland Explorer at www.scottish-highlands-explorer.com. Interestingly, another website, www.northhighlandsscotland.com also recently got some Northern Times publicity. Through the medium of your superb Brora website, which seems to have a finger, in ways other Scottish national, regional and local websites don't, on the pulse of what tourists in your area think, I'd like to ask if Mrs. Campbell might be interested in looking into an aspect of Far North Highlands tourism that seems to have been sadly missed. When it is corrected it could do your Far North Highlands area a power of tourism good.  Until then, I believe it does your Far North Highlands area far more harm than good for its many omissions that hurt, not promote tourism in your area. I wish someone with the fine reputation of Mrs. Campbell and with her standing in the Scottish  tourism industry would suggest that all national, local and regional Scottish Tourism websites, specifically www.visitscotland.com and the others already mentioned, plus www.discoversutherland.co.uk, http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk, make a point of routinely linking to each other in order to give the visitor to Scotland a much better overall picture of Scotland than the fractured, incomplete and yet occasionally confusingly often much-repeated situations existing now. Local websites such as yours, another dealing with Brora in a much smaller way; a community website in Helmsdale; a community website in Golspie and Dornoch, etc. are completely ignored by the bigger and much better funded websites mentioned, instead of being linked to them (and expecting a reciprocal link) for providing the wealth of information on their local area that the biggies don't have. It's a huge tourism inequity, a tourism-for-visitors-wrong that needs to be righted to truly give tourists all the choices they both need and deserve.  Also, while on the tourism front, when Sutherland and Caithness have such exceptionally long summer days would it not make sense to offer tourists more choices in places to visit by extending opening hours in summer to match the longer daylight hours and reduce them in winter? Regards, Catherine Jack, Surbiton, Surrey, England, September 23, 2009

As a journalist visitor to Brora and area from Ipswich, England I write to say how hugely impressed I was by your Brora website, which so obviously goes into so much more detail about Brora than any other local or regional or national website. It reminds me a lot of our Ipswich Rotary Club website which, in its Links at http://www.ipswichrotary.org/Links.cfm also doesn't hesitate to mention in a uniformly impartial way other useful links relating to Ipswich. Yet, according to the East Sutherland Rotary Club website, your website doesn't exist, despite it being praised publicly and internationally by Wikipedia as an exceptionally detailed and categorised guide to Brora!  The only local website mentioned on the East Sutherland Rotary Club website is by the chap who created the local Rotary Club one - and neither are any other local or regional websites mentioned as links. Shame on you, East Sutherland Rotary, for being so unhelpful to Brora and partial instead of impartial! I thought Rotarians were supposed to be community leaders, not partisans   I. Smith, Ipswich, Suffolk, England, September 21, 2009

You have an especially nice and very thorough website on Brora! Well done, keep it up. I always thought it was a privilege for the Northern Constabulary, as a police unit serving the community, to be in East Sutherland villages. Maybe I'm wrong to assume this but to me it's entirely logical for a local police representative to make a special point of always attending monthly evening meetings of their Community Councils. As a potential first-time visitor to Brora with a special affinity to the police services of the world I'm disappointed to hear this is not being done routinely in Brora. It's also a good opportunity for the local constabulary to be seen by members of the public at a time when they no longer walk their once-regular beat. Surely, this is one of the duties specified or implied in the Northern Constabulary website? Jack Campbell, Ipswich, Suffolk, England, 14th September 2009

What I and I know many others on this side of the Atlantic particularly like about your Brora website is that you cover both the Tourism and Community sides of Brora extremely well. Plus, you also have a much more complete list of businesses in Brora by far than all other local and regional websites put together. In short, you provide everything an aspiring visitor or new resident will need to know, all in one website. Bravo! Long may this continue!  No wonder Wikipedia gives you such a glowing report. Sheila Hancock, Younge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 3rd September 2009.

Editor - thanks for the very nice compliment, much appreciated

Unfortunately for all, Scotland in general and your Far Northern Highlands of the mainland in particular are being very badly served at this time by your legislators. It seems you have no one at MP, MSP or Highland Council level raising a fuss about the far higher overall cost of petroleum in your part of the world. Yet the equivalents of MPs and MSPs in other parts of Europe have been successful for many years in ensuring that remote parts of their countries don't have to bear a higher tax burden. The impact of these higher taxes on Caithness and Sutherland mean far higher prices than necessary on everything to do with tourism. You've also now had Scotland, via its misguided politicians, declare itself the most expensive place in the UK by far and probably in Europe too for residents and visitors to drink whisky and other alcoholic drinks. If the rationale is because you Scots don't know how to behave when you've had one too many then it's my view you lot drink far too much mostly because you're being throttled - taxed to death - by politicians who think far more of themselves than of creating more incentives and job opportunities for you voters in your part of the world. And if you don't believe me then compare their pensions and benefits to yours. If there was more local employment and more stimulation and incentives to stay in your local area instead of leaving to go find meaningful work and upward mobility, I'm sure there would be far less binge drinking and related social problems. I refuse to blame the young or old for problems they did not cause. It's been proven elsewhere, in more enlightened countries, that people drink far more when they run out of hope and opportunities - yet all your politicians seem to want to do is to tax, tax and tax those who drink and those who drive.  Under those circumstances, who wants to drive to Caithness and Sutherland, etc? I did - once. Not now. I'm willing to bet that primarily for the reasons given above most of your smaller establishments have had a poor, not good, 2009. Stanley T. Marshall, Winchester, Virginia, USA, August 30, 2009.

Editor - superb email, my feeling too.

I write from Atlanta, GA, USA. A Scot by descent I may be but I'm an American first. If that cold-blooded Lockerbie killer who deliberately murdered over 250 Americans is kissed goodbye today on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Government and allowed to go back to Libya instead of ending his days in a Scottish jail, Scotland can kiss goodbye to any further tourism from the North America for years to come. I can guarantee this will be the reaction of mad-as-hell Americans and Canadians who won't hesitate to take their tourism business elsewhere, no matter what Scottish Homecoming inducements are offered now or in the future. We won't ever go again to a country or region so soft of terrorists and terrorism. Your government should be kicked out for being so contemptuous of tourists who come from great distances and give your economy its bread, butter and jam. Kevin MacLeod, Atlanta, Georgia 30328, USA, August 19, 2009

Editor. Good feedback. When that decision was made I too was appalled. 

I was delighted to find your page on Brora via a link at Wikipedia. I found the area mentioned in one of a series of ghost stories I've been reading recently. The description therein, quite likely mostly fictional, centers on the ruins of a Pictish castle that overlooks a river famous for its salmon fishing. Sara Schwager, CNY Editorial Inc, New York, USA. Full editorial services, American and British English, July 3, 2009

Webmaster: We have the Brora River, known for its salmon, that flows from west of Brora, through the centre of the village and empties out into the sea at the harbour.

I'm one of the self-styled Wizards of Oz. My family and I, with some roots to Sutherland, were planning a once-in-a-lifetime visit to your part of the world in north Scotland this mid-year. But we are worried because we heard reports that of all the regions of the UK, Scotland has been hit by far the worst with swine flu. Can you explain why Scotland has a higher ratio of swine flu than the rest of the UK is seeing? I don't see how it can be because Scotland has better reporting of swine flu cases. We've been told that Scotland has only about 8% of the entire population of the UK, but it seems Scotland now has 50% of all the present swine flu cases. It's too expensive a place for visitors like ourselves to be stranded there and unlike Europeans we are not covered cost-free by your National Health Service. What are your thoughts? Don McLeod, Brisbane, Australia, June 9, 2009

Webmaster: Many places world-wide now seem to have this.  

I write as a Canadian from Toronto to offer a sincere compliment to you and your site and also make a complaint - not to you but to VisitScotland.com and VisitHighlands.com, both clearly run by the same people. When your website goes to the time and trouble of researching so thoroughly both Brora as a village and Sutherland as a Scottish county for the enormous benefit and satisfaction of your visitors, and has done so for not months but years, your site should not ignored by VisitScotland and VisitHighlands but instead should be used foremost by them as examples for other places to follow. Yours is clearly written from the perspective of a travel writer. We who live abroad need that perspective so much more than merely the perspective of a resident. Your site gives information galore that visitors need to know, to budget properly for, but other sites don't give. Thanks very much for that. I'm passing your link around to all other Canadians and Americans I know and am delighted you've gotten some well-deserved nice publicity in North American online, offline and travel agents' media. William A. Donald, 21 Shaftesbury  Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3T 3B4,  26th May 2009.

Webmaster's comment:  Immediately following your email, VisitHighlands was asked to link to this site, but has not replied. If/when it does we will immediately gladly reciprocate the link. 

I really appreciate your comprehensive site on Brora, Sutherland and family history. My only complaint is that when, because you recommended it as one of the"must see" places to visit in Sutherland, I drove 30 miles each way to Carbisdale Castle on 20th May, I found it closed for a private party.  I've established there was no mention of this either in the newspapers covering your area or in the Carbisdale Castle website.  That castle and the Scottish Youth Hostel which owns it should know that when they fail to let newspapers know and don't keep their websites updated, it is a poor reflection on Scotland.  Websites are supposed to be the frontline of communications. Andrew Copes, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. May 23, 2009.

Webmaster's comment: Unfortunately, on that same day my wife and I took tourist writers visitors staying with us from Bermuda to Carbisdale Castle, only to see it closed without notice. The Castle and SYHA were sent some scathing comments and came up with some feeble excuses.

At long, long last, a website - yours - that goes into exceptional detail on Brora, Golspie and Sutherland, delightful areas. We've waited long enough. Your site is well-named, they are indeed Treasures of Britain. We hope you are being adequately rewarded for your commendable initiative by the Brora and Golspie community councils. We are among those with connections to both villages hoping and planning to go there this summer if foreign exchange rates and gasoline costs will still permit. Kay Watt, 95 America Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, USA, May 5, 2009.

As one who has not yet been to your East Sutherland, Scotland, I write to thank you so much for giving me the incentive to think seriously about going there this summer, specifically to include Brora and Golspie entirely because of your two websites. You write with such good detail. My guess is that with your North American experience you're a sticker for accuracy. Your comments provide further proof that in order for any town or village to survive as a place to attract and retain visitors and new industry it must have a comprehensive local website such as yours to help get them there. Well done! May you go from strength to strength. Regards, Don Forrest, Southgate, London N14, England, 22 April 2009. 

My name is Carl Vadenbo, and I am currently undertaking a Master of Science Thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA). The main focus of the thesis is on potential environmental benefits and burdens of recycling of lithium-based battery systems considering different possible socio-technological context scenarios. I have been trying to get in touch with people involved in the battery recycling process that was set up in Golspie by AEA Technology in 2004. However, the only information I have gotten is that this part of the company does not belong to AEA anymore. I have run out of leads and this is my reason for contacting you. I am assuming that you are well familiar with the activities in and around Golspie. My questions to you are these: Does the lithium-ion battery recycling plant operate, and are related research and development still carried out in Golspie Business Park? If so, who is running the operations today? Would you be able to recommend anyone I could contact for more information? I would sincerely appreciate your help! Kind regards, Carl Vadenbo, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,  Zürich, Switzerland and Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg, Sweden. 22 April 2009. 

I have just looked at your wonderful web page on Brora having just returned from Scotland after a great week's holiday. I wonder if you could help me with a small matter. We visited Brora for a day and thought it was wonderful. In the harbour there is a boat called Jacqueline which looks rather abandoned. My husband fell in love with it and we are trying to trace the owners to see if they would be willing to sell her. Would you have any clue as to owns it or how we can go about tracking down the owner? Any clues would be appreciated. Regards, Linda Coady, Ashford, Middlesex, England, 14 April 2009.

Editor's note: I suggested Linda write a Letter to the Editor of the Northern Times, published on 24 April. Since then, Kathleen Cunningham, Visit Scotland's Brora representative, kindly looked into it, her contact established the name of the probable owner and English address and suggested Linda contact the harbour manager at Lochinver to whom the boat's harbour dues are paid. 

It was lovely to receive your email today, thank you for taking the time to get in touch and to give me the information contained therein. I was thrilled to get the two websites you mentioned of Brora and Golspie and would like to congratulate you on your work. They are both very impressive indeed and I will definitely be forwarding the links to friends in Australia who I know would be interested. I especially loved the clear photographs, the lists of names of the businesses etc.  So many old friends and children of old friends!  I used to work at the Lawson and my office is there in your photo so tomorrow I will point this lovely photo out to my work colleagues. I also so loved the photo of Golspie's main street. I have spent a couple of glorious hours going through the sites and the links from them to the heritage society.  I want to spend more time but you know how it is, tonight the family needs are calling so I must leave it for now, they are all wanting to be fed!  I did manage to find a George Murray on the Brora burial site, death around 1838 (aged 37) who may well have been the father of our George Murray born 1818.  Who knows?  Records in these days weren't all that specific and with the events that were happening in the North in those times it's a wonder there are as many records as there are.  I tried to find also the mother of our George Murray, seems her name was Kate Macdonald but no joy there.  No matter, I have had fun looking. The Editor of NT is about to publish some more information I was able to find out about George Murray, it seems he was born in Invershin and somehow came to Golspie after that, I found some information which states that around the dates when he would have been a young boy the people of Loch Shin were moved forcibly to Brora area, perhaps this is how he came about to end up in Golspie. He arrived in Australia about 1838 and they say he was with a Lord of the British Isles caring for his horses (aged 20 years old. I wonder if he was in someway working for Duke of Sutherland or something.  I won't tell you more for the moment because I have attached the latest info I sent to NT to this email for you. Yes, history is amazing and when you go into it you could go on and on.  It seems your own ancestors have made their mark on the world also, truly amazing altogether. Anyway, thank you once again for taking the time to get in touch and to pass on information. Your email was most gratefully received. If I manage to find out anything more of interest via your site or it's links I will be sure to let you know. With kind regards, Elizabeth Kerr, Golspie, New South Wales, Australia, 14 April 2009.

Despite the recession in the USA and the fact the US$ is worth peanuts now against the Euro, we Americans can still in theory get fair value in foreign exchange for the British Pound. Many of us who are of Scots heritage and whose forebears are from Sutherland, Caithness or the Western Isles, etc would love to be able to "come home" - if we get fair value for money. That's the key phrase, it's not about being on tight budgets and going all-economy. You'd think we'd jump at the chance to go to Edinburgh in June or July 2009 for the much-heralded Gathering of the Clans, then drive north to Brora or Golspie or elsewhere in Sutherland or go to the Western Isles, Orkney or Shetlands as the case may be. But what is holding us back are the disgraceful situation happening now in Edinburgh (I'm told by my friends living there it is awful, don't visit, it's the Scottish Parliament not the people who caused the chaos with the trams and its dreadful overpricing on Princes Street) and the outrageous prices for gasoline, beer and other booze. What's wrong with your government, for crying out loud? Why does it have to be so dammed greedy and unfriendly to would-be visitors!  It's far cheaper to visit exotic places like the Bahamas or Puerto Rico or Hawaii than it is to visit Scotland with all your government's chronic profiteering! Sincerely, Peter J. Mackay, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15218, USA, April 12, 2009.

Written, administered and web-mastered in Blairgowrie, Scotland, by

Keith A. Forbes, at keithaforbes@sky.com  
© 2012. Revised: February 5, 2012