Places of Significance: The Shetland Islands

Photo by KF - Sept 2014

Pastoral and serene, with the occasional noise of a car passing on the mostly one-lane roads. But all that you typically hear is the noise of the bleating sheep.

This is Shetland: Low rolling hills covered in peat and heather; a jagged coastline;(1) sheep and miniature Sheltand ponies dotting the hillsides, many of them coraled by dry stone dikes/walls built hundreds of years ago. And a view of the ocean from almost everywhere you go - you’re never more than 3 miles from the water at any point on the islands, the Atlantic to the west, the North Sea to the east.

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The archipelago of Shetland is small (it’s combined land mass of 567 square miles could easily fit inside the footprint of the Great Salt Lake), but somehow it doesn’t feel small. And Shetland is remote, accessible by airplane or ferry, but it doesn’t feel isolated - they have all the conveniences of modern life (high-speed Internet, cell phones, even a cupcake bakery in downtown Lerwick). But somehow it feels less hurried, less complicated, with a more pervasive sense of contentment. And it’s populated by some of the happiest and friendliest people you could ever encounter.

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Sixteen of the approximately 100 islands are inhabited, with a total population of 23,000 (in 2011). Lerwick on the “Mainland” of Shetland (the largest island) is the capital, boasting 7,500 residents (in 2010) and features whatever services you could need, including a large Tesco. ("Lerwick" is a Norse word meaning "muddy bay.") The outlying villages are small communities with maybe a post office or small grocer and a social hall, and clusters of modern homes mingled with the relics of ancient stone crofter cottages. Often there’s no house numbers or street addresses for the homes - their mailing address is simply the “name” of their home, followed by the village name, Shetland, and the postal code.

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Several of the islands are significant to our family:(2)

• The mainland of Shetland (the largest island): This is where our dear cousins R and E live, with their husbands G and J, respectively, in the village of Sandwick. But we have records of ancestors living in the village of Sumburgh and the town of Lerwick as far back as about 1590 (Robert Bruce, bef 1590-1636).

• The Island of Yell: In the village Burravoe, on the southeast corner of the island, is where Robert Bruce (1827-1865; married to Wilhilmina Inkster, 1835-1896) lived in the Manor House (also here), right on the edge of the voe/inlet. This house is where Ursilla Katherine Bruce (1862-1937) was born, Grandma Ella's grandmother. Cousin N currently lives in Burravoe and works at the Old Haa, which is a short walk from her home.

• The Island of Whalsay: At one time, the Bruce family owned the entire island. We have ancestors who lived here back to at least the 17th century: Robert Bruce (1690-1742). A later ancestor, also Robert Bruce (1766-1844), was a (the?) Deputy Lieutenant, Convener of Zetland and built the Symbister House, another laird estate home.

It’s remarkable to feel such a depth of personal family history in such a small place!

Notes:

1. The coastline itself measures 1,679 mi long.
2. Perhaps more than these? I haven’t ventured back into the family history far enough yet.

Other fun details shared with us by cousins GS and RS:

• Dry stone dikes/walls, built hundreds of years ago, zigzag across the countryside.
• Shetland has strong winds - which many prefer over the rain.
• Sheep shearing - in June, to prepare animals for the "heat wave" of summer.
• All independent crofters/famers that sell their wool to the manufacturers. 
• Very few trees on the islands - mostly peat, grasses. 
• Fishing and wool are main industries (fishing with salmon cages and muscle rafts).
• Christmas trees are imported from Bergen, Norway. A huge one is brought on a fishing boat and erected in Market Cross. 

Places of Significance: The Manor House in Burravoe, South Yell

Would I have the guts to knock on the door of the big house, and say, “Hi! This is the home where my great, great grandmother was born. Can I come in?” I was hoping I would, but when we were finally there in the moment, I hesitated.

Photo by KF - Sept 2014

Situated prominently on the voe (inlet) in the village of Burravoe, on the southeast corner of the island of Yell, Shetland, is the Manor House, a multi-story estate house with a panoramic view and easy access to the water. This is where the laird Robert Bruce (1827-1865) and Wilhimina Inkster (1835-1896) lived (my gr, gr, great grandparents) and where my great, great grandmother Ursilla Katherine Bruce (1862-1937) was born, Grandma Ella's grandmother.

Photo by KF - Sept 2014

The Manor House is adjacent to the Burravoe Pier and Marina, and it’s a stone’s throw from the Old Haa. The house was built in 1860 (with the addition of the front veranda added in about 1920).(1) According to the 1861 census, Robert was living there in 1861 (and we assume Wilhimina too), though it’s unclear whether he commissioned the building of the house.

The house seemed smaller in person than I had imagined, but keeping in mind the context, this building is by far the largest in the area and with an ideal location. This was definitely the house of a laird.

Ralph and Ella - Sept 2014

The Manor House is in the center of the frame. Image Source.

So there I was, after traveling almost 5,000 miles from the United States to see this place that seemed legendary in family stories. I was leaning on the fence surrounding the property to take pictures, down by the marina, trying to imagine what life was like there in the late 1800s, and … I was now too nervous and felt it too bold to do more than simply take pictures from a distance.

But a friendly fisherman approached, and said, “Really? Your ancestor was born here? Let’s go talk to the current laird. Come on!” as he opened the gate and led me through the rocky, grass-covered fields, up to the house itself. Gordon, the friendly fisherman who lived on an adjacent property, did the knocking. :D Unfortunately, the laird wasn’t home. But there’s definitely a satisfaction in knowing we tried!

Maps:

• Google; Bing/Bird’s Eye View (See the pier and the fence where I was taking pictures)

Notes:

1. See a real estate listing for the Manor House from 1988.

The view of the Manor House from outside the fence, by the marina. 

Ah! It was so windy! It's hard to hear the narration. Filmed on location - September 2014. 

The view of the Manor House from the jetty out in front. 

Again, so windy that it's hard to hear the narration. Filmed on location - September 2014. 

The War Years: Air Raids, City and Countryside, and Strength in the Gospel

"They're just trying to break our morale down," her mother would tell them when the sirens would go off and the German Luftwaffe airplanes would start coming through, usually at night between 10 and 11 pm. Her parents, sister, and herself would jump into their siren suits (her mother had knit one for her and her sister) and head to the bomb shelter that was built behind their building on Holburn Street, joining the other tenants from their building (2 families per floor, 3 floors.) There they would wait until the "OK" signal was sounded.

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After so many times of doing this, especially on those harsh winter nights, Grandma's mother (Ursula Katherine Bruce Beattie - 1904-1990) declared: "We'll sooner die of pneumonia than from a bomb." For the rest of the war, they would instead crouch under their kitchen table when the sirens would sound, rather than in that cold and damp bunker.

In the years of the war, 1939-1945 (when Grandma was aged 5-11 years old), Aberdeen had 32 raids, but 364 air raid warnings and 7 raids without warnings. In total, 365 bombs fell in their city, destroying 78 homes and damaging 13,120 others. (Source) (Another source with slightly contradictory numbers.)

The worst of it was the night of April 21, 1943, when between 40-50 bombers flew over Aberdeen. This was the "Aberdeen Mittwoch Blitz." Those planes, coming from Stavanger, Norway, dropped 127 bombs, killed 125 people (98 civilians, 27 servicemen at Gordon Barracks), injured 232, and damaged 9,668 homes. This was the last German raid on a Scottish City during the war. (Source)

Was Grandma ever scared? She doesn't remember being so. Perhaps it was the naivete of youth, but most likely she was drawing upon the solidarity of her stalwart parents, who with their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, believed that they would be protected and all would be OK.

And protected they were. One story Grandma shares is of her father, George Findlay, who was working late one night at the harbor fixing the trawler boats. It was a dark night, about 9 pm, and they had to sometimes crawl on the planks back to shore -- because of the blackouts, visible lights outside at night were prohibited. "The men got off [the boat] and said, 'Come on, George. We're gonna go to the pub.' He said, 'Nope, I'm going home.' That pub got a bomb dropped on it [that night] and several of them got killed."

Grandma does remember a few war experiences quite vividly:

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• One day walking home from school, down Holburn Street, a German plane was flying incredibly low...and during the day. Usually they only flew over at night. But it was eerie how low he was, and Grandma could clearly see the iron cross emblem on the airplane's tail. 
• A member of their church branch had shards of glass embedded in her arms when a bomb dropped in her neighborhood, and the blast of the bomb blew out the windows and sprayed the glass everywhere. She suffered from that for quite some time.
• Her parents sent her to stay on a farm in the countryside near Kemnay for a couple months one summer, to keep her safe outside of the city. One night they watched what seemed like fireworks in the sky, but it was really probably the British artillery on the ground firing toward German bombers overhead. "It's still so bright in my memory...the flashing." She wasn't worried for her own welfare; she was far enough out in the country that the planes didn't bother go there. But she was worried about her parents and sister back in Aberdeen (her sister was in a hospital for treatment of tuberculosis.) 

"The Scots are tough," Grandma said. They sure are. They sure are.

Source: From a telephone conversation between Ella and KF, recorded May 30, 2014.