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Heritage

Heritage

Find out about history, legends, places and local people from times past.

Wartime memories

Wartime memories

We reproduce here some poignant first person accounts on everyday life during wartime, most of them taken from Sara Horne’s Bonar Bridge booklets, printed in the year 2000. Angus Sutherland  “During the war Bonar was a centre for military personnel. There were 400 Canadian Forestry troops stationed at Invershin.

Lord Mac Haw Haw

Lord Mac Haw Haw

Few Scots ever admitted to listening to German propaganda radio broadcasts during the Second World War. A fewer still realized that the original Lord Haw Haw was a disgraced former officer from the Seaforth Highlanders.  By Paul Cowan Norman Baillie-Stewart was jailed in the Tower of London after being caught

Second World War pillboxes

Second World War pillboxes

Eighty years ago, in 1940/41 more than 30 anti-invasion concrete structures were built around the Kyle of Sutherland and the Dornoch firth. These were in the form of pillboxes, road blocks and gun emplacements. By Gregor Laing  After the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940, a German invasion of

Rosehall links with slavery

Rosehall links with slavery

In Guyana's Berbice region, a handful of interrelated families from the north Highlands were the first to build sugar-cane plantations. Among them were the Baillies of Rosehall. The first recorded owner of Rosehall Estate, which included the east side of Glen Cassley –the west side being a part

Pat, the irishman

Pat, the irishman

W. A. M. MacKenzie remembers this local character and his horses, two big working Clydesdales used for clearing timber from the nearby forest in 1950s Invercharron farm. By W.A.M. MacKenzie Pat slipped into my boyhood ken almost unnoticed. There was no fanfare, no advance publicity. He and his

The Scottish Rosswell?

The Scottish Rosswell?

An unidentified object thought to have been a Russian Sputnik satellite was found on the hillside near Ardgay in 1962 by a shepherd named Donald Mackenzie. By Dr David Clarke Picture the scene: A shepherd visiting a remote area stumbles upon strange wreckage strewn across the ground which could be

The hoeing match

The hoeing match

Back in the 1940s and 50s, the hoeing of the turnip, a time-consuming and back breaking task was made into a competition, alternating each year between The Poplars and Invercharron farms. W. A. M. MacKenzie shares his memories of this event. By W.A.M. MacKenzie Casting my mind back