Whole Interview
Willack: ....wasn't enough you know.
Bill: That was the hotel at Invermoriston.
Willack: And the whisky at that time was only half a crown a bottle to three bob.
Bill: But this croft you're talking about, it was at Blaraidh up on the hill was it?
Jeanack: Yes, beautiful ground.
Willack: You know the minister's bridge at Blaraidh. Where he went down over the road with the car. The minister from Tibet.
Jeanack: Yes it's a good bit croft. It was as big as Dannie Ban's.
Willack: Fifteen acres.
Jeanack: A lovely croft.
Bill: Is that an old bridge off the main road?
Jeanack: It's on the main road.
Willack: When you go walk up off the main road it's eh, going to Blaraidh house coming down to the bridge, down this way.
Bill: Down to the main road.
Willack: Aye, it's about... 15 yards off the road.
Jeanack: It was a lovely piece of ground, there was a burn at the ??? ??? ???.
Willack: Lovely croft.
Jeanack: Oh yes, it was a shame. And it wasn't fenced.
Bill: And they lived in the house at the bottom, Blaraidh house.
Jeanack: They'd have ???? ??? ??? a lovely big house, Blaraidh
Willack: .... the keeper's house. I remember he used to keep two or three horses. You know, he was breeding mares. He needed a pair o' horses steady for the gillie work and keepering and the coal. He always had two or three working and ....
Jeanack: And he had a lot of cows.
Willack: And he had plenty cows.
Jeanack: That was Willie Fraser's grandfather we're talking about and his uncle.
Willack: Do you know Willie Fraser from the street?
Bill: Uh-huh. And eh, were there any other houses at Blaraidh?
Jeanack: No, only....
Willack: Yes, Allie(?) Dot.
Jeanack: Oh yes, before that.
Willack: Yes that's up on the way... going up to the new croft. That was Johnny(?) Dot's croft(?). I'm not sure where he was.
Jeanack: He was there when dad was young.
Willack: Och aye, my uncle Domhnallan, everybody, the name they called him.... Sandy Dot, that's who you called him, or Sandy the farm, then others called him Sandy Blaraidh. And it used to go up my back. It was mixin Sandy Blaraidh with the other Sandy Blaraidh that would have the ???? on Blaraidh.
Bill: And what was does this Sandy Dot... what does Dot mean?
Jeanack: That was his brother-in-law's name and there were so many MacDonald's so they called him after his brother-in-law.
Willack: He married...
Jeanack: His brother-in-law had the hotel.
Willack: Yes but his sister was married to Dot that was in the hotel. And there were that many MacDonalds in the glen, there really are MacDonalds..... so he was called Sandy Dot. For a distinction.
Bill: I never heard the name Dot before.
Jeanack: It's a Badenoch name.
Willack: Big stout man. And.. Dot had a family, one boy and he died. He went abroad and he died there. Davy.
Jeanack: He died in Canada, two years ago.
Willack: Aye two or three years ago. He was my age. He used to play with me when we were doon here. Before we would go into school, Davy Dot.
Bill: But you don't remember any other houses up there. Or any ruins of houses. Was any ruined houses?
Jeanack: No, we didn't see. Only we saw plenty of the mill bothies afterwards about there.
Willack: Yes but they were Annie Dot's home.
Jeanack: Yes and some ????? Blaraidh, that's all.
Willack: Yes and I don't know who more. There must have been a few houses over thonder.
Bill: Were they all near the main road or were they up on the hill?
Jeanack: They wouldn't be far off the road I would think.
Willack: They wouldna be far up the hill. Because there were no road going up. He'd be about the croft thonder. Of course we did see other houses there. At Blaraidh in those days. But that was put up for the boobbin mill, wooden erection. What you call ??
Bill: Which bobbin mill was this?
Willack: Blaraidh bobbin mill.
Bill: Oh, there was one at Blaraidh.
Willack: Yes. Oh Lord aye, very business work.
Bill: Was it stone built.
Jeanack: No no. Johnny Smart was working at that bobbin mill with the other boys. Quite nice.
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Bill: Yes, well I saw that Balindrum and I thought it might be balantombuie
Willack: No, no, Balindruim. I tell you, you know Jock Shell that came down to Jocky Grant? He's a brother of the family's. Well their granny was there and my grandfather.
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Bill: ..........near Loch cluanie.
Willack: Aye, past loch Cluanie. You pass Cluanie Hotel. Now I don't know who was the bodach. Wait now. I don't know what bodach would be there. Luib... it's the...
Jeanack: A bend.
Willack: ....first bend. The ????? bend. But who the bodach was at that time. I'll tell you who was the bloody bodach. Coinneach a' Chatanaich is the bastard.
Jeanack: Was it.
Willack: That's who it was, yes. Coinneach a' Chatanaich. He could drink himsel upside doon.
Jeanack: He would drink Kenny.
Willack: Aye, Coinneach a' Chatanaich. That's the Cattanach Kenny isn't it.
Jeanack: A Cattanach. That's a Badenoch name. Kenny Cattanach.
Willack: Cattanach Kenny. Kenny Cattanach. Oh that's going back as far back as I can go. Jimmy Cattanach.
Jeanack: They always spoke about luibs in the old days. When Granny Grant went with the public works to Killin? Culture? - the place the works was the Luib. It was called the Luib L-U-I-B. Granny Grant was there in Perth-shire in a place called the Luib when she was cooking in the canteen for the public works when they went to do the Loch Sloy up there at Ard Luib. You saw that didn't you? The Loch Sloy business at Ard Luib. Granny was there and the Lub was the name of the place. She came off about Killin. So she said.
Willack: ?????
Jeanack: ???? talking about the Lùb.
Willack: ????? years ago???? Coinneach a' Chatanaich, I'm seventy seven and I mind him and he was time to be shot the time I seen him.
Bill: What did he do for a living though?
Willack: Keeper, keeper.
Jeanack: I remember him coming in one night and he was shoeing the Cluanie pony up there. The Coinneach a' Chatanaich. Wasn't that Evergreen Kenny. Evergreen Kenny they called him, I think so.
Willack: I remember the story ??? ??? MacRaes and they all went up to.... Kinconnel with them. Frankie came from Nairn? ???? men, the old forester at Invergarry.
Jeanack: ??? ??? ???
Willack: ???? ??? ??? MacRaes too and they came to the old home and they said "This is the home of the famous Frankie the Invergarry forester." And he was very proud of it. He was a long long time in that house. He used to blow about it. He was a long time in that house. And he was equally as long in the damp hut too. That's one home where you could lie with your country bonnet...... ????? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?? drink. Everyone that wanted champion business you had to go to the pub for it.
Jeanack: He had a very clever family.
Willack: Oh aye, they were clever right enough.
Jeanack: The boys were all stationmasters.
Willack: And I like his family too.
Jeanack: very nice.
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Willack: I heard the.... story going that eh.... the other man dead in the house up there. And when they went to move the body the head fell off it. It was that far decayed. It was ??? he was supposed to be a tramp. Or even there was somebody had escaped out of the asylum or something. Way back in the.. I don't know what years it would be. But eh.. I think it was the trained doc(?) was from the hotel
Jeanack: The time(?) he would be down here.
Willack: The doc was from the hotel here. The old boy here, my father, the old polisman and MacRae that was..
Jeanack: The grandfather of that fella.
Willack: ...the grandfather of that... friend that was ???? here last week. He was in ???? ??? ???? ???? ????. And they used to throw to Jock because he was from Badenoch and had gone for a dram and take a dram or two over the nine. Well, they could blow aboot the country people but aboot the Jock lot, the only man they heard of that came from Badenoch his damn head wouldn't stop on his neck. The neck wouldna hold it up. I'm wondering will that be the skull that....
Jeanack: Might have been.
Bill: No, the seven men were supposed to put that skull up in the trees.
Jeanack: Yes, I believe I heard about that.
Willack: Yes, that's what I was speakin about, it must have been a hundred years ago only. It was true enough, they got him dead up above Blaraidh somewhere. Some of the staff or some of the shepherds or somebody.
Bill: Remember when the old bridge here was in use.
Jeanack: Yes. It was up to '33. 1933 the other one was opened.
Bill: When you were a boy, it would be horse traffic was it?
Willack: Aye, all horse. And then the big buses started crossing over it. Big buses. And they were good sized buses.
Bill: And what about the first car you saw.
Willack: The first car I remember I was two(?). This old doctor was in the hotel here. He was down with one of the Pole(?) and he had a brown mare or a horsie of the smiddy, I mind that well. Of course I didn't go to school.
Jeanack:At the time.
Willack:And then I seen this first car coming old Doctor ??? one of the old ??? the seat at the back down like an old gate you know. All open. And wooden bloody wheels on it and oh, I remember it fine. And they tied up the brown beast at the smiddy and they tied it up and the two of them ran up the road there running up it to see how it would take the corner to go up the churchyard brae. And then a word(?) to them did I no run after them. And I was probably left like a dog following them. And they old fella seen me. He caught me and he skelped my backside, because the two of them were saying one to the other that it was a ???? awful dangerous thing that I did running up because God knows which way the car would go. Was it back or front. It shows how much they knew aboot a car. Oooh I remember it puffin steam oot behind.
Jeanack: Doc left in 1900 and the first car was away up.
Willack: I'll tell you who was another spit of the same kind of car for his day. And he was thinking he was a great big noise. Jones was his ????
Jeanack: Oh yes.
Willack: Even I used to know eh? Every beast in the glen knew John Strathafearn for the old car he had at home. Now where was Strathafearn? At Fort William.
Bill: When did you get your first transport yourself. Was it a motorbike you had.
Willack: Aye in.... 19... 33. Not 33. 23! The year the old boy died I think.
Bill: He wouldn't let you have one before that.
Willack: Oh I wasn't... I was away you see. I got my hand in on motorbikes when I went down in Moray-shire.
Bill: Is that the same motorbike you've still got out the back there Will?
Willack: No no. That's the ????.
Bill: That's the second one. Were you born in this house.
Willack: No.
Bill: Up the Glen?
Willack: I was three months, four months old when I came down.
Bill: Where was the house up the glen then?
Willack: Left side of Lagan Ban bridgie the first ruin. Just beyond the Taylor's ruin.
Jeanack: The workshop.
Bill: Was it close to the smiddy building?
Willack: On the edge of the road.
Bill: Was it close to the smiddy building?
Willack: Aye, aye.
Jeanack: Not very close, there was a burn between them.
Willack: Eh?
Jeanack: The burn was between the house and the smiddy. The burn.
Willack: It was not! The burn, the smiddy was on this side.
Jeanack: Eh?
Willack: The smiddy was on this side of the burn
Jeanack: Was it?
Willack: It was that.
Bill: It's on the map this side of the burn.
Willack: Yes, yes. I always remember when I was going wi' a mare. The man that she went to. ???? ???? ???? ????. I think he's in Achlain he was ???? front gate at the moment. Back ??? ??? ??? ???. He'd have got shifted out. And I'll go in into to action. And I'll be prepared for it. Of course, I didn't get a nail or two in when , whoop! up in the bloody air. I jumped clear and the bitch fell head over heels in the bloody burn. She was a bit quieter after that. I didn't care whether she broke her back or not.
Bill: If you moved down here to Invermoriston as early as that how come you were shoeing up the glen.
Willack: We kept the old smiddy going.
Jeanack: We kept the place going.
Willack: You see, when we moved down here, the old fella had to go back up, he was coming down.
Bill: I see. He kept it as a lock-up
Willack: Well we kept the old smiddy for years and years and years.
Jeanack: And they had a smiddy at Ceannacroc and a smiddy at eh...
Willack: Balmacaan?
Bill: And had you the smiddy here at the same time?
Jeanack: Yes
Willack: Yes. Aye, I used to have three or four smiddys. Although I'm only like a tramp the day.
Bill: But there was a smiddy here before this building wasn't there at Invermoriston?
Willack: Aye there was a smiddy here.
Bill: Aye, was that a different smith?
Willack: Oh aye.
Jeanack: Yes, to begin with. And then when he was moving for better he had a wife and family on that and my father told him not to move, he would get a very good place. And they left the wife and bairns here for two years anyway. Gave them the free home and all. And that's the people coming back with the ashes here. They never forgot my father's kindness to them. And they always come to see us.
Willack: Very nice people.
Jeanack: That ones. We told you the granny's ashes came up after new year. And they were in Inchnacardoch that night. I was saying my father was very kind that way.
Bill: So there'd be more than one blacksmith in the glen?
Willack: Och aye.
Jeanack: We had smiths after that. We had two or three at the same time.
Willack: Oh aye, weren't stopping on our own ??? ??? carried on with smiths.
Jeanack: And men in the house.
Willack: My father had men hired men.
Bill: And what about your grandfather?
Willack: Oh well...
Jeanack: My grandfather had his sons.
Willack: He had his sons with him. He had his two sons were blacksmiths.
Bill: That was at the smiddy up at...
Willack: Gearr Loyne, where I was born at Lagan Bàn. At Lagan Bàn. But of course in my grandfather's time there weren't a mode of getting out and in you see. He couldn't move about. He was anchored. As far as I know, he had nothing but his two feet. There were no... But my father, he had a bicycle all his days.
Bill: He never used the horse then?
Willack: No he tried every mode of ???? ??? ???. He was always on the move.
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Willack: And the brakes at that, they was above the tyre. There were no brakes behind.
Bill: Just on the front wheel.
Willack: On the front wheel. And when the freewheel came in you stopped... och I did that myself too. You stopped on the.... kept your feet in cross with that you know... because we're running in line with the wheel. Instead of having them up or down you see, you kept them in line. And you turned your heel in up the side here and that was the brake coming back. You would need to know ??? ??? ??? ??? the bloody boots, there'd be a hole in this boot anyway!
Bill: He just put his foot on the wheel.
Willack: Aye aye, you just turned on your heel and let him wobble the bloody wheel. To help you to stop down. That went down steep hills and they were steep.
Bill: And this road out here, before 1933 then, it was just a loose surface.
Willack: Och loose. Loose, loose, loose. Nothing but the big road metal going on it. What the stonebreakers would break it with a hammer. Put it on, and then you put a spray of sand on it. A coating of sand, and then you went over it wi' a water ??? and then the big roller went on. It sorta flattened the surface a wee bittie. But two or three horse passed the stone they were all a lump again. And the ???? could have gone side to side. There weren't much of a margin there for the cyclist. Oh. hell of a ??? they were leaving for that. The road was that narrow they couldn't do anything else.
Bill: And that's when they moved this road out here. that's when they moved the road over. And it went through the old ruin of the church. Saint Columba's church.
Jeanack: Yes, part of it.
Willack: Oh aye, aye.
Jeanack: That was in '30 they started the road. Or was it in '32? When did they start the road? '32? It was in'32 you had your poisoned finger and you couldn't get on wi' it.
Willack: Who was the first contractor on this road?
Jeanack: Was it not Tawse?
Willack: No.
Jeanack: They had different sections. There were... Tawse are the best.
Willack: Tawse started at the Pole going down.
Jeanack: Oh maybe.
Willack: Who was on for Tawse?
Jeanack: Wasn't Carmichael on?
Willack: Aye he was on. He was on an area(?) too. Cunningham was in Invergarry.
Jeanack: Who?
Willack: Cunningham was in Invergarry.
Jeanack: Aye.
Willack: Who was in our section?
Jeanack: Different sections
Willack: Miller and Dundas got the bridge made.
Jeanack: Yes Miller and Dundas.
Willack: ??? ??? ??? I forget the road men.
Jeanack: Who put up the Fort bridge?
Willack: Eh?
Jeanack: The Fort bridge, who built that?
Bill: : No idea Jean.
Willack: Same company, Melville.
Jeanack: Was it? ??? ???
Bill: : So it was in 1932 you say...
Jeanack: Or thereabouts.
Bill: ...when they first, when they widened the road and tarmaced the surface.
Jeanack: I don't think there was any reconstruction when uncle Domhnallaidh(?) died. Were they?
Willack: Don't think it.
Jeanack: I don't mind. When he died, that's the time we went to Aberdeen when the other uncle died.
Willack: I don't think they were roadworkers.
Jeanack: I know they were thick and heavy when you had the blood poison hand.
Willack: If I looked in the old book we'd soon get it.
Bill: What about the shop on the corner here?
Willack: That shoppie? That was built in.... 70 years ago.
Jeanack: Was it?
Willack: Yes.
Bill: And it was built as a shop was it?
Willack: Aye. ??? ??? ??? ???? calendar I have for that....
Jeanack: How?
Willack: Eh?
Jeanack: What calendar? ???? ???? ????. Mistress Dean. She was in the house in the shop when she got married.
Willack: Who?
Jeanack: Mistress Dean.
Willack: Yes
Jeanack: I think so. The shop was in the house. In the middle room. The wee narrow window. And there they built the shop.
Willack: The shop was built over the burn, like a bridge. And there was a trapdoor in the centre of the floor. Many a ton o' papers you put doon that trapdoor. that was the dirtiest thing on earth.
Jeanack: Oh yes, they should have been burnt.
Willack: They were supposed to go off with the burn but when there was no water in the burn the papers used to be ??? ??? ???.
Jeanack: We were putting the papers down to the smiddy fire. He was lighting the fire with them my father. Oh, and glad to get them too. Some hot tea here.
Bill:Thank you, Jean.
Willack: I don't think I went to school when they were building the shop. Because I was up one day to tell them the dinner was ready. My mother was feeding the smiths ??? ??? ??? ??? I was quite bored and went up to the shop where they were building. I took the short-cut up the isle o' mill(?). Old Smith was on there working away with the trowel. I says, "Look here Jeck, they're wanting you down for your dinner." He was Jeck ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? (gurgle) ??? ??? my father "you've a very clever son", he says. Telling my father. "How?", "When he went up today", he says "Do you know what he said to me, 'Here Jeck come on down for your dinner'". You know that was what I was always hearing - Jeck Smith. ???? I was about four coming to five year old.
Bill: Do you remember years ago what the houses in the village were like.
Willack: This one?
Bill: Aye
Willack: Yes.
Bill: Were there more houses than there are now or less or...
Willack: Charlie Jean's house over there was a thatched house. And the house that Hamish the post is in was thatched.
Jeanack: MacEwan's house.
Willack: Duncan Fraser's house at the Pier. And widow Grant's house where MacEoin is. And eh.. the cottage where you were and there were thatch on it in its day.