Maryburgh History
Attribution: S. Fraser (Maryburgh Primary School March 2015)
Visit our History Pages:
History of Maryburgh Free Church
Birth and Growth of Maryburgh
The community of Maryburgh organised a Millennium Exhibition in 2000. The video below was produced as part of the exhibition. It takes the viewer on a brief walk around the village and back into the history, from the Snuff and Lint mills that appear in a 1787 map of the village to the Kingdom Hall built just before the millennium.
For more photos taken in 2000 as part of the Millennium Exhibition visit the Maryburgh Residential Places page on this site.
Jim Macdonald's photos
Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society is grateful to Jim Macdonald, a retired roads engineer, for permission to include his photographs of the Maryburgh area.
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Attribution: Jim Macdonald
Maryburgh Maps
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Attribution: unknown
Brahan Castle Visitors' Book
In 2015 there was listed for sale by Dingwall and Highland Marts a visitors’ book originating from Brahan Castle and featuring photographs and artwork of those who had enjoyed hospitality there in the early part of the 20th century.
The auction mart staff had photographed each page in the album and gave permission to Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society to reproduce this aspect of the heritage of Maryburgh. The entries date from 1903-1911.
Some of the watercolours in the book have the initials “MSS” and are, presumably, the work of Mary Stewart-Mackenzie (Lady Seaforth) while others may have been contributed by guests.
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Maryburgh Brahan Castle Visitors' Book
Seaforth Hall
Lady Seaforth was very generous. She had the Drill Hall built at the east end of Maryburgh. One of the other things she provided was a pianola. Sometimes at concerts she would join in the entertainment by whistling tunes as her party piece.
The hall was a valuable centre for the community. Maryburgh school children were taught in the hall when the school was under repair. The three classes were separated by curtains. There was also a playingfield adjacent to the hall.
Harry Franklin remembers playing football in the playing field at the hall. ‘We would play at the Prisoner of War camp too – no grass though, only ashes. We had many games with the M.Ps (misplaced persons) and the Germans. The Germans were great footballers and we enjoyed the good times. The Germans didn’t have any guards, not so the M.Ps. Their guards would join in the games.’
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The Seaforth
A shipping register, held by Am Baile, records that, at an unknown location in Maryburgh in 1834, a local woodmerchant, James Yule, had a schooner built, subsequently named The Seaforth. The Master of the vessel was John Forsyth. The Seaforth had a burthen of 94 tons, was 63ft in length and 18ft broad.
Statistical Accounts
On the 25 May 1790, Sir John Sinclair, Baronet of Ulbster in Caithness wrote to over nine hundred Parish ministers throughout Scotland asking them to contribute to a Statistical Inquiry by answering as best they could,a series of one hundred and sixty-six Queries respecting each Parish.
The New (or Second) Statistical Account of Scotland built on the previous work carried out by Sir John Sinclair for the First Statistical Accounts by including the knowledge of local doctors and schoolmasters. The Second Statistical Accounts were published between 1834 and 1845.