Wick (John MacLeod II): Week 15 – 17 April

The coast of Caithness is dotted with little harbours, many of them ruined and abandoned now, or else on life support, home to maybe a solitary boat or two fishing for lobster. Yet once they were a base for whole fleets of fishing boats, and great three-masted schooners, that in photographs look like something the Flying Dutchman would choose for a round-the-world cruise, would be tied up at the quays, unloading timber and salt and filling their holds with barrels of packed salted herring for the markets in Germany and Russia.

Staxigoe, a mile or so north of Wick, is one such. The name derives from the Old Norse world for an inlet, geo, plus stakkr, or stack for the great lump of rock jutting up like the last tooth in a gum that’s seen better days; so, “inlet of the stack”. The Caithness fishing industry began here, when in 1767 three local men fitted out a couple of boats to fish for herring. Within a few decades there were 50 boats fishing out of Staxigoe, and it was the largest curing station in the area.

But boom leads to bust as chocolate Easter eggs lead to the dentist, and the fitting out of Wick as a purpose-built herring port (especially as the boats grew larger, with a deeper draft) killed off Staxigoe as a going concern. If you’re sensitive to atmosphere it’s laden with meaning, and everywhere you turn you brush up against the ghosts of ghosts. If not, – and while we were there a car pulled up, obviously tourists, who stayed for as long as it takes to say “is this it?” and drove off again – not…

The fountain, Wick

PARISH NOTICES

First of all, the great reveal as my gansey project is finally finished. Washing and blocking is essential with these garments, and especially ones with such extended ribbing: so now it expands, like a wilted flower after spring rain, and we can see it whole and entire. Will it fit? I’ll find out in a week or two.

And finally this week, we have another cracking gansey in chocolate brown from Sigrid in Germany. I’ll let her describe it in her own words:

Sun & Shadow near Wick Harbour

“I got the pattern ideas from the German edition of “Ganseys” (original: The Gansey Knitting Sourcebook) by Di Gilpin and Sheila Greenwell: Eriskay Lifetree and Diamond, combined with Scottish flags with mock braids (Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire) and tiny heapies at the ends of the sleeves. I have to admit that I already had the body from a cardigan I had ribbed up – it had to become a gansey ;)). That’s why the yoke and gussets are a bit shorter, but I still like the final product.”

Many congratulations to Sigrid, and many thanks to her, and to all who have been so generous by sending us pictures of their finished ganseys, for sharing.