Hoy

Today was an important day for me.

My father, like me, was born in Glasgow. His father (my grandfather) and all his forefathers, as far as Parish records go, were born on Hoy. Today we not only went back to Hoy, which we visited last year, but spent the day with my second cousin and her husband at their farm at the Bu of Hoy and I saw the very building where my grandfather was born in 1892.

We drove from our holiday cottage to Stromness this morning and caught the passenger ferry from Stromness to Moaness on Hoy. The ferry (MV Graemsay) took the Western route around the island of Graemsay passing Hoy Low light on the way to Hoy. The verdant green landscape you can see in front of the hills at the North end of Hoy is the land where my paternal ancestors have lived and worked the land since long before the records I can trace.

Farms such as the Bu, East and West Linksness, Garson, and Quoydale were all at one time worked by my direct ancestors. The remaining farms and those over in the village of Rackwick were worked by people with many other names which I can link to my family tree through marriages and marriages amongst their offspring.

When we arrived at Moaness we were met by my second cousin's husband, who runs the mini bus which takes tourists to Rackwick as well as running his farm. Today's tourists had a little added detour so we could be dropped off at the Bu.

Bu is one of the Viking names for the various sizes of farm, in this case being an estate or important farmstead. There are several Bu's on Orkney and this type of farmstead would have belonged to the captain of a Viking longship or a man of similair standing in Viking society.

The farm building at the Bu of Hoy is very old and in it's present form dates back to 1615. Previously it was thought to have been the keep of a fortified tower.

We were made to feel very welcome and spent a lovely day chatting about what we had done in our lives and sorting out all the relations. Family tree documents were discussed and exchanged and everyone ended up knowing more than when we started off. We had a tour round the farm buildings and learned that several houses had existed around the main farm buildings in the past. Many were lived in by sons and daughters of the main family and many children have been born and brought up there.

One of the highlights of the day, which came as quite thrill, was finding the inscribed grafitto I have included in the bottom left of my blip.On one of the farm building walls there were several sets of initials, some even had dates. Without doubt these are the initials of my grandfather, Perhaps put in the wall of his home before he left to become an apprentice in Stromness then to go to college in Glasgow before he went to sea never to return. Sadly his life ended all too soon when my father was only ten years old, when he was suddenly taken ill and died on board ship. He was buried at sea off the coast of India (Calcutta).

My father, for reasons unkown to me (or no reasaon in particular) never went to see Hoy. I am very glad that I have made the trip and met the people who's company I enjoyed today. Hoy is a beautiful island and well worth visiting. I can highly recommend it :-)