Golspie Heritage Society

25/05/2026

Thank you to the good fairy who moved the flower barrel for us 👍

24/05/2026

Join us for the last library lounge event of the month, on May 28th with a Climate Justice Reading Group focused on the Napier Commission (1883). The session "Lie and Land: Napier Commission" will focus on the Crofters’ War and the Napier Commission, looking at transcript from the meeting in the Free Church, Helmsdale, October 1883.

We cannot wait to welcome you! As always this event is free and taking place from 2-3pm


Helmsdale, Land of The Helmies
Golspie Village
What's on in Brora
Brora Heritage
Golspie Heritage Society

22/05/2026

Look out for the Golspie Heritage Society team selling raffle tickets tomorrow at the Fountain Road Carpark from 10am till 2pm.

19/05/2026

19/05/2026

It’s that time of year again-if you would like to become a member or renew your membership, please click on the link below-thanks.

19/05/2026

ALL WELCOME ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON

15/05/2026

New sign installed at the Heritage Society. Artwork by Tim Griffiths, formerly of Golspie, Signage by Acorn Signs, Inverness, Woodwork and installation by J & M Sutherland, Golspie, Photo by Marion Sutherland. Also included is the postcard of Main Street which was the inspiration for our new logo.

13/05/2026

MEMORIES OF POWs

In 2014 John Macdonald interviewed George Murray, The Cross, Pittentrail, about when he was a young man at Morvich Farm. He was about eighteen years when the Second World War broke out, and keen to join the RAF, but was told the top priority was to feed the nation, and that he should remain in agriculture.

“George had clear memory of the RAF airstrip on Culmaily and Kirkton. The woods were cut to make bays where they could hide the planes. The Prisoner of War Camp was at the airstrip. At first it was German soldiers, George thinks, were captured in France. They were put to work on the farms and Morvich had about four prisoners work for them. They would be delivered by lorry in the morning and picked up in the evening. George found them to be very good workers and gave no trouble. They seemed to be glad to be where they were. Then Italians arrived and they were also ok, but they just would not work.”

George recalled: “We were not allowed to feed the prisoners, but often mother would manage to get soup or something to them and they were thankful to get this. We had to be careful as someone might report you and then you were in trouble.”

“George would sometimes go round with the farm lorry and collect food from the hotels in Golspie to feed the farm pigs. Scraps and leftovers and lots of tattie peelings, were boiled up together. The regular farm working day was ten hours and there was a lot of rules on what you could grow and how much. There was a restriction on the use of fertiliser. Nitro-chalk was what was used, mixed with lime. It was a very good fertiliser, especially on barley.”

Some of the 400,000 men who were held across the UK built positive relationships with local residents, and some chose to remain in Scotland after the war. A Casual Column of the Northern Times reported that “Many German ex-POWs are returning home shortly, some to remain and quite a few to return after a brief holiday.”

Text credits: John Macdonald ‘In the Shadow of the Great War, The Story of Two Highland Parishes’; Northern Times, 11 November 1948
Picture credits: RHS