Tobar an Dualchais - Kist O Riches

Title - Travellers have a narrow escape from burkers.
Contributors - John Stewart
Reporters - Maurice Fleming

Summary - Travellers have a narrow escape from burkers.

When Jock Stewart was a young boy, his father, a tinsmith, sent him, with his sister and niece, to deliver goods that had been ordered in the countryside. They could not get home to Fraserburgh before dark, so they asked for lodgings at a farm. The son of the house put them in a cold, snow-filled turnip shed, refused them straw, and barred the door. Jock removed a board from the wall with a pocket knife. They quietly gathered their tinware and escaped. They saw a lantern, and heard the voices of pursuers. They reached the Croft Row, and Jock knocked at a door, and went straight in and approached the fire, after the country fashion. A fellow took an axe and grabbed him by the hair, but Jock ran out. The fellow grabbed Jock's niece by the skirt, tearing it off and leaving her in her underwear. They ran to a shop, but the shopkeeper warned them that the men were there every night with their cart, seeking bodies to sell in Aberdeen. She sent them to a farm up a glen. Jock threw a handful of gravel at the window, and the farmer came down and hid them in his dog kennel for the night, promising to put an ounce of lead in the men's backsides if they came near.


Track Duration (h:m:s) - 00:07:16
Date Recorded - 1955.03
Language - English, Scots
Genre - Story, Information
Collection - School of Scottish Studies

Track ID - 11474
Original Tape ID - SA1955.017
Original Track ID - SA1955.17.A2
Audio Quality - Good
Audio Format - R2R



Recording Location:
  County - Perthshire
  Parish - Blairgowrie
  Village - Blairgowrie


Item Location:
  County - Aberdeenshire

Item Notes -

Permanent Link - http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/11474/1


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