The Auchmithie Haar

Above; Annie Gilruth of Auchmithie.

These photos were taken at the end of August at this years HAAR Festival at Auchmithie. Auchmithy is a tiny traditional fishing village perched at the top of the cliffs overlooking a natural harbour approximately 5 miles north of where I live. 
 

 The festival, which is run entirely by Auchmithy residents, is a celebration of village's fishing history as told by one of its famous past residents Mrs Annie Gillruth. 

The reenactments includes street examples of a traditional fisher Wedding where the whole wedding party ties themselves together with ribbon and parade thought the village, It also includes the village women doing their laundry communally in the village square, the  mending of  the fishing nets and most importantly; smoking the famous smokies (smoked herring).

 

The Arbroath Smokie originated in  Auchmithie, Local legend has it a store caught fire one night, destroying barrels of haddock preserved in salt. The following morning, the people found some of the barrels had caught fire, cooking the haddock inside and the cooked haddock turned out to be quite tasty.

But it’s also possible that  the villagers were of Scandinavian descent, because the  process is similar to smoking methods which are still used in areas of Scandinavia.
 

The fish are first salted overnight. They are then tied in pairs using hemp twine, and left overnight to dry. Once they have been salted, tied and dried, they are hung over a triangular length of wood to smoke. This "kiln stick" fits between the two tied smokies, one fish on either side. The sticks are then used to hang the dried fish in a special barrel containing a hardwood fire.
 

When the fish are hung over the fire, the top of the barrel is covered with a lid and sealed around the edges with wet jute sacks (the water prevents the jute sacks from catching fire). All of this serves to create a very hot, humid and smoky fire. The intense heat and thick smoke is essential if the fish are to be cooked but not burned, and to have the strong, smoky taste and smell people expect. Typically in less than an hour of smoking, the fish are ready to eat.
 

This year was the  ninth annual heritage festival called the Auchmithy Haar ( the haar is the thick mist that rolls in from the sea) , it started at the village hall where the residents began their re-enactment and then progressed to different area of the village where the villagers stopped to act out different scenes. The whole thing was led buy one resident playing the part of Annie Gilruth, one of Auchmithies most famous past residents.  

At Fountain Square we saw the  fishwifies doing their washing, at the look-out they’ll be baiting their lines, mending their nets and  having a good gossip. After the look out every one goes in procession to the top of the village for the start of the village wedding celebrations. 

The story of Annie Gilruth.

Annie Anderson married Andrew Gilruth in 1868 when she was about 26 and he was about 40. Annie had been born in Airlie near Forfar and Andrew had been born in Alyth, Perthshire. After they married the couple moved to Seaton of Auchmithie farm, east of the village of Auchmithy. Her husband Andrew had taken over the tenancy of Seaton in 1866 and in 1887 he also took charge of Seafield farm. In the first twelve years of  marriage, the couple had six children, three boys and three girls. The 1891 Census shows that in this year two of their daughters were still living at home, Laura aged 13 and Alice aged 10.
 

 

Raising six children took over Annies life until the mid 1880s when her eldest child was a teenager and her youngest was turned 5. |Being an enthusiastic and motivated person Annie took on the role of advocate for the village women. She petitioned the land owners on their behalf and was responsible for bringing piped water into the village and for providing schooling for the children. Her husband did not support her and for a woman of those times to campaign for social change without the support of her husband must have been very difficult
Annie Gilruth was actually a servant in the village before she married her farmwer husband which means she was very familiar with the hardships the women endured.

 

 

Annie managed to get herself involved in virtually all aspects of  village life. She campaigned for better housing, sanitation, water supply, school and church. In fact there was nothing that she would not either campaign for or raise funds for to improve the lives of village women and children. She even managed to gain the attention of a many wealthy and influential people, and not all of them were local. She persuaded these benefactors to contribute financially and to help her improve the lives of the villagers. She had no patience and gave little time to any one who would not help her. Her main achievements were to bring in piped water, and persuading the landowner, the Earl of Strathmore, to build more houses to relieve the chronic overcrowding. She made a note of the4 fact that the sick and the dead often lay in the same room (in box beds) as those in which fish was prepared and children reared. Annie was very involved in having a report made by the sanitary inspector and medical officer to the Parochial Board in 1887 This report demonstrated the drastic inadequacy of the water supply, drainage system and housing. The inspector was "so impressed with the insanitary state of the village" that he requested the chairman himself to witness it.
After a long illness, Annie died on the 3rd of June 1903 aged only 61. The only scheme she left incomplete was the harbour. In 1885 she began planning to build a harbour to relieve the women of one of their hardest tasks which was launching the fishing boats with the men aboard. Part of her campaign to the authorities for a harbour included very early photographs of the woman the launching boats, some of those photos are still available in the local museum.