Search

Travellers hunted in the woods.

Date
Track ID 3781
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1954.101

Original Tape ID

SA1954.101

Summary

Travellers hunted in the woods.

When Jeannie Robertson was nineteen, she and her husband were camping with another couple on a road between Invercanny and Kincardine O'Neil. There had been a heavy fall of snow. About seven o'clock they heard footsteps in the woods and the dog began to bark and breenge [lunge]. They thought it was salmon poachers on the Dee. Jeannie went to sleep, but the other woman woke her, saying there were some men lurking about. In complete darkness, the Travellers fled through wreaths [drifts] of snow and amongst tree stumps through the wood. They hid amongst rocks at a quarry near Invercanny. There was a car crawling along with lights full on, searching the road. They heard them speaking. The top of the car was down, and inside there were six or seven well-dressed men. The car turned back the road it had come. Poachers would have frightened them away to get rid of them; drunken yokels would have bothered them right away. It was nine years before they ventured out camping again.

Hamish Henderson tries to make a link with burker stories, but Jeannie rejects this.

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Aberdeen

Village/Place - Aberdeen

Language

English

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good