I arrive at Grandma Griggly’s seaside cottage near Fraserburgh on a sunny Wednesday morning. She greets me with a giggle, telling me she has just been watching me approach on CCTV.
The tech-savvy 78-year-old has a handy camera doorbell to keep an eye on visitors.
She’s also an avid user of her Apple Watch, iPhone and iMac. This shouldn’t come as a surprise for the woman who spends much of her time making videos for her 106,000 YouTube subscribers.
Grandma Griggly, whose real name is Isobel Gregory, started her YouTube page back in lockdown — and initially she had a much more modest subscriber base of just 134.
She’s now sharing videos every fortnight with her ever-growing fanbase, with local devotees as well as fans from Japan, South America, Kazakhstan and Australia.
Her content – spoken in Doric – focuses on crafts viewers can try at home, often with everyday items like buttons, CDs, keys, soda bottles, plastic shopping bags and seashells.
Isobel gets recognised by strangers in airports – with plenty of selfie requests – and was recently spotted by fans while on holiday in Skye.
“I had no idea that it was going to go far and wide,” says Isobel.
“I didn’t really understand it numbers-wise until my daughter pointed out that there are 13,000 folk in the Broch.
“So my number of subscribers is eight times as many folk in the Broch!
“It has resonated with a lot of people that had connections with the area; expatriate families who were intrigued by how their forebearers might have sounded.
“It’s been an amazing journey – certainly unplanned!
“It just started as something to entertain myself in the garden.”
‘It’s something I’ve wanted to do all my life’
We sit in Isobel’s sunny garden while she reminisces on her journey to the 106,000 subscribers.
The number itself means little to the modest woman who absolutely loves what she does.
The garden, right on the coastline, is scattered with beautiful crafts, all of her own creation.
There are toadstools made with plant pots, red flowers made with the bottles of soda bottles and gutter snipes (wee birds made with Isobel’s gutters).
The YouTube channel, a lockdown project, started “as a way to get oot o your pyjamas and do something interesting”, she tells me.
“And the name comes from my grandson.
“My last name is Gregory, and he couldn’t pronounce that when he was little – hence Grandma Griggly.”
Grandma Griggly is Fraserburgh born and bred, and worked as a mental health support worker.
She has always had a creative spirit though, experimenting with dress-making and home decorating.
At 55, her daughter bought her a box of paints for her birthday, and Isobel started an art and design course at North East Scotland College.
At the exhibition, she was surprised to learn that someone had purchased one of her paintings.
This reignited Isobel’s passion for creativity.
“I’d been a single parent for a long time,” she tells me.
“It was something I’d wanted to do all my life.
“I had always been crafty.
“But as a single parent I never had the opportunity to do something with it.
“Everything was about working to keep a roof over our heids.”
Grandma Griggly, Fraserburgh, is ‘oot to play everyday’
Now, gleeful Grandma Griggly has the chance to do what she does best – create.
“I’m oot to play everyday, at every opportunity,” she tells me with a grin.
Isobel has two daughters, six step-children and a total of 13 grandchildren and three great-children.
She inspires local schools to keep up with crafts, and visits care homes too. She brings with her vintage hats from her sizeable collection, or her “nostalgia baskets” packed with goodies from days gone by.
“I think that if you’re being creative, there’s no room up there for negativity,” says Isobel.
“I call it yoga for the mind.”
Though she lived in County Durham for a decade with her second husband, she returned to the Broch in 2000.
Needless to say the beautiful landscape of her home in Pitullie, near Fraserburgh, serves as a source of inspiration for her creations.
“Every day it’s got the wow factor,” she says, “you look out and it’s brilliant.
“A few times, we have a wave surge over the gardens and my neighbours come out and say: oh, what a mess.
“And I say: look at all this treasure!”
I would expect no less from Grandma Griggly, who has – of course – made the necklace she’s wearing when we meet.
The beautiful poppy creation is made with lining, the edges singed with a lighter to make them curl like petals, and topped with beads to mimic the flower’s seeds.
‘It’s nae at a aboot the money’ says Grandma Griggly
Now having achieved a mammoth 106,000 subscribers on YouTube, and sharing 188 videos, Isobel has received the Silver Creator Award from the social media platform.
This recognises creators who have achieved 100,000 subscribers.
It is no surprise that her loyal fans love engaging with their adoptive Doric grandma.
“I get a lot of pleadings ‘please grandma, don’t die’,” she laughs.
“It is lovely reading aw the comments from all over the world.
“Children send me pictures of fit they’ve done.
“I get notifications from Japan, Kazakhstan, South America, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Canada and Australia.”
Isobel gives every single comment a “heart” reaction, and responds to as many as she can. Some of her fans suggest ideas, like a recent request for her to share the technique for her homemade button necklace.
I ask Grandma Griggly how she stays motivated to film her crafting videos every week – and spending hours each day keeping up with messages from her fans all around the world.
I also asked her if she makes any pocket money from the channel.
She says: “If I ever feel that what I do is a chore, or I wish I hadnae this to de iday, I’ll draw a line under it.
“But as long as I’m spreading a little joy, that’s my reward. I’m not monetised.
“I’m just happy giving someone happiness, that what I get back. That’s more valuable than money.
“I’ve chosen not to monetise. It’s nae at a aboot the money.”
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