It was in October 2019 that Randy and Marion Williamson, from Fort Collins in Colorado, signed the visitor book at Maggie’s Hoosie.
“One of a kind!” and “so special!” were their reviews of the humble attraction outside Fraserburgh.
After waving off the American visitors, the last guests that season, the local historians who run it locked up – expecting to reopen the next summer.
But by spring 2020, the world had been turned on its head.
It was almost 1,000 days later that we visited the perfectly preserved 19th Century fisher cottage to mark its eventual reopening.
What is Maggie’s Hoosie?
A window into a simpler way of life, Maggie’s Hoosie is the life-long home of local fisherwoman Maggie Duthie.
She was born in 1867 and lived in the but ‘n’ ben until she died in 1950 aged 83.
Spending her life preparing bait and lines for fishing, or curing and smoking fish, she opted to maintain her basic lifestyle by refusing to have electricity or running water installed.
Little did she realise that her adherence to tradition would bestow her home some huge historic significance.
As standards advanced, most such cottages were either torn down or modernised.
Now it’s one of few remaining authentic examples of how so many lived generations ago.
Chairman of the Maggie’s Hoosie Preservation Trust, Bruce Buchan, offers us a look around inside:
Hidden gem was almost lost forever
Bruce has Inverallochy in his blood, and has been helping out since the cottage opened as an attraction.
The retired mechanical engineer can remember the lady who used to next door, who may have been “quite a madam” but realised what a valuable resource the cottage was…
She paid to keep it wind and water-tight in the decades after Maggie died, preventing it from falling into irreparable disrepair.
Bruce said: “She cleaned and protected the property, it was always her intention that it should become a museum.
“Now, few people liked her because she was such a madam, but she was clearly onto something.
“When she died, she asked her nephew to restore it.”
By this time, in the mid-1990s, the cottage was earmarked for demolition.
Bruce joined local efforts to save the building, and became one of the trustees when restoration work began.
Subtle electric lighting was installed, and some repairs carried out where needed.
In 1996, Maggie’s Hoosie opened as a tourist destination, and a unique educational facility for local school pupils.
Since then, the tribute to Buchan’s bygone fishing days has become widely regarded as the best-kept of its kind.
Bruce added: “We never knew if it would be of any value to anybody.
“Now, people have been from all over the world and they have all appreciated it.”
What was Maggie’s life like?
Maggie Duthie stayed in the cottage all her life, first with her parents and then with her widowed mother.
Her life revolved around the sea.
Bruce explains: “As soon as the boat came in with the fish, it was taken up and she started slicing, chopping, drying and salting it.
“It would be food for the family, and for the winter.”
Throughout her working life, she travelled the country with a creel on her back, selling fish in exchange for other essentials.
Bruce adds that Maggie was a popular part of the village, an “honour to society” forever welcoming visitors in for tea.
Her thick family bible still sits atop a table in the cottage, along with a copy of the Christian Herald.
She never married, and refused to move with the times when it came to modern comforts.
Maggie’s Hoosie finally back open
It’s easy to see why Maggie’s Hoosie couldn’t have operated under Covid guidelines.
There’s barely room to swing a kipper inside the cosy cottage, never mind social distance.
Thankfully, Bruce hasn’t forgotten his usual warning to visitors when we stop by.
“Mind your head!” he cautions, as we stoop around the low-ceilinged cottage.
“I’ve done it myself plenty times… Bang! Bang!”, he laughs gesturing at the head-height wooden beams.
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Maggie continues to inspire people today
The venue reopened on June 13, 2022, and local schoolchildren have already been packing in to learn about the past.
And Maggie Duthie’s plain lifestyle is now striking a chord with a generation of environmentally-conscious youngsters.
“It makes the children think,” Bruce says.
“Maggie wanted her life to be as it always had been, and as her parents’ lives had been.
“But she lived with the best of food, swapping seaweed for peat, or her fish for milk and eggs.
“She would use old fishermen’s ganseys as a blanket. Nothing ever went to waste.
“One of the pupils who visited put up their hand and said ‘Maggie knew a lot about recycling’…
“There’s a lot of lessons for people today, the kids certainly appreciate that.”
It seems like Maggie, who helped take Sunday School classes every weekend, still has some valuable lessons to impart more than 70 years after her death.
The attraction is open from 2pm to 4pm from Monday to Thursday.
For any special arrangements, people can phone 01346 514761.
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