Forgotten tales of riots and the deep-rooted superstitions of a Moray fishing community will be brought to the fore once again during a summer walking tour.
Local historian Don Anderson has gathered research about Cullen’s Seatown to offer an insight into the tight-knit area’s past.
Records of fishing in the bay stretch back to at least 1641 – long before the present harbour was established in the early 19th century.
Now Mr Anderson will shine a light on historic stories from the community between 1800 and the 1940s as part of the town harbour’s gala weekend celebrations.
One story focuses on a huge riot in the town in 1890, in which more than 200 people barricaded a home to prevent police evicting the family who lived there.
At one point an effigy of the woman who had ordered the eviction was displayed and torn to pieces by the crowd.
Mr Anderson said: “It was all to do with family. The husband who lived in the house with his wife and four children died.
“The woman remarried because she needed the income but the first husband’s family, the Harthills, wanted the house back.
“A court ordered the eviction but the a crowd gathered to block the police while throwing fish guts at them.
“There were 12 people charged with assault and Mrs Mitchell got 60 days in prison – and her husband 42 days.
“The Harthills never got the house back either because the local people wouldn’t let them into it, so it gradually became dilapidated.
“It isn’t until the last 20 years that it has been reoccupied again.”
Meanwhile, stories about some of the more unusual traditions in the Seatown will also be unearthed.
Mr Anderson added: “There were all kinds of superstitions. One was that if you saw a minister as you headed out to sea to go fishing you went straight back home.
“People would actually give up a day’s wages just through a coincidence.”
Mr Anderson will run tours beginning at the Royal Oak on Sunday July 7, Tuesday 9, Thursday 11 and Saturday 13 at 9.30am and 2.30pm each day.
Further tours will be undertaken at 11.20am and 4.30pm on the weekend dates.
The tours are free but donations will be collected for Clan Cancer Support.
