Helmsdale Shopkeepers and Merchants

Written by Alexander Gunn aka A Native of Badbea.

Published in the Northern Ensign on 22 July 1890

To The Editor of the Northern Ensign

Continued from Helmsdale Part A

Helmsdale village looking south about 1910 - Timespan

Shopkeepers and Merchants

"The shopkeepers, or merchants as they were usually called, were Donald Mackenzie, Joseph Mackay (who, I am pleased to hear is still alive, and engaged in farming; I have many pleasant memories of my interviews with him), "

"Andrew Mackay, David Mackay, Paul Gordon, Donald Ross, ( who, I am pleased to hear is still alive, and also employed in farming, a most intimate friendship existed between us) Robert Rutherford, John Gunn, ‘Major’ John Cooper and ‘Coffee John.’ There were drapers, grocers, etc. Donald Mackay, ‘Losach’ was in the spirit trade:"

"John Gordon in the boot and shoe trade; and Alexander Polson, ‘Na Garlack,’ and Alexander Gordon dealt in miscellaneous goods. David Sutherland was the baker; Charles Ross the blacksmith;"

"and Donald Grant, the tailor; Robert Kaeson, a big man, was in the Surrey Arms; and Donald Ross in the Commercial, a man much respected by the travelling public."

To be continued…

My Comments:

The expansion of the Helmsdale shops and commercial centre was related to the growth of the fishing industry.

The Badbea residents (which Alexander Gunn was as a young man) walked in fine weather to Helmsdale on a Sunday to worship – not that they would have done any trading on a Sunday which was strictly observed as “the Lord’s day’.

Alexander Gunn had such a remarkable memory.

A quick look at the households in the 1851 Kildonan, Sutherland census on https://freecen.org.uk shows many of the names of both the fishermen and shopkeepers that Gunn quotes in his article. The census record is useful as it includes the names of the wives of Helmsdale shopkeepers and details of their families and servants. Invariably they all helped mend the fishing nets or run the shop. The wife of Paul Gordon Draper and Grocer was only 16.