Fond Memories Of Old Friends In Nairn

A Memory of Nairn.

My wife Carol was a Highland lassie by birth and when we split up she left Leeds. She lived at Trades Park and eventualy married again up there. I visited Nairn a lot on trips to see my four kids, it was an 800 miles round trip so at one time I even bought a boat in Oban, took it round to Nairn Harbour and spent the whole summer there.. happy days, The people were fantastic, all the big local families, the Morganties, the MacCraes, the McGilvries.. I play guitar myself and still have tapes of me playing sometimes in the Royal with Wee Gordie Macrae and his brothers or as a duo in the Town Street bars with Willie Ross (doing bad impressions of Simon & Garfunkle).... Still we made our "beer money" RIP Willie & Gordie.. two fantastic good mates who both sadly died so young.

I have fond, fond memories of the Royal Hotel and the band.. Ian from the grocers shop doing "Muddy waters", Ann Morganti singing 'Rhiannon' even better than Stevie Nicks could ever do it. She was a great actress too, she played at the "Little Theatre" drama group which I once got "roped into" playing her brother in a comedy.

All this home spun entertainment was long before Karaoke.. and much, much better..

I remember Nairn sailing Club Trips out on the boat to the Sand bar near Fforess and camping overnight on it, sleeping on a small boat with two kids,
I remember taking the Rig boys across the Murray Firth to Comerty in rough weather to save them a trip right around Inverness and across the black Isle & Nig. Putting down half a dozen lobster pots and getting them all washed way down to Inverness about every two days by the weather and rip tides... Still I got a few decent crabs and plenty of flatfish on the long lines.. never a lobster though.. or if I did someone had it before I got there... (it happened)

The disco at the Shore inn, The "night" club up town, Black Diamond or something..
Swimming right out in the Firth with Porpoise across from the Golf View Hotel.
Good memories of such a lovely place, with genuine people who made this Sassonach feel really welcome.
Nairn I salute you, and your local families.. Someday I'll be back to say hello again...