Memories of Cromarty and its Fishing Boats (10 of 12)

In the 1960s, James Hogg, a former Cromarty fisherman, was interviewed about the fishing industry in the town. When he was a boy, there were around three hundred fishermen in Cromarty. James was the father of Bobby and Gordon Hogg, currently the last two speakers of the Cromarty fisherfolk dialect. In this audio extract he talks about the Cromarty Links.<br /> <br /> The late John Ross's brother...<br /> <br /> Interviewer: Put up a wall?<br /> <br /> ...he put up a wall round the links, aw the way to the [?], an then they knocked it down, Duncan Ross. That's the same man of that fountain's put out there for, ye know, in front o the school. <br /> <br /> Interviewer: And was he enclosing the links for himself? <br /> <br /> Yes, he thought he'd claim the links.<br /> <br /> Interviewer: And the fishermen always had the links?<br /> <br /> Oh yes, all them timbers, ye couldn't - ye could hardly step through there wi nets an everything in there in the fishing season. There used to be about twenty or thirty boats halled up on the beach there, ye know, during the winter seasons, see? They'd a steam engine hallin them up, an aboot couple o hundred men. An they're all sleepers, ye know, ye'd soft soap an that. They'd no bother getting them down or gettin up. <br /> <br /> Interviewer: And these forty footer boats?<br /> <br /> Yes, forty feeters. An then they got too big, the last o them got too big, they'd had jist to go over to Ballintra, winter over there.