Crappit Heids for Tea: Recollections of a Highland Childhood

Iby Fraser, the daughter of one of the first keepers of Scotland’s Shinness Estate, shares her recollections in this fascinating memoir that provides a glimpse into early 20th century life in and around the Shinness lodge. This charming book offers insightful descriptions of everyday life—from cooking, framing, and game keeping to medicine, schooling, and childhood games—as well as of the events that had a profound effect on communities everywhere, including the emergence of the motor car and World War I. Several other local contemporaries also contribute their reminiscences in this historical source, including Ann Gray, the daughter of the farmer who took on the reclaimed land in the 1880s, and Jimmy Bain, a crofter born after the Great War.

Chris Fletcher’s family acquired Shinness Estate in 1941, and he himself lived there from the age of seven. Annie Tindley is a history professor at Glasgow Caledonian University and has worked extensively on the history of Highland Sutherland estates.