Categories
Rural Life

Fisherwomen’s burdens

Fishermen in the Moray Firth hated getting their feet wet. Their wives would carry them out to the boats at low tide, would carry the catch to the shore, then go back out and carry the men back to shore. Burt, in 1726 commented on “their remarkable Laziness”.

Edward Burt was scathing of Highland life in the 1720s and quick to criticize what he didn’t fully understand. In Inverness men also spent a bodle to cross the Ness by bridge whereas women were made to wade through to save the household money. Wives were treated v. poorly in general.