AVOCH

Hooray! I've found another wonderful local website with fascinating old photographs. Those who have been following my blog for a while will gather by now that I am a big fan of such websites. The Avoch Heritage Association website has heaps of old photographs divided into different categories, as well as telling the history of the village, including the dark days of the 19th century when cholera spread to the village and when food riots broke out following the potato blight which hit the area.

Avoch is still a functioning fishing village, but incresingly makes its living from tourism. Boat trips leave the harbour in the summer months, taking visitors to see the famous Moray Firth dolphins and porpoises. There are also seals, ospreys and red kites to look out for. Walkers can make use of a disused railway line which forms part of a circular walk between Avoch and Fortrose. The Scottish explorer famous for his travels around Canada, Sir Alexander MacKenzie, is buried in the churchyard of Old Avoch Church. Avoch is very proud of its traditional character, so much so that when the actress Penelope Keith tried to open a cafe there in 2008 the plans were opposed by locals worried that it would be "not in keeping" with the area.

Map of the area.

Avoch Cottages - geograph.org.uk - 478889. Photo by Keith Salvesen, via Wikimedia Commons.