Trophies are handed over to Mary Ann's Cottage after demise of Dunnet SWI

A new home has been found for a collection of trophies belonging to the former women's institute serving the Dunnet area.

The local branch of the Scottish Women's Institutes (SWI) disbanded earlier this year after more than a century, and several pieces of silverware have now been handed over to Mary Ann's Cottage.

Run by Caithness Heritage Trust, the historic attraction at Westside gives an insight into one family's life on a Caithness croft from the 1850s until 1990.

The croft had been worked by John Young, his son William and then his granddaughter Mary Ann and her husband James Calder using traditional methods.

The cottage was seen as a fitting place for the SWI trophies as Mary Ann was a founder member of the institute 104 years ago.

Trust secretary Annette Sinclair explained: "We had a visit from some ladies from Dunnet SWI at the end of the season when they handed over some trophies to the cottage. Unfortunately, the institute had closed earlier in the year.

"We were absolutely delighted that they asked Mary Ann's Cottage to be the safe-keeper of these trophies, especially since Mary Ann herself was one of the founder members of the Dunnet institute in 1918."

Mary Ann's Cottage is now closed for the season and will open again on May 1, 2023.

Annette added: "We had another good summer with lots of overseas visitors, which I expect has been due to Covid restrictions being lifted, as well as locals and returning visitors.

"We are always on the lookout for volunteers and if you could give us an afternoon of your time please get in touch. A message on the Mary Ann's Cottage Facebook Page would get to me."

The AGM will be held on Saturday, December 3, at noon in the Northern Sands Hotel, Dunnet.

Margaret Mackay, a trustee and volunteer at Mary Ann's Cottage, has written the following article about Dunnet SWI and Mary Ann Calder's connection to it:

The Dunnet SWI was very proud of the fact that it was one of the oldest institutes in the county, and the most northerly.

During World War I, a Red Cross work party was set up in Dunnet so that civilians could help with the war effort. Mary Ann Young, still in her teens, was a member of that work party, and was later awarded the Red Cross Civilian Medal for her war work, sewing supplies for military hospitals on her mother’s Singer sewing machine, which is still in the kitchen at the cottage.

In November 1918, Caithness Women’s Rural Institute was formed from the members of the work group. Aged 21, Mary Ann Young of Westside Croft, Dunnet, was a founder member.

By February 1919, the John O’Groat Journal was reporting on a visiting speaker – a Mrs Bannatyne from the College of Agriculture, who gave a lecture on poultry-keeping and a demonstration of trussing a fowl.

Of course, as was usual at every meeting, there was also a competition – and one competition was something made from scrap material. First prize went to Miss Young (soon to be Mrs Mary Ann Calder) for a pair of slippers made from binder twine on a wooden loom, which can still be seen at the cottage.

The institute went from strength to strength. In 1968 it celebrated its golden jubilee, and in 1978 its diamond jubilee. Mary Ann cut the cake with the then president, Net Mackenzie. In 1986 Mary Ann was made an honorary member and was presented with an honorary member badge.

Sadly, the Dunnet institute closed in 2022 and it was decided that it would be fitting to donate the various modern trophies it had to Mary Ann’s Cottage, the home of a founder member and lifelong supporter of the most northerly women’s institute in mainland Scotland.

• Formerly known as the Scottish Women’s Rural Institute (SWRI), the organisation dropped the word "Rural" in 2015 and is now Scottish Women's Institutes (SWI).

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