Situating Gamrie

Abstract

Gamrie’s history has been shaped by two dominant forces: religion and fishing. According to one of my informants, himself an amateur historian, the village of Powistown was renamed Gardenstown in 1721, founded by Peter Garden as a fishing village. While the village received its first mention in parish records in 1190 (the parish being called ‘Gamrie’), the land was initially developed when a church dedicated to St. John was constructed to mark the place where, according to legend, the Scots defeated an invading Danish army in 1004. At this time (and for the next 350 years) Scotland was under the religious control of the Roman Catholic Church with Christianity having been first brought to Scotland by St. Columba in 563 during his efforts to convert the native Picts.