The Herring Queen – Isla

After so many upwind days, it felt good to go on a beam reach. Almost exactly 90° to the wind, we could stand up right without any pressure on the lower back, the numbing ache of which had gradually increased over the previous few days. The flat seas and consistent wind allowed us to cruise along with only one hand on the bar for steerage, easily outpacing Mentor’s 10knots. As if on cue as we drew level with Eyemouth the forecasted hole appeared, fluttering our kites to the ground. Three attempts it has taken us to cross the Firth of Forth but we’ve finally made it to Eyemouth.

We’d thought Dunbar was an active port with probably 15 boats out of it’s 20 fishing fleet having some activity during our two day stay. Even arriving into Eyemouth at low tide the activities didn’t seem to stop. Along the quay side was a van “feed the seals”. They had long fishing rod type poles on the end of which they’d attached a crocodile clip. You could then buy small fish to clip onto the poles and dangle over to feed the three large seals (and numerous seagulls) waiting below. It was fun watching as the seals flopped up onto the floating platform, a performance which delighted the children above.

The town was full of activity, with the Eyemouth Herring Festival in full flight. Each year members of the local high school elect a fellow classmate as the Herring Queen. Everywhere you went around town there were signs saying “Good Luck Isla”, and other congratulations for this year’s queen Isla Purvis 

Herring Festival

To mark the end of WW1 a “peace picnic” or fishermen’s picnic was held annually in Eyemouth. The children marched around the town to the picnic area, families brought along kettles for tea and races were held during the day, making it a sort of local holiday.

James “Storey” Collin, who was Eyemouth’s harbour master at the time, was holidaying in the North of Scotland where he’d seen a Festival that included the crowing of a Queen, he brought this idea back to the picnic committee and the first Herring Queen was crowned in July 1939

The Queen arrives by sea at Eyemouth Harbour. Originally the Queen’s boat was chosen by ballot and the skippers of the fleet were asked annually to nominate a girl to be a member of the Queen’s court so each boat had a representative taking part on the crowning day. Still we saw signs on eaach of the boat showing their support of the new queen. The skipper of the chosen boat then escorts the Queen to the ceremony led by her own procession made up of lifeboat boys dressed in traditional fisherman garb and carying a model lifeboat between them ; the retiring Queen and her ‘court’, and finally walking behind the new Queen in a formation representing the points of the compass would be the Maids of Honor. This formation would symbolise winds from all points of the compass which are fair and favourable to seamen everywhere. Each maid carried an emblem representing the blessings of life, a Basket of Fruit, a sheaf for fruitful harvest of corn, lilies of faith and the dove of peace.

Map of today’s route

Map Key: Stew (Red), Islay (White) and Mentor (Blue)

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