Life in Newburgh on Ythan

By Talpa

Echoes of the Arctic whalers

The town of Peterhead in the NE of Scotland was a centre of Arctic whaling in the 19th century. Just a few families dominated the high ranks of the industry; the Gearies, the Robertsons, the Souttars and the Volums, and the Grays. 
David Gray was also an outstanding naturalist who made many important observations in the Arctic. He and other whalers brought back numerous biological specimens and Inuit artefacts from the Arctic many of which are now housed Peterhead's Arbuthnot Museum. They include a polar bear and a musk oxen!
Recently, children have been making large, very large, papier-mâché models of baleen whales and a couple of them are now hanging from the gallery roof.

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