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The Waverley Gazette
Welcome to our latest news
Remembering The Ship Hector - The Arduous Voyage of 1773
In 1773, The Ship Hector set sail from Scotland with 189 Scots aboard, emigrating to Nova Scotia with high hopes for a better life.
The voyage was 11 weeks of hardship and misery, with dwindling supplies and dysentery and smallpox claiming 18 lives.
The Hector was the first ship to arrive in Nova Scotia directly from Scotland. When the settlers arrived in Mi’kmaqi, at Pictou Harbour on September 15, 1773, the indigenous Mi’kmaq people played a vital role in helping them survive.
Mi’kma’ki - the Northern Woodlands, is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Price Edward Island and eastern Quebec.
A replica of the Ship Hector was launched in 2000 and was moored alongside Hector Heritage Quay in Pictou.
July 12th 2025 sees the launch of the refurbished replica Ship Hector at Pictou, Nova Scotia.
In the heart of Nova Scotia, at Pictou Harbour, the fully restored Ship Hector replica adds to the story of Canadian maritime history. The refurbishment stands not merely as an event, but as a reminder of our heritage, human help and resilience, and the strong ties between Scotland and Canada. This newsletter looks at the story of the restored replica Hector, exploring its significance, the community spirit that brought it to life, and the promise it holds for the future.
The Story of the Original Hector
To truly appreciate the feelings surrounding the new replica Hector, one must return to 1773, when the original Hector sailed from Scotland, carrying 189 Highlanders. They were seeking a new start in Nova Scotia. Many had lost their land and were promised a new place with farming and a plentiful life. The boat they sailed in from Ullapool, however, was not seaworthy. The late summer departure and storms they then encountered meant they ran out of food and people died on board. Many spoke Gaelic and not English. Their hopes were tested. That arduous journey marked the first boat of ‘large-scale Scottish immigration to Canada’ but it was not the first boat to Canada. Many people from Scotland had been travelling since 1600 - soldiers, traders, settlers, people who were working for the New France and Hudson Bay. Also there were loyalist Scots who arrived after the American Revolution. However, the Hector did become a mark in the cultural and social area of Pictou and the broader Maritimes. The Hector’s legacy is told with stories of determination, perseverance, and the need for a new identity far from home. For many, the ship is more than a boat — it is a symbol of courage and then the help that was given to the new settlers from those already settled whose ancestors had lived there from early times.
“In Scotland, traditional trifle is not made with jelly!"
The Glasgow Cookery Book - sharing this gorgeous recipe for chestnut stuffing at Christmas
Hello again from the Waverley team in Scotland.
We are so excited to share some festive recipes over the next few days from one of the UK and Scotland's oldest cookery books and the book is still so popular.
From time to time we share a few recipes The Glasgow Cookery Book - a tried and tested, beloved, cookbook that was used as a textbook in many schools and colleges to teach domestic science to literally thousands and thousands of people. The book is a reliable and solid reference work used by many still all over the world, both chefs and beginners. Today we are sharing a recipe for chestnut stuffing - one way to have some luxury in this festive period made easily by you at home.
With thanks to Glasgow Caledonian University for their kind permission to reproduce this recipe.
When Christmas was banned in Scotland, with a recipe for Yule Cake from The Glasgow Cookery Book
Hello everyone,
We ran this blog piece last December just before Christmas and it was so interesting, we are running it today. The Yule Cake is more of a bread, than a cake, but good with cheese, or just with a soup.
Christmas in Scotland had been a religious feasting day until the time of the Scottish Reformation in 1560, when Scotland split from the Catholic Church and new beliefs and practices came in to being.
Yule
In 1640, the Scottish Parliament passed a law that made celebrating ‘Yule vacations’ illegal. The Reformation abolished Christmas as the greatest festival of the Christian year. Even baking Yule bread was an offence. Christmas was frowned upon in Scotland for a long time, which is why Hogmanay and New Year celebrations in Scotland became important. 25 December didn’t become a Scottish public holiday until 1958.
Previously, Yule bread had been a tradition for hundreds of years across the British Isles, as Yule was a pagan tradition, and part of the 12 day festival in winter that began with the winter solstice. Yule festivities were observed and practiced in Germanic nations and northern Europe. The ancient Celtic practice of bringing in a living tree to the home to bless it. Bringing in misletoe was also a tradition to praise nature.
1822 : Sir Walter Scott – a King in a kilt – and the rise of Tartan
Two hundred years ago, this week, the Citizens of Edinburgh and Leith were waiting impatiently for their King.
12 August 1822 was a Monday - King George IV’s 60th birthday, and coaches carrying the Regalia of Scotland and dignitaries from the Castle to Holyrood Palace were escorted in procession led by the Midlothian Yeomanry and companies of Highlanders who assembled on The Mound before proceeding to the Castle. Watched by packed crowds, the procession formally received the Regalia then returned by way of The Mound to Princes Street and on by Calton Hill to Holyrood House.
As the crowds watched the procession in Edinburgh, King George was on his way to Scotland aboard The Royal George.
The embarkation of his most Gracious Majesty George the Fourth at Greenwich, August 10th, 1822 for Scotland. Lord Mayor’s Barge &cc Royal George, Royal Sovereign. The James Watts Steam Boat. Royal Museums Greenwich.
The King's ship The Royal George arrived in the Firth of Forth at noon on Wednesday 14 August, but his landing was postponed due to torrential rain.
It was not until Thursday 15 August, that the King, in naval uniform, arrived in sunshine at the quayside at The Shore, Leith.
The detail below is from a painting by Alexander Carse showing King George IV landing on the Shore at Leith in 1822. The main building is the Custom House on the opposite bank of the Water of Leith.
On the morning of the 15th it ceased to rain ; and our revered Monarch, as he ascended the deck, beheld the Scottish capital, with its towers and palaces, basking in the rays of an autumnal sun, and the surrounding country spread out before him in all its loveliness. The frith was covered with innumerable boats and vessels, in their gaudiest apparel ; and from many of them arose the strains of the bagpipe, which floated over the waters, and were heard in the distance, wild, yet pensive, like the voice of Scotland's Genius, welcoming her Sovereign to her hospitable shores. What were the emotions of the King when he beheld this glorious scene — when he contemplated the abodes of his illustrious ancestors — when he looked around, and saw the distant Grampians,— Dunfermline, where all that was perishable of the great Bruce slumbers in dust,—and scenes innumerable, consecrated in the hearts of the patriot and the scholar !
In the city of Edinburgh all was joy and breathless expectation. Its inhabitants were about to witness a scene the most grand and impressive, the most grateful to their feelings of any recorded in their annals — a scene surpassing every triumph of ancient or modern times —a scene which imperial Rome herself could never have exhibited. They felt, that they were about to receive within their walls the greatest potentate upon earth — their own Sovereign —a prince as beloved as he is powerful —who came among them to make a tender of his love, in return for their tried fidelity and courage; and that this reception was to be conducted under circumstances of such splendour as would exalt the character of their country, and for ever stifle in its own falsehood the reproach of parsimony and calculating selfishness which ignorance had delighted to cast upon it.
We speak not in the spirit of exaggeration; for, after revolving every circumstance in our minds, the immense multitudes collected, the magnificence of the preparations, the joy that was everywhere visible, the picturesque beauty of the ground, and, above all, the occasion, so deeply interesting to a people, national above all others in their feelings,—we venture to assert, that there never was exhibited a scene combining greater solemnity and grandeur.
A Historical Account of His Majesty's Visit to Scotland, Mudie, 1822
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