Introduction / The Island / Religion

Going to Church in Eday

On Sundays people would cross the two miles to Eday by boat and walk two or three miles to attend church, depending upon whether they landed at Guith or Fersness. This meant leaving Pharay around 10.00am and not getting back until between 2.00pm and 3.00pm. This was of course dependent upon the weather making it possible. According to Bobby Burgar (b. 1898), there would be no food in the interval except “a biscuit in our pocket and a few pandrops”.

Bobby’s father, William Burgar (b. 1868), had become a member of the church about the time that he married Mary Stewart Groat in 1896 and became an elder in 1910. They moved to Fersness in 1915 and he continued to attend as long as he could walk the three miles or so each way.