Rothiemay Primary girl wins Scots dialect competition
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
ROTHIEMAY Primary School is celebrating the success of one its pupils, who has been named as the winner of the Charles Murray Writing Competition.
The annual competition, run by Keith's traditional music and song association (TMSA), invited family members of different generations to pair up and write prose or poetry in Scots.
The winners were Maretta Wilson (11), currently in primary seven at Rothiemay Primary, and her older brother-in-law David. The duo's piece was called The Auld Fergie.
Maretta's teacher Mela Watt was delighted for her pupil. She said: "Maretta has always shown a great interest in Doric. She really enjoyed writing the poem with her brother-in-law and did a great job.
"It was something she has done independently. We didn't have time as a class, and Maretta took it and ran with it because it is a real passion of hers.
"She is a very conscientious and hard-working young lady. It was quite important too that it was a family thing and she chose to do it with her brother-in-law.
"I'm very proud of her efforts."
Maretta, whose poem was about a tractor, added: "I knew if I did not win, it would be okay. But I won and I was so excited."
Maretta and her brother-in-law will be invited to the TMSA Prize winners' concert on Saturday, June 13, where they will receive the Haud 'er Gaun trophy. At this event, they will be invited to perform their winning entry.
Second and third place awards both went to families from Keith. Runner-up was Oor Dog by Dana Wilson and her daughters Isla, Heidi and Evie, with third place going to A Quine's a Quine For a' That written by Marion Stewart and her dad.
The competition, in its sixth year, was the idea of Keith's Mither Tongue Scots gift shop owner Marguerite Cruickshank and was launched to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Alford-born poet Charles Murray's birth.
Keith TMSA run two other competitions, which readers are encouraged to enter. The Aultgowrie Poetry Competition, for secondary school pupils and adults, and The Ian Middleton Poetry Competition, for children aged 12 and under. The closing date for these is usually mid-May.
