Meet the local: Joan
For our latest Meet the Locals, we meet Joan, who has called Crovie home since 2012. Originally from Glasgow, she shares what first drew her to this remarkable corner of Scotland, her connection to the landscape and the close-knit community that makes it so special.
We spoke with Joan about life on the coast, the changing seasons and what it means to call Crovie home.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to have your home in Crovie?
I grew up in Glasgow and had my first teaching job there. Like many Scots then, I moved south in 1974, for a drama teaching job in a big comprehensive school in West London. I have worked in education up and down the UK since, and technically retired in 2011, so with all the extra time I then had, completed a TESL course and spent the next 5 years teaching spoken English in Sri Lanka with a small charity. That decision is amongst the top 3 I made in my life.
Meanwhile, my sister had found Crovie. She and her husband built a family house there and I began to visit her and her family. The east coast was unfamiliar to me, being a Glaswegian I knew the west coast much better, but Crovie too got into my bones and I spent many times hoping that the wee white cottage I could see from her window might magically be somewhere for me. As a wise neighbour said when it did ' whits fur ye'll no go by ye '. I bought the wee white cottage in 2012 a good use of my pension lump sum.
What do you love most about life in Crovie?
I open my door and the world immerses me - occasionally literally when the tide and the wind converge and drench me. I love the noises - the sea, the shifting stones, the changing skies, the birds, the sunsets, the storms and the calm and the selective solitude; the wee cottages and the history of the place.
The folk, the people whose families have lived there and moved on but whose kids return every year keeping a sense of community going even though there are few full time residents now. The walks below the cliff along the beach to Gardenstown with its harbour (and a shop, a cafe and a pub). And a 90 minute drive, or a couple of local buses, will get me to Aberdeen and onwards when I need to.
Are there any local spots or hidden gems you’d recommend to someone visiting?
Cullycan Bay - a tiny sheltered bay.
Pennan - filming location of Local Hero - excellent food in the Pennan Inn Tarlair Lido (newly renovated and gorgeous) in Macduff
Findlater Castle - clinging somehow to the cliffs between Cullen and Portsoy - now likely to be much more discovered thanks to Christopher Nolan and The Odyssey - who filmed there last summer.
Portsoy ice cream - legendary. Eat it down at the 17th century harbour. Also used as a film location occasionally - Whisky Galore #2 filmed there.
And the small distilleries - Glen Garioch in Oldmeldrum, and Strathisla in Keith.
How would you spend your perfect day in Crovie?
Crovie itself is worth days no matter what the weather. The Northern Lights may appear and the skies can be entertainment in themselves.
So - a perfect day for me - coffee on my bench watching the tide and the swallows, martins, swifts and diving gannets.
A walk along to the end of Gamrie Bay talking to visitors as they pass full of questions about the village.
A little touch of maintenance on the cottage - nothing too arduous. Fish for dinner - if I'm lucky, seafood caught by neighbours.
A fire lit and a sunset which never palls. Sleeping with the sound of the sea and even the raindrops hitting the windows.