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Scottish Digest Podcast is a production of cluarantonn.com

Hosted and Researched by Dawn

Edited by Erin Erin Ferguson (@erinfergus0n) • Instagram photos and videos

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Music:

Epidemic by ES_The Celtic Flavour – Alysha Sheldon & ES_A Sound Foundation – Airae

 

Production Company Name by Granny Robertson

Dawn [0:02 – 0:03]: You’re a pro.

Kerry [0:05 – 0:07]: First thing sorted.

Dawn [0:07 – 0:24]: I know. Oh, God. Imagine that. I did a recording last night with somebody, and it usually goes to. To you, the person recording it. And she said, don, I can’t. It’s not come to me. I don’t know where it is. And she was panicking. I was like, oh, God, we’ll have to do it again. I’m so sorry. But we found it. It was right.

Kerry [0:25 – 0:26]: That’s perfect.

Dawn [0:26 – 0:26]: This is.

Kerry [0:26 – 0:30]: This is my son’s laptop, so he’ll have to find it, but I’ll be fine.

Dawn [0:30 – 0:42]: Oh, no, see, that’s what worries me. I’m not technical at all. So my husband’s over there just in case. We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Kerry. It’s just a chat. Somebody said to me, it’s just like you’re chatting with a friend.

Kerry [0:43 – 0:44]: That’s perfect.

Dawn [0:44 – 0:46]: D. It’ll be good. It’ll be good.

Kerry [0:46 – 0:47]: That makes me feel better.

Dawn [0:48 – 0:58]: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Okay then. Already. Okay. So, Kerry, welcome to the podcast. It’s lovely to have you on.

Kerry [0:58 – 1:01]: Thank you very much for having me, Dawn. It’s lovely to be here.

Dawn [1:01 – 1:07]: I know. It’s nice to speak to you again. It’s been a while since we last spoke, so it’s nice. Nice to see you again.

Kerry [1:07 – 1:11]: It is. It’s. It’s a lovely time of year to get to see you again.

Dawn [1:11 – 1:19]: Exactly. Nice, happy time. So can you tell us, just tell everybody a little bit about you and about Spellbound’s Keith Ness.

Kerry [1:20 – 2:30]: I am Kerry and I own Spellbound Caithness, and I am a Celtic pagan witch. And Spellbound sort of incorporates everything that I believe in and everything that I sort of do and everything that I like to put out in the world, like a little bit of added magic. And we could all do with a little bit of added magic and positivity. It’s a lovely way to live. It is not dark magic. It is very light. There is no elements of badness in there at all. Basically, just putting yourself out there and believing in the power that you hold in yourself and putting that across to people that you don’t have to be stuck in your ways or in a routine that you can be who you want to be and be who you are. And I like to think that the products that Spellbind actually sells incorporates that message to everybody and puts out to the world happiness, because we could all use a little more happiness in the world, especially since we had lockdown and Covid and we’re all just getting back together. It’s nice to be. To spread some positivity and spread some light heartedness and you’re really good at.

Dawn [2:30 – 2:53]: That because I met you through doing the Scottish collaboration and you did a zoom call and it was, it was, it was, it was about this time last year I think and it was like you say it wasn’t a great time and the positivity I got out of that and you know, you do, you know, positive thinking and. What’s the word I use? You’re thinking, you know, thinking what, what you want to materialise. What’s that word?

Kerry [2:53 – 2:54]: Manifest.

Dawn [2:54 – 3:05]: Yes, manifest. And see you just, you made it, it just. I felt so much better after the phone call with you. So what you do is, is wonderful. Just, just the positivity that came out of that.

Kerry [3:06 – 6:27]: It’s lovely to be able to have a little grip and have Newman intentions because the Newman is often a time whenever we’re very much inside ourselves and we don’t really want to be sociable and we’re sort of like stuck in a bit of a rut after the, the full moon comes and we’re also positive and full of energy and then the waning moon starts and it just tails off all that energy and we can become very self involved. So it’s nice to use that and have the film or the Newman intentions then to come across where anybody can join, it’s absolutely free. You can come along and set your intentions online with us. You don’t even have to put your camera on because I totally understand how daunting it is being on camera and you can just come along, set intentions, light a little candle and then come and join us again the next month and tell us how you got on. Basically that’s all it is. And it’s a lovely group of people. We have some women and men that want to come and set their intentions and I just think it’s a really, really lovely thing and it’s nice to be able to share that, especially in the darker months. Because up here, in case ness it gets dark now from about half 1, 2 o’clock in the afternoon and that, that is us setting up then for nighttime usually by it’s absolutely pitch black, we’ve all got our lights on and so I’ve put up my Christmas tree to give us a little bit of festive cheer and sparkle just to bring that into the house because it is hard and it’s dark and it’s dreary and it’s cold and in k ness most of our activities happen outside. We don’t really have as many indoor play areas or anything, or indoor recreational things, I suppose. I live quite near the football ground and they’re still playing football outside at this time of year in heels. Rain, winds, they’re. They’re. Oh, they’re absolutely dedicated to their game, they really are. I have to give it to them some nights. It’s absolutely lashing down and you can still hear them cheering and running about the pitch. I absolutely love that, I really do. So, again, Kith Ness is just. It’s very open and very vast and we’re not like a big city. We don’t have all the traps of Inverness even, to be honest. We have a very small select few shops. We have one big Tesco’s which is in Wick. Thurzo has a small Tesco’s, but if you’re really cold and tired in the winter and you want a quick walk around, you would usually go to Big Tesco’s and Wicker. Sometimes we’ll go to B and M. That would be like a good day out in Des for a bit of shopping. And then we go around some of the little local shops too, which is absolutely delightful. And there’s lots of hotels to choose from and eateries, there’s an abundance of those. But as for the things that we might do in the winter more, we don’t like big shops or even things like indoor ice skating or tempin bowling or. We don’t have any of that up here, so we sort of all make our own entertainment. So come winter, most people go into their houses at night and close their doors and close their curtains and try and keep warm. So it’s nice. It’s nice then to be able to use Newman intentions to bring everybody out. We can all gather together. You don’t even need to leave your sitting room. We’re just all together.

Dawn [6:27 – 6:41]: That must make for a long winter mind of everybody. What’s. What do you do? I mean, obviously for. We’ll talk about the summer in the summer months. What is there to do for the kids then? Or what do you like to do with your. Your kids? You’ve got a boy and a girl, haven’t you? Is that right?

Kerry [6:41 – 8:31]: I’ve got four children, so my eldest. My eldest one is 22 and my youngest one is 13. So the eldest one is a law onto himself. But most of time it’s like Billy Connolly says, there’s no wrong weather, it’s just choosing the right clothing or whoever the saying goes. So basically we will still put on our coats and we will still go into the forest and we will still trips around. My 13 year old is way back grown up now and she’s not just as keen to go and look for bears or go on bear hunks around Donut forest. But we go to the beach and we absolutely love collecting sea glass. We’ve got a beautiful beach at Leer and the very small particles of sea glass watch up there. So that is really amazing. It’s also absolutely glorious to watch the waves crash over the lighthouses. That, that’s pretty spectacular in winter and again it makes a fascinating day. Also we’ve got the northern lights at this time of year so the further you go out into the darkness of Kith ness you can see the lights so much clearer. So again, come winter we would pack a little hot chocolate in the car and a little flask and we would go up to go up west a little bit and look back towards north and we would sit there in the car and it’s, it’s absolutely lovely. It really is. It sounds like, oh gosh, I’m sure people would rather be doing so much more. But it is absolutely really, it’s just a whole other way of life and it is so quiet and you get peace to do what you want. The beaches are absolutely desolate this time of year so you can build the biggest sandcastle you want. My dog absolutely loves running along the empty beaches. It is just absolutely wonderful in winter whenever there’s not as many tourists and we’ve got all of this to ourselves. Why wouldn’t you put on a coat and just go and enjoy it?

Dawn [8:31 – 8:45]: Definitely you’re spoiled. I mean some of the pictures you’ve sent me, which we’ll share, I mean the beach you can see it’s. It looks like it’s a colder day so, you know, but it looks deserted and the way it just looks. It looks lovely though. You look quite happy, the three of you.

Kerry [8:46 – 9:16]: Yes, that’s my eldest son and my youngest daughter and that is us all hopped up on the beach going to look for sea glass and seashells. We often bring home the shelves and we would give them a little paint and we would. We usually bring home one. That’s our mission. Whenever we go to the beach we bring home our favourite stone and then we would paint that and then we put that in with the candles and we would put that on my altar which then goes to celebrate the land that’s actually around us and give thanks for beautiful, spectacular scenery that we actually have here.

Dawn [9:16 – 9:32]: That’s lovely. That’s a lovely story. And. Oh, I mean, the northern lights, you know, I’ve never seen the northern lights. Yes, and just your picture. You sent me the picture and I was like, oh, it’s beautiful. And you’ve got the thorough sign in there as well. Oh, Kerry, that’s just absolute.

Kerry [9:32 – 9:55]: It is just stunning. It is stunning. I. When I. We have lived here now for eight years, and whenever we first moved here, we used to go with northern light hunts all the time. We used to go so far to see them. And it was maybe two years ago, I opened my back door and I went outside to go and put something in the bin and I just looked up and there they were right over my house. And I just thought, oh, my goodness, I’ve been chasing you for so long and you have just appeared.

Dawn [9:55 – 9:57]: Come to me.

Kerry [9:57 – 10:20]: Yes, it was absolutely amazing. So we. We are treated to that quite often, especially down in Thurso Beach. You can see them right across the bay, heading across the Orkney. And it is just the most wonderful experience. You feel like you could be absolutely anywhere in the northern hemisphere, just really basking in these beautiful lights. It’s. It’s just some. It’s just so magical.

Dawn [10:20 – 10:29]: Oh, looks beautiful. One day, you know, I’ll need to. If I come up that way, I’ll come to your house and I’ll say, let me see. Please come. We’ll try and manifest it together.

Kerry [10:30 – 10:34]: Absolutely. Dawn, you can come any stage and come and see the lights. They’re absolutely beautiful.

Dawn [10:36 – 10:43]: So that’s the winter. So what about in the summer months, then? You say a lot of activities are outside. What is there to do? What do you like doing with your family?

Kerry [10:44 – 15:36]: Well, summer, it stays late to sort of midnight. You can. It’s very, very bright. There’s still people playing golf and golf courses up here at midnight. Come in the summer, you can go absolutely anywhere you want. Well, within reason. But you can go to the beach, you can go to the forest, you can go absolutely anywhere. And in the summer, we are treated to a spectacular display by usually the orcas and dolphins. We’ve even had the workers come into Thurso Bay, which was so spectacular and amazing to watch. Like, we are so spoiled. You can go and sit in the dump, cansby stacks, and you can look down and there, there they are just underneath. And sometimes they’re feeding and sometimes they’re swimming off. It is just so special to see. There’s puffins. So from sort of Easter time as well. Then we would get like the Puffins would come and start to migrate back here and come and settle down. So again it’s just so, so special for wildlife and for the sc, not to mention the lights. But in the summer there’s an awful lot to do. I also hold the Midsummer Carnival in the summer so that is held usually in the weigh in. And last year Sandy Tom came and sang for us and we all celebrated the whole of Kith ness celebrated then summer solstice together, which was what the mid summer carnival was for. It was to mark the summer solstice. There’s quite a big spiritual group up here of very, very diverse people and it is nice to bring everybody together once a year. So we held this carnival last year and the time came out in force. We had performers and singers and it was just absolutely amazing. Everybody came together and just put on this fantastic display and the money went to. The money we raised went to Thurso lifeboat and they were actually able then to go and do. They needed remedial works done in their little building and they were able to put the money to that. So it was. It was fantastic. And Sandy Tom had her little sing song and she was, she just was so nice and so kind to come and want to be part of our community for that evening. And everybody came out and they just enjoyed having this opportunity to celebrate summer solstice and come together. And we had a fire show at the end. Verity come up and she did a fire show and honestly it was just amazing. But it was the people of Caithness that actually made that happen. That everybody just wanted to be involved. And even at the last minute we had a man that offered to come and do the sign system. It’s just a lovely close knit community that everybody just wants to help each other. That sounds nice. But in the summer there’s just so much to do. There’s day trips to Orkney. There is. We can see Orkney much more clear. Well, we can see Orkney on most days but if it’s cloudy it’s quite hard to see across. But we can see Orkney very, very clear in the summer. And you can see right away, far right you can see right away over to. Dunno. Hey. I just stand. And the beaches still aren’t overly full even in tourist season. So we’ve got the mass you would swear you were in the Mediterranean. It does not always feel like you’re in the Mediterranean but the clear waters are absolutely gorgeous and they’re very inviting. It is very cold still, no matter what time of the year you want to double your feet into the water. It is still very cold, but it is lovely. It is really, really lovely. Come summer and there is an abundance of things to do. There is Highland Games, there’s Highland Games in Holkirk, there’s the county show in Thorzo. It’s Thursday this year. Last year it was in Thurso. In 2024, last year it was in Wick. It does turn about. But again, that was an amazing thing. Spellbound actually did our first county show this year and it was. It was lovely. It was really, really lovely. Then if you go on around the coast again, you’ve got the lighthouses, you’ve got the small villages and towns, you’ve got wonderful places to go and eat. There’s so. There’s so many things up here that’s actually really undiscovered. And then we’ve also got standing stones too. We’ve got the hill of Many Stands, which is just sort of outside Wick. And then we. My. I have lived here for eight years and my friend Karen absolutely hits my pronunciation of most of the time names. Most of the things that they’re called. I cannot get it right. We have a town in Sutherland, it’s called Brora, but I cannot do that first R, so it’s just known to me as Bora. That really, really gets on her nerves. Really gets on her nerves.

Dawn [15:36 – 15:38]: These damn Scottish Rs.

Kerry [15:39 – 16:45]: I know, I know that they’re just some such. So many unexpected places, but there is. There’s an abundance of things to do in the summer and there is quite a lot of events on that people can come and join in with. And then we’ve got a Thurso town and community craft market. It’s on if once every month in the Legion in Thurso, and it’s run by some really, really lovely people and everybody is always more than welcome to go and have a cup of tea and a local charity usually does the tea and coffee again. It’s a lovely community that is often brought together by the. That’s in it. And it’s the people that make our community up here. Everybody is really quite welcoming and want to make the most. Oh, want to make the most of this wonderful setting that we’ve been given. You know, the health care isn’t great. Not going to lie, that is the downside to living this far. Most of the time we have to travel right down to Inverness for health care. Even things like my son has braces, so half the time just to get his braces tightened, it’s an hour and a half travel down and an hour and a half travel back, but.

Dawn [16:45 – 16:46]: Right.

Kerry [16:46 – 16:53]: It is, it is worth it. It is worth it to come back and close your door and have this wonderful space.

Dawn [16:54 – 17:06]: It sounds. And like you say, it’s the community that just sounds such a. A vibrant place as well, you know, I don’t know how, how many people do you think live there? He’s all known each other. Is it that kind of small or.

Kerry [17:07 – 18:18]: I would say so. I think the last time I looked at the census, there was 7,500 people lived in Thurso, which is really quite small in, in comparison because I come from a town just outside Belfast called Bangor. And we would have 7,500 people would live in one housing area, I don’t know. But it is, it is like a very small community. Everybody does look out for each other and everybody knows each other, even if it’s just in passing faces sin become familiar and you to know other people and your children go to school with other children and you soon get to know their parents. So it is, it is a wonderful way to live and it is very inviting. And most, most of the time, everybody is just so, so lovely, like, so welcoming the outside ideas and welcoming to new people coming along and putting in ideas on how we can make it better and how we can pull together as a community to showcase what we actually have up here.

Dawn [18:18 – 18:44]: That’s beautiful. I really like that. I miss that community setting because I’m from a smallish sort of place as well, where, you know, you’re all pulled together. So it’s, it’s nice to hear that it still goes on out there. It’s kind of more few and far between now, isn’t it? But definitely nice. So now you sent me, I’m curious about this photo you sent me. It’s. It’s really. I don’t know whether you took it. It’s off the. Is it the side of front of a church or a big window?

Kerry [18:44 – 20:52]: It’s the Thurso kirk. It’s the Kirk in Thurso. It was an old church originally. It was actually a Viking graveyard, I’m glad to believe. But then the church decided to build on top of it and now we have a Christian graveyard. But it is also where the witches from Thurso were actually chained before they went on trial, before they were sent away. And there used to be a hook in the wall and the hook actually held the witches. But some of these people, some of these women that were chained to this wall were not necessarily witches. They were maybe a lady that gossiped into town, for instance. She was also accused of witchcraft and she was chained to the wall. We do have a case of the woman that lived in Scrabster who apparently sent cats to torment the man. And she would send the cats to go and torment the man. And apparently these cats talked to him and called him names. So the man then decided that he would kill the cat and he had an abundance of bad luck. And once the bad luck started, then he decided this woman was definitely a witch and she should be chained up. So she was then chained up to the kirk. But you can actually still go and see the kirk. I don’t think the hooks there anymore where the witches were tied to, but you can actually still go around and see the kirk. Part of it is closed off off due to the structure of it, but you can actually go and visit it. And it is the most beautiful place. There is all park graves in it as well too, which again, it’s a pretty spectacular place to have all these things right on our doorstep. But it is absolutely beautiful. And I would like to say Debbie Prentice actually took that photo of the northern lights at the kirk and has allowed me to use it and show you because I just wanted to show how. How beautiful the northern lights that that picture made it so spectacular shining through the kirk and back in the Thurso, sort of bringing. Bringing the power to us and the light. I thought it was. I thought it was a very apt photo to use to display.

Dawn [20:52 – 20:56]: It’s really. Is she a photographer? Because she’s really talented.

Kerry [20:56 – 23:16]: It’s just. Yeah, yeah, she’s an artist. So she used her talents to take that picture and I just thought it was. Was the best picture that I have seen of the kirk with the northern lights. I just thought it was so apt for this especially. Especially to showcase how. How the northern lights shine on us here in Thurso. But again, dawn, there’s just so much to see and do. But there’s. The kirk is just one very small thing. We’ve also got a museum in Thurso that is all about the Vikings and it has part of the nuclear power station. It has like part of like the original bits where you were able to pick up the. You can go and have a try at the machine, like pretending to pick up the radio, the radiated rods or. But that’s all in the museum in Thurso 2. They have the art gallery upstairs. They have downstairs. Tells you a little story about the rocks and things that have been found around Thurso. Again, it’s really, really interesting and it’s really worth while going to see whenever you’re here. But we do have so many spectacular things to actually go and have a look at. We also have Selkie’s grave, which is just outside Castletown, which is said never to get dry. So apparently it’s always about. So a selkie is like a sea creature that comes ashore and takes human form. So the story goes that the selkie came ashore and somebody stole her skin, and she was not able to turn back into a selkie and swim away. So apparently she, as some of the legends go, apparently she then was forced to marry a man she had children with man in the town, and apparently all their descendants now have webbed feet. All right, that’s a very unusual story, but there’s an awful lot of legends about the selkie. But you can go to visit her supposed grave in Castle Town, and if you put your hand in the grave, it is always said to be wet. But apparently the graveyard is cursed because there’s parrot graves in the graveyard. So apparently the parrots have cursed the graveyard and anybody that enters the graveyard also becomes cursed. True. So it’s.

Dawn [23:16 – 23:17]: Have you been into the graveyard?

Kerry [23:18 – 24:46]: I have. I have, and I don’t feel that I have been cursed. I don’t. But it’s one of those things you want to go and see what it’s like. You. You want to go and experience it for yourself. But again, we’ve got so many absolutely amazing stories that come from here, not just mythology and legends and. But actually, you know, I think the time was founded by. Or the man that founded the Boys Brigade came from Thurso himself, which, again, we’ve got such a rich history up here. We’ve got. The Vikings were actually here and settled here as well. Again, they had the Kirk first desert graveyard. But it’s just so amazing and it’s. I keep learning absolutely new things every day about the surroundings and about all the legends and all the history off up here. It’s just absolutely amazing. We’ve got a stone in Sutherland, it’s called the Devil’s Stone, and it’s a split stone. So apparently the story goes that a boy who’s coming back from the town and the devil was chasing him in a circle round the stone and he couldn’t get the boy. So because he couldn’t get the boy in temper, he cut the stone in half with his tail. And if you don’t be putting but the stone, as you go past, apparently you’ll bring the devil home. So every time we go past the stone, our kids are always like, you have to be. You have to beat the horn. We can’t bring the devil home.

Dawn [24:46 – 24:47]: I love that.

Kerry [24:48 – 25:00]: So it’s really amazing. It is. It is just so full of such rich history and heritage, and it is just such a beautiful place to actually get to live and stay and be part of.

Dawn [25:01 – 25:05]: And what brought you there, Kerry? Why did you move there?

Kerry [25:05 – 25:08]: Obviously, we had come here on holiday.

Dawn [25:08 – 25:10]: Because of the history, really.

Kerry [25:10 – 27:27]: No, we had come here on holiday. We decided to. We wanted to see snow. It does not snow very often in Northern Ireland. It doesn’t snow very often anywhere in Ireland, ever at all. So we wanted to have a proper snow after Christmas. We decided, let’s just pack up and we’ll go and have a look for some snow. So we came to stay in Inverness. So when we were in Inverness, one day gave snow forecast and it gave it for John O’Groats. And we thought, right, well, let’s get in the car and we will drive to John O’Groats. So we drove the whole way from Inverness up to John O’Groats and my goodness, it was cold. It was very cold. But on the way, we all fell in love with the scenery. We all thought it was absolutely beautiful. And as we drove around the coast, the beaches and the landscape, it just. It just drew us in. So we knew whenever we went back home that that was something that we wanted for our family, was to be able to bring them here and have. Have them live in this absolutely idyllic world. I would say at times it is idyllic. Again, the health care is not great. That is the only downside of living up here, I would say, is the health care. But apart from that, it is. It is just a wonderful place to bring up children. You can have your children play on the street and they’re very. They’re very safe, you know, as opposed to letting them play on the street. And inner Glasgow or in inner Belfast, they would be very, very safe here. There’s not even the. The traffic, for instance, especially in winter, you know, it’s nice to have that. It’s nice to have that freedom, be able to give your children that freedom of being able to go out and play and growing up without having to watch over their backs or. Obviously, coming from Northern Ireland, we had a very big divide of religious beliefs, where I am not religious in any way at all. So I was really Happy to come here. And all our children went to the same school and there wasn’t a divide. They all had the same summer holidays, the same Christmas holidays, which was absolutely amazing. Dawn, you didn’t know what a difference that made. It was just fantastic. Again, it’s just like all the small things add up and make something really, really great.

Dawn [27:28 – 27:37]: That’s a beautiful story. I got the chills. It was just the thought of. Yes. You know, finding that place, your perfect place. That’s really nice story. I’m glad you found it.

Kerry [27:37 – 28:15]: Thank you. It was just. It was just a total by chance that day that it said the snow was going to be forecast up by John O Groats and we’re all like, let’s get in the car and go. So we drove from John O Groats Rind past Wick and then into Thurso, and we thought to ourselves, you know, this is really lovely. Look at the size of that beach. And there’s not a soul on it. And we passed Donnet beach as well and we thought, oh, my goodness, the beaches are getting bigger, they’re getting sandier. Look at the golden sand. It’s just miles of golden sand. Why wouldn’t you want that? It just makes for such a lovely place to be able to come and play.

Dawn [28:15 – 28:22]: Yeah, just the Internet connection kind of goes now and again, doesn’t it, with the storm you had the other week?

Kerry [28:22 – 29:11]: It does, it does. That would be a bit of a downside, too. It’s like the intermittent Internet connection. And come. It’s like a wind tunnel. Thurso is sort of very much a wind tunnel. We even have chains that go around our bins and tie up our bins in winter because they’ve been known to absolutely take off even full. One of the local shops also has lost a roof. In storms, it sometimes can be absolutely horrendous. It can reach like 120 mile an hour winds up here and it can be relatively mild in the rest of the country. And the storm, it’s not even named. Once it gets to you up here, it’s like, oh, okay, yeah, it’s just a normal day to us up here. But yes, it’s just. We would call it a good washing day. It’s a day for putting your washing on the line.

Dawn [29:11 – 29:13]: But yeah, might not stay on the line.

Kerry [29:14 – 30:43]: No, you just have to peg it down really well. You soon come to learn all of these things. Just make them bins stay chained up. Nobody wants to have to run about the street collecting up the rubbish at the end. But it is. It is really dramatic. The wind and the weather can be really, really dramatic, which makes for absolutely fabulous photos. Again, the lighthouse in Leibester. If you time it perfectly, you can actually see the waves crash over the back of. Of the whole lighthouse and it just encases it and it just. Just shows you how much force there is and the power of the water coming straight over. And it is. It just. It is very, very picturesque and very scenic, but again, it is. It’s all. You would say it was magical. You definitely would say it was magical. But there is. And there’s just. We don’t have many trees. That. That is one thing Kithnas doesn’t have, is like an awful lot of trees. We. But what we do have is an awful lot of beaches. We have so many beautiful beaches, so that really makes up for the lack of trees. But we do have. We’ve got Rumster Forest and we’ve got Donut Forest, which, again, are like two absolutely lovely places to go. And there’s a wee hut you can go. And again, it’s just wonderful. So you get to spend time in nature and it’s almost nicer than going on a Saturday and trips around shopping centres and.

Dawn [30:43 – 30:46]: Oh, yes, it’s.

Kerry [30:46 – 31:09]: It’s just nice to get out into nature. And obviously I enjoy, like, going and talking to the trees and being with nature. I absolutely love that. And I. I love that I have passed that on to my youngest daughter, especially my eldest daughter. She found the barrenness, I would say, of Keith Ness quite hard. So she now lives in Aberdeen, where it’s a bit busier.

Dawn [31:09 – 31:10]: Yeah, just a bit more.

Kerry [31:11 – 32:05]: A bit more full of life for her. And more nightclubs to choose from because we’ve only got one in Thurso. So she likes a variety of nightclubs and those sort of things. Whereas most of us people that live in Kithness are really quite happy at the end of the day to go in and close our doors and just enjoy listening to the wind and the rain and wondering what storm’s going to come next. There is a real magic in it. And waking up every day, the weather is almost never right for Kithnas. So even if you watch the BBC news, you’re thinking, oh, goodness, that’s not what it looks like outside. That’s like today. We’ve had a real mix of hailstones and sleet and snow all. All day. And as you drove further out west, the snow got a little bit heavier, but it really didn’t come to anything. But where else would you get that?

Dawn [32:05 – 32:13]: Yeah, exactly. And what about your family back in that you, you know, you moved from Northern Ireland. Have they come to visit you? What do they think of the place?

Kerry [32:13 – 34:05]: Yes, my. My mom absolutely loves it. She. She really loves it. One of the times she was here, she got to see a whale breaching. I didn’t see. So she thought that was absolutely amazing. And we took her to Smooth Cave up at Darness and to Coco Mountain to go and get hot chocolate. They do the best hot chocolate in the absolute world. So they’ve got a coffee shop that I would call it the End of the Line because that’s where Darness is. You really can’t go any further out west than Darness. And it is just this little shop in sort of the middle of nowhere that does the most amazing hot chocolate. And they actually drizzle your cup with chocolate around the side. It makes it worse. It makes it worth like the hour and a half drive to go and get hot chocolate. It is just to die for. But again, it is absolutely wonderful. And on the way, there’s so many things to actually stop and do. And there is a zip line that is between one big hill to another hill that you can actually go along. I have never been brave enough to do that. Never? No, never. I have watched my children do it. I would never. Oh, gosh. I just think whenever you’re standing there and the wind is coming at you, you. No, it’s okay. I watch you. You go ahead. But it makes. It makes days like an awful lot special. And they’re always very memorable. There is always something that happens that is so memorable to actually bring back. And we do try to bring back a little stone or an acorn from the forest. And then we put it all on my altar. I’ve got like three candles that sit in my altar. And then it’s just filled now with stones from precious times whenever we think of the beach. Noon. I’m not talking quick dog walk because sometimes the dog wants back to the car before we’ve really even got halfway along the beach because his paws are cold. And now he’s taken to jumper wearing season.

Dawn [34:05 – 34:07]: Oh, bless him.

Kerry [34:10 – 34:15]: He. He is. But he’s a proper Scottish dog. He was born in Thurso. He should be well used to this.

Dawn [34:15 – 34:19]: Oh, he’s just been weak, that one, isn’t he? Come on. He is.

Kerry [34:20 – 34:42]: He should be. But. But no, he’s halfway down the beach, then he’s deciding he’s going back to the car. So then we all have to follow him back. It can be very blowy and gusty, but it is definitely worth it to shake the cobwebs off. And it is a fantastic way to actually go out and feel better about yourself. Is just like a little quick sand blast of the face. Walking up and down that beach. Sure. You couldn’t feel it.

Dawn [34:42 – 34:51]: No, definitely not. It beats going to the shops any day of the week. I’m not going to. I can’t think of anywhere. So that’s my kind of. My kind of thing. I could do that.

Kerry [34:51 – 35:06]: Absolutely. And in the summer we would have, like, a little fire down at the water’s edge or a little barbecue. And it’s just perfect to sit at nighttime and watch. Watch the waves come up and the stars twinkle and see, oh, Kerry, you’re.

Dawn [35:06 – 35:08]: Sailing it, you’re selling it.

Kerry [35:08 – 35:51]: I know we’re going to have an influx of people wanting to come and live here. To think that it’s magical. Don’t come and live here. No. I want each of you. We’ve got absolutely an abundance of land, but it is. It is wonderful. It is. Especially with the sea life and the northern lights and all of those things that go along with it. It’s a very unmaterialistic way of life. It is. It is just very freeing. You know, there’s so much to actually see and do and go to explore. We’ve got caves, we’ve got stones, we’ve got absolutely miles and miles of sandy beaches. Have you ever been up here, Dawn?

Dawn [35:51 – 36:00]: I haven’t. No. That’s not true. I’ve been up. We went over to Orany on the ferry. So I. I don’t. Is it a place you pass through it or is it. You have to go. Do you.

Kerry [36:00 – 36:05]: You passed. You passed through Thurso to go down. Did you leave from Scrabster?

Dawn [36:05 – 36:08]: Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes.

Kerry [36:08 – 37:02]: So you pass through Thurso to go down to Scrabster. But there’s. There’s so much more to Keith Ness. And just that one little stretch there, there really is just the miles and miles of sand is pretty breathtaking. As you drive from Cast. From Thurso, we’re into Castle Town and towards Donut. You’re just sort of thinking to yourself, oh, my goodness, just look at all this empty space. And obviously we’ve got things and like ceiling clubs and we’ve got surfing clubs. The surfing’s actually massive in Thurso. Every year there’s a massive surfing competition just held off Thurso Bay there. And we’ve Got one of the best female surfers, I think, in the world comes from Thurso. So that. That is pretty amazing. So that is really such an accolade. But again, that water is absolutely freezing.

Dawn [37:02 – 37:04]: I was gonna say. Oh, they’re brave.

Kerry [37:05 – 39:24]: They are very brave. They have my utmost respect for coming out in the middle of that. Even in wet and dry. It’s middle of. I think they hold it at sort of the end of October, whenever it is absolutely freezing, storms have started to set in. Although storms can set in July and August. Last year we had to replace. We have a polytunnel, but before that we had a greenhouse. And our greenhouse took off last July. It. It just decided that it was going for the wind. So off it went. So we had to replace that now with a polytunnel. But that’s. That has held down really well. And that’s where we grow all the herbs to make the smudge sticks. And again, that’s sort of what my daughter would help with. My youngest daughter is like helping with herbs and the plants in the garden. She. She really enjoys getting her hands dirty and getting out there and being able to actually name the plants too. Again, it’s a whole education. Witchcraft. It’s not just what people think it is. You know, like, we’re not devil worshipping in any way. There’s none of that involved at all. I think that there’s quite a lot of people have in their minds that witchcraft is. And it’s totally not. It’s absolutely not. But again, it’s just wonderful. And it’s wonderful to be able to pass these things on and to actually teach Isabella new skills and to be. Be able to teach her how to look after herself, like how to grow vegetables and how to care for animals and how to look after the plants so that they don’t die. Although that’s not always very successful, let’s be honest. Even as a witch, that’s not always very successful. Like today, she was grinding down eggshells for me to make black salt, which she absolutely loved because she’s an absolute messer. So she absolutely loved that part. She loves mess, and so she really did. But it is. It is just such a nice place to be able to come and be free and. And do all of this, because you. You don’t get that chance and that opportunity in very many places to actually be yourself. Because most of us these days are carbon copies of each other. And we don’t want to stand out and we don’t want to be different and we all want to be the same, and I totally get that. But it is nice to actually be able to be your true self and show your real identity and be able to teach kids that they can also be whoever they want to be and.

Dawn [39:24 – 39:25]: Exactly.

Kerry [39:25 – 40:11]: It is just lovely. It really is. Especially whenever you’ve got children growing from young women up through and to be in their teenage years, and then you’re just preparing them for life, Dawn. And I think this is actually the perfect place to do it because they’re given so much freedom and there’s so much for them to actually see and do and experience here other than go shopping. Now, we do have a cinema. We. We do have a cinema and we’ve got extra screens added now, so. So we’ve got all the latest blockbusters for the cosy. For the cosy winter coming. So that’s always lovely. And again, you can go up there and there can maybe just be Isabella and I sitting in the cinema, which is absolutely perfect screening.

Dawn [40:11 – 40:12]: How cool is that?

Kerry [40:12 – 40:34]: It feels like that sometime. It is absolutely lovely to be able to actually go and do that. There’s not the hustle and bustle of being able to. Having to push past people with popcorns and drinks in your hand. It is very free and very lovely. So I am just very thankful that we have found our place in the world to be able to come and do all this.

Dawn [40:34 – 40:38]: Yeah. And your daughter, she. Did you say Isabel or Isabella?

Kerry [40:38 – 40:39]: Isabella.

Dawn [40:39 – 40:54]: Isabella. Because Sheila enjoys coming with you to do with Spellbound Keith next, doesn’t she? I always see your poor hosts. You know, you’ve gone to events together, you’re showcasing things. So she really enjoys that side of it as well.

Kerry [40:54 – 41:46]: She does. Isabella has got autism, so sometimes she can be quite socially awkward. But it totally works for my stall. Totally works for mine. So sometimes she’ll sit under the table and if she’s feeling a bit overwhelmed, she’ll meow or she’ll hiss at people, just depending on how she finds their energy. That talk, again, totally works for my stall. Sometimes it looks like I’m really talking to myself whenever she’s sitting underneath the table. So again, it could be a spirit, I’m talking to her, it could be Isabella under the table, but it totally works. But she can become very overwhelmed very quickly. But everybody has gotten to know her and everybody has incorporated her into the fairs and the events. She also, one of my lovely friends, Yvonne, she owns a. A small business too, called Abby Crafts. And Isabella, absolutely. She’s adopted Yvonne as her Scottish nan.

Dawn [41:46 – 41:47]: Oh, Nice.

Kerry [41:47 – 42:39]: So she helps Yvonne pack up and she helps Yvonne put out her things. But because Isabella has got autism, her coordination isn’t always great and Yvonne sells painted glass, so sometimes I just dread that is possibly going to happen. But Yvonne is so, so lovely to her and has offered to let her help with the community market as well, which is again, such a lovely opportunity for Isabella to be able to go and be part of. And again, it lets her see the other side of, like, not just. Usually we just turn up, we set up. But this will give her the chance to actually go and see the other side of the hard work that actually goes into organising events and making sure that all runs smoothly and setting out the tables. And so it’s wonderful for her. But it’s good that, again, it’s a community and everybody pulls together to really.

Dawn [42:39 – 42:47]: Help and you feel safe letting your daughter, you know, it’s not strangers, you know who these people, you know, people are. So, yes, you feel safe.

Kerry [42:47 – 43:19]: Absolutely. Isabella has adopted quite a few of them as her own. Definitely. She really has. She’s very fond of Yvonne and Aaron. Aaron has Kithness aromatics and she is. She’s just in awe of Aaron. I think if she could go and sit Erin stall all day, she would. Or Yvonne’s. But mine, she wants to sit underneath the table and it can be absolutely hilarious. It can. But you’ve got to sort of warn people sometimes in case she grabs their feet from under the table.

Dawn [43:20 – 43:21]: That would scare me to death.

Kerry [43:22 – 43:32]: Especially whenever you’re starting looking at Ouija boards and the next thing a little hand comes out and wants to. Wants to give you a bit of a shake.

Dawn [43:32 – 43:38]: People would pay to get a fright like that sometimes, wouldn’t they? That’s should sell tickets.

Kerry [43:38 – 48:42]: I should. I should take her to Horror Con. I should sell her to Laura. Laura would absolutely love Isabella jumping out in people and scaring the absolute bejesus out of them. She would absolutely love. Well, but it is honestly, it is mostly all good fun. Sometimes the travelling is 102 miles, I think, roughly. Or is it 120 miles either way from Thurso to Infinite else before we can even go anywhere further than that. So it is quite a long distance. So to do fares up and down the country involves an awful lot of driving and an awful lot of dedication on our part. And especially if we’re bringing into Bella, there has to be an awful lot of forward planning as to how her day is going to go. And it has to be set out and very regimented and Routine because she’s got autism, she likes to always know what’s coming next so that we’re not sitting in the car. And the time we get the Hamsdale, all we’ll hear is is, are we there yet? Are we there yet? So it’s nice to be able to have a whole plan of what we’re actually going to do so that she’s aware of what’s going to happen too. But it is an awful lot of drive and I do quite a lot of conventions in Aberdeen with Northern frights. Laura is absolutely wonderful. She runs an awful lot of these events. So there’s HorrorCon and Fantasy Con. And at the weekend there was a Goblin King Ball, which was, was really amazing. There was a string quartet playing all the songs from the Witcher. Oh, Dawn. You would have loved that. You really would have loved it. It was just really, really nice. And I actually took my eldest daughter and left Isabella and her father at home and went and had a wonderfully good time. Yes, it was nice to get a break away. But we do, when we travel down the country, I don’t think that people understand the amount of miles that we put in to come to some of the events and the amount of dedication and willpower that it takes up to get up on a really cold, frosty morning. Sometimes you’re getting up, it’ll be 3:00 to start and set off for the day. And it is, sometimes you just, it’s a struggle to price yourself out of bed and even get started, let alone pack the car up and get ready to go. But it has been totally worth it to meet some of the most nicest people in the whole of Scotland. We’ve been as far down as Doncaster, actually, in England this year, which was a massive, massive drive. We went to Dubness the night of the, the night of the living Dubness. It was a camping festival, which was really, really good. And everybody is just so wonderful whenever you get there. And they, they, they do genuinely be so happy that you have made it down from that far up to come and be part of their event. But I, I don’t always think that everybody understands just how far and the extreme lengths that we go to to get to these places, because if the roads are covered in ice and snow up here, it’s not pleasant. It’s really, really not pleasant. Or if it’s a treacherously windy and rainy day, it is just so hard some mornings to just want to prize yourself from underneath the warm covers and start to get out of bed and get washed and dressed to go and set up a stall. But it makes the experience all worthwhile once you get there and you get to meet really, really lovely people. You do. And no matter where you go, you usually always meet somebody that has either lived in Caithness, has been to Kith Ness, has absolutely loved kfnas and it’s nice to be able to represent the county all over Scotland and the top of England so far and get to experience their way of life too. And again, it becomes a community, even with some of the bigger events like Horicon, the. The Traders all become a community and you’ll get to know each other and you get to play, play a role, I suppose, in helping also Horicon and Fantasy Con grow. And it’s nice to be able to do that and it’s nice to be able to help each other’s businesses grow and be able to give a little bit insight for the new people coming along. Because whenever I first opened Spellbound Kiffness, there had never really been anything like that up here. There had never. And at the start, I had like, quite a few older ladies run past the stall and put their heads down and exclude, like, exclaimed that this was awful. But once you get sort of chatting to people, they. They sort of are more willing to listen to you and they’re more accepted of a pagan way of life, shall we say. But it has been a real, real learning curve the last two years from I started spellbound. And it has, it has been wonderful at times. It has been absolutely tedious to drive up and down the road and see the seam scenery day in, day out. And, you know, obviously, you know, it’s just sometimes that it’s. The travel can be just so, so.

Dawn [48:42 – 48:50]: Hard and you’re leaving behind such a beautiful place. You’re like, you just want to stay. I don’t want to go today. I don’t want to enjoy it.

Kerry [48:51 – 51:07]: Yes. But if I want my business to grow at the same time, I’ve got to get out there and I’ve got to spread the word and tell people where we are and, and showcase where we come from and what a beautiful land that it is and just how magical it is and all the things that they can learn from coming to Caithness and all the beautiful places they can come to visit, like Castle of May, for instance. It’s absolutely gorgeous. And we’ve got the May Highland Games every year at John O’Groats, which the king actually came to this year. The year before, he was only the Prince of Wales. But this year he is the king, so graded. Yeah. So we also had that this year too, this summer, which was again, wonderful. And Isabella really enjoyed coming to that as well. She really enjoyed being part of that. And it is such a lovely community to be a part of and it is so accepting of. You would think for a small community you could end up very by yourself and very closed off. But that is not how I have found it. At the start, it was difficult to find a sort of a middle ground, shall we say, for witchcraft. But it has definitely found its home back here in Caithness with all the other wonderful women who came. For me, it has been a real, real learning curve and it has just set us up for having our own little community. I’m hoping next year that we’ll perhaps have a Caithness coven and we will have like a little collective of women that just want to come together. And we found make spells and potions and learn how to make their own broomsticks and learn what their crystals are for and how to charge them and what all the different phases of the moon can mean to you as a person. And I just want to be able to share the knowledge that I have gained along the way. And I think that that is something that I would like to be able to pass on to everybody, which is what I sort of use spellbound to do is. Everything that I have ever learned or I have ever been taught is to help pass that on so that everybody can use it in whatever way that they like and incorporate it into their lifestyle too. But it has. It has been a really amazing time. And I met you, Dawn.

Dawn [51:07 – 51:09]: I know, exactly.

Kerry [51:09 – 52:36]: I know. We have met so many, so many fantastic people. We’ve had so many wonderful opportunities and I am just so, so thankful for all of it. But again, that comes from manifestation, Dawn. That comes from hard work and doing our new intentions and setting ourselves up and believing in ourselves. But K Ness help really helps with that. I. I feel that being here really helps with that because we don’t have the. The humdrum of the. The big city or all the trappings that go with it. We. We really don’t. We’re very secluded up here, I feel. And sometimes we can even be totally cut off. If it snows during the A9 and snow gates get closed, we can be cut off. And bread and milk become very scarce, especially the bread. Don’t know what that’s all about. Whatever. We could all make a few loaves of bread ourselves. I don’t know as it is that you hear the word, the word snow on the news, it seems to be that we’re running for bread and milk. Yeah. Yeah, I know. We’ll all need a coy of our own this year in the garden. I feel. I feel that this could be quite a bad winter. We’ll all be. We’ll all be around. The berries were very, very thick in the trees this year, so I feel that we could be in for quite a hard winter. A hard, long winter. Although last year was a very long winter. It was a. The snow really didn’t relent to sort of the end of March. March.

Dawn [52:36 – 52:38]: Oh, really? That long?

Kerry [52:38 – 54:10]: Yeah, it was bitter, bitter cold. And the roads can freeze it. We’ve actually had the whole river freeze in Thurso. It. It makes for stunning photos. You don’t necessarily really want to go out on those days whenever it’s absolutely cold and really, really, really, really freezing, but it makes for absolutely stunning photos, which, again, why wouldn’t you just want to put your coat on and walk to the end of the road and have a wee look and see what it’s like? Like. But yeah, we have just so many different seasons. Some. Some days we can have four seasons in one day. You just not sure what to wear sometimes, especially in like September and October. But again, it is. It’s just very, very picturesque. There’s always something to take a photo of and no matter. You can drive past the same place twice and it looks completely different in every season. We would have very, very purple hills sort of at the end of the summer with the heather, which is always lovely to see. And then it starts to turn brown again. So it looks very different every time that you see it. It does. And then the leaves falling again. Again, it’s just so, so different. And then in the summer we’ve got the bright green colours and. And the locks and lakes look so invite and there’s so much to actually come and do and see and especially with all of the lovely things that we’ve got going on here. And everybody’s more than welcome to come to Midsummer Carnival 2024.

Dawn [54:10 – 54:12]: Yeah. Would you know when it’s going to be?

Kerry [54:13 – 56:02]: Yes, it’s going to be the 21st of June, so it’s going to be an actual summer solstice this year, which makes it even more special. So we are going to Upper game and hopefully we’ll have a bigger fire show than last year. Now, the first year, last year was already very good, but the rein came on at the very end. But Faraday was an absolute tripper and continued on. She really was. She was so special. So this year, because it’s on summer solstice, it would be very, very nice if we could just up the ante a little bit and have like more spiritual workshops and more interactive things for people to be able to come along and join in to, especially from the town. I think after a long, especially a long winter, it’s nice come the summer to see the lighter nights and to be able to come together as a community. After all, being locked in for so long. Not that you’re locked in, but it feels like such short days. In winter. You want to get out and you want to meet your friends and you want to celebrate the light coming back. You want, you want to go all out and have fun. You really, really do. You want to make the most of the late nights. You want to be able to walk along the beach at 11 o’clock. You want to be able to do all of those things, you know. So it’s nice that we’re going to have the carnival on actual summer solstice. We’re hoping to have the fire show, lots of spiritual goings on. We’re hoping to have singers and dancers and performers again this year with a very solstice theme. So you’re more than welcome to dress up. We had some absolutely terrific costumes last year. People really did put in the effort of coming to the carnival in costume, which they. They all just looked amazing. The town did so, so well. They really did. They come out and for us to support it. So I would hope that we would always give back.

Dawn [56:02 – 56:08]: And again, a lot of outside, you know, outside visitors. Visitors coming to the event as well.

Kerry [56:09 – 59:42]: We had quite a few tourists, yes, that also came and we advertised it down the top part of the A9. So as you were driving up, you could see that it was on. So it was nice that we had quite a few people who didn’t necessarily live in Kith ness came along too and wanted to be part of it as well. We also had quite a lot of people that woodlike sang from all over Scotland had gotten contact, but we were fully booked by that stage. But if anybody would like to be part of this year, it’s always going to be non profit so that the community can actually have something to come together for. All as we ever ask is a donation for the lifeboat, which is who we raised money for last year. And I would like to do it again for the lifeboat this year because we are such a coastal community. The lifeboat are an absolute godsend to the town. They, they really are. They go out in all weathers and the amount of fantastic work that they do is just so underrated. Those, those fellow. Those men and women really do put their lives at risk to go and save so many others. So it’s just nice to be able to actually give back to that. And we have the most horrendous seas up here. So it is absolutely no mean fate to put your life at risk to get on that boat every time you’re going out and which is in essence what they’re doing. So it’s really nice to be able to help that and feel like we’re doing something to help them because. Because they are helping everybody else. So it’s nice to just give back. But it will always be nonprofit. So if anybody would like to come and give support or help in any way they can, it would just be absolutely wonderful. And it is nice that it can be. We’re open to it being absolutely anything, any denomination, any religious thing, absolutely anything. We incorporate everybody. We try to. We really do. We wouldn’t turn anybody away. But this year we had so many requests to be part of it and so we even had a pagan singer had offered to come up from Liverpool which was amazing that it reached Liverpool. It was amazing that it reached Liverpool. So it was lovely that. But unfortunately we had already got our full quota of singers and the Thurso School Choir also came and they did us pride and they had to act an absolutely lovely song and they sang for Sandy Tom coming to which was just so, so lovely. And it was really just so nice that everybody wanted to come together and be part of it and celebrate summer solstice. Because summer solstice is really the pinnacle of the. The light is the pinnacle of us coming together and the pinnacle of being able to use that light to bring us, us together. And really because we’re so far north, it is, we tho is the furthest town north in the whole of the UK on the mainland. So it is nice that summer solstice could be celebrated here. It would be nice to do that on a bigger scale with the big fire. And that’s what I have envisioned for years. Time that we’ll have big, big, big, big tents and gazebos and we’ll have a massive fire and we’ll have pagan drummers the whole way around it and we’ll all come in and cook some ropes and little, little, little torches. Absolutely. I would absolutely love that. But we’ve got to work up to that we really do start in a small scale. But it is wonderful that the community wants to support something quite unusual, dawn.

Dawn [59:42 – 59:56]: For it is, isn’t it? So it was just. It took them once they got to know you and you know what you were all about and that there was nothing to fear. I suppose then they’ve accepted you and actually supporting you now, which is lovely.

Kerry [59:56 – 1:01:22]: It is lovely. And we, like I said, we do have quite a large spiritual community up here of. We’ve got an awful lot healers, we’ve got energy healers and again, they don’t always get the showcase, but they do either. So it’s nice that the carnival was able to bring all that together and let everybody see that there’s so much actually up here that you can get involved in. It’s that there is alternatives to. To the mainstream. That there really is. You know, we had tarot readers and we had a psychic as well. Again, all these things really did an amazing job. I had really good help. I did. And to be honest, the night before I was absolutely full of panic and dread. I was full of panic and anxiety even about doing your podcast cast today, but let alone having the actual carnival start. And I sat the night before and I was so worried nobody was going to come and my friend was like, I think know that everybody will come. And I was like, I’m not sure they will. But it. It was very, very dumped and I get very, very nervous. And it was the first time I had ever been on the radio to go and publicise that this was happening. Well, before I went on. Oh, Dawn. Before I went on I thought, oh my goodness, that this is just awful. It feels just. Oh, but we made it. And it was a whole new experience to me. I get very nervous very easily, but.

Dawn [1:01:22 – 1:01:32]: It was a whole new never know. You. You don’t come across like that at all. And a couple of times I’ve spoke to. You’ve been spot on. You hide it well.

Kerry [1:01:33 – 1:01:51]: That is so kind. That is just so nice. But I am, I’m very nervous. I’m always nervous, especially whenever it’s something that I am fully invested in and I’ve worked really hard on. It is just wee bit daunting. Is anybody actually going to come and enjoy it? And they did, which just blew me away. It did.

Dawn [1:01:51 – 1:01:56]: Have more faith in yourself. They’re coming for you. It’s you. You’re very personable.

Kerry [1:01:56 – 1:03:41]: Oh, that is. That is just so kind. But again, it’s the place and the place makes all of this happen. It really does. There’s definitely a magical force in Caithness that brings us all together, but I do believe it’s a mixture of the land, the light, the wildlife. Even the wildlife wants to come here in summer. Like, there’s not many places in the British Isles you can see orcas, and here we’re just so spoiled and so treated to being able to actually walk out the front door and see them in Thurso Bay. You know, there’s not really many places that you would get away with that in the British Isles. And it’s. It’s just so lovely and that they’re actually left alone, you know, it’s not that there’s drones flying over them or. Which I think would just spoil the whole ambience of the situation and maybe they might come back, but they enjoy it here and they feel very free. And I think that that’s the main part of kith Ness has made me feel very free and very liberated, especially for my. From a sense of my children growing up here. And it is very idyllic for them, that situation of having children and being able to allow them to be free and experience other things other than the commercialization of the world and use their imagination more and actually go outside and physically play and pretend that they’re Vikings and dragons along the beach and encourage. Encourage all of that. It is just so lovely to be able to do. It’s just such an amazing place. It truly is. Like, I can’t. Can’t. I really can’t give KFNS enough credit for all of the things that we have here and all of the beautiful scenery that we have. And we tend to often be overlooked, especially in the cause of, like, driving to work.

Dawn [1:03:42 – 1:03:43]: There you go. Yeah.

Kerry [1:03:43 – 1:04:12]: Yeah. You know, we often do get overlooked and there is so many special places to go and visit here, which, again, my pronunciation is still. Absolutely. After seven years of living here, I don’t know it’s ever going to get any better. So I apologise now. But at least at this stage, I. I can say quite a lot of the. Pronounce quite a lot of the words in the streets and hopefully it’ll get easier with time. My tongue will get used to the extra Rs.

Dawn [1:04:12 – 1:04:15]: Oh, I know. We do a lot of work with that tongue. So would you.

Kerry [1:04:16 – 1:04:42]: I know, I know. It’s like having a little workout. It truly is. It truly is. But you can. You can just sit along Thursday Obey, and you can totally imagine the big Vik boats just sailing up into the bay. You really can. When you’re there, it is just such a very impressionable place. And when you’re here, you often just don’t want to leave because it is so peaceful and quiet and it’s. It is just wonderful.

Dawn [1:04:42 – 1:04:53]: Well, Kerry, it’s been lovely talking to you. I really enjoyed hearing about 30 everything that you’ve talked about. You’ve really immersed me in the place. I love it. Really, really good.

Kerry [1:04:53 – 1:04:55]: You’re going to have to come and visit now, darling.

Dawn [1:04:55 – 1:05:00]: No, I am. And when you were talking about your festival next year, I’m thinking, oh God, that sounds great.

Kerry [1:05:00 – 1:05:06]: I’m thinking you’re absolutely more than welcome to come and do a whole life podcast. We would.

Dawn [1:05:06 – 1:05:13]: Oh no, God no, don’t. That’s too much pressure. I want to enjoy myself.

Kerry [1:05:13 – 1:05:23]: We would love to have you and we would love for you to come and do your podcast. We really would. You can come and dance the night away.

Dawn [1:05:25 – 1:05:26]: I can do that.

Kerry [1:05:27 – 1:05:56]: You would really, really enjoy it. You might not want to go home again until winter. Until winter hits and then it’s a whole different level of cold. I’m not going to lie. It is big woolly socks and it is like thermal leggings and it is big knee high bits and big, big dukes, coats. But do you know what? You just get on with it. It would be no different than living maybe in Norway or Iceland that you just have to get on with it and make the most of it and it, it just becomes a way of life.

Dawn [1:05:56 – 1:05:59]: Just worth it. Because you know what’s coming again, don’t you? It’s going on.

Kerry [1:05:59 – 1:06:25]: Oh, absolutely. And the brighter nights. Absolutely. It truly is. There’s nothing better than turning the corner and there’s a massive, maybe six foot stag standing in front of you. Looking back, it is just phenomenal. It really is phenomenal. It’s definitely very, very picturesque. And I, I am. It is an absolute pleasure to be able to live here and promote kfnas. Definitely.

Dawn [1:06:25 – 1:06:39]: It’s been lovely. So before you go, I’m curious. You’ve got so many beautiful, beautiful products on your website. I mean, just stunning. What is, is. What’s, what’s your favourite? If. Can you have it? Do you have a favourite? Is there something that you just.

Kerry [1:06:39 – 1:08:13]: I recently made our own spellbox so all the herbs were grown in our garden. So it is like totally ours. Every part of it was made here in my house. From the anointing oil to the herbs, even the spell I wrote all of the spells, that’s in the spell box. So that was all totally me. So it is. Everything is in it. It’s all from us and it is all from here and kithnaeus. And I am just so proud of that. It took two years to be able to grow quite a lot of these herbs. It was quite tricky to be able to learn how to grow skullcap and Angelina vervee and all these herbs that you can’t just go to Tesco’s and buy. It took a long time to actually work with them and the mugwort actually took over the garden for quite a long time. It grew out of control and we were wondering for quite a long time, what can we do with all of this mug work other than just use bell? So we thought we would put it in a spell box and it has come together absolutely beautifully and it’s the product that I am most proud of because every part of us is in that box. All of our hard work, from the making the protection salt, like Bella was doing tonight, and grinding down all of that, it is all in there and it just encapsulates. It’s everything that we love about being in Keith Ness and the harsh winters and the lovely summers and it just. That is my favourite product that we definitely do because it is just every bit of us goes into that spellbox.

Dawn [1:08:13 – 1:08:19]: It sounds. It. It sounds really. You should be proud of that. That’s an amazing achievement, that, isn’t it?

Kerry [1:08:19 – 1:11:08]: Thank you, Donna. I do feel proud of it. It took such a long time to be able to put it together and in the end that has. It has just blown me away. It really has. It looks so good and I am so super proud of what we have achieved together. My husband works tirelessly. My husband actually works in the harbour in Thurso, but when he comes home, he loves growing the vegetables. He really does. And he loves growing the herbs and he is very, very good to me. He loads the car for me and he does so much for me. And he is very underrated, I would say, in the business. He. He really is. He often goes without a mention. Yeah, he is definitely the backbone providing the. The muscles of the job, I would say. But he is very good and he is. He has learned an awful lot in this adventure too. And he puts his heart and soul into helping, growing the herbs and all of that. And anything that I can see that I would like to make, he. He helps me and he is just such a good person of, like, helping lift me up on days, whenever it’s. The herbs have blown over in the polytunnel. And you just think, oh, this is just the end. This is just awful. He is very good at helping me turn that around. He really is. But the spellbox does it incorporates every single part of spellbound kithness and what we actually stand for and the sort of magic that we want to send out and create into the world. World. We also sell pin dolls, which my friend Karen crochets, which is absolutely amazing. So they’re Highland pin dolls and they all contain a little bit of magic. But we believe that rather than use them for badness, that if we actually take the pen and we bring it out and we bring it from our stomachs, obviously not touching yourself to the top of your head and you bring that pin and you put it into the pindle, that you’re releasing your own bad energies and you’re putting your own energies into the pindle rather than cursing anybo or using it for badness. We believe if you take all of that, the doll can hold all your really bad thoughts and feelings and you can store them in there rather than having to store them inside yourself. So I think that that is also a wonderful tool and really good to help people. And again, it’s about promoting the light of witchcraft rather than the darkness. I think people often believe that we’re cursing people and there’s an awful lot of badness and there’s absolutely none of that. That it is just such a nice way of life to be able to actually let go through using the doll or the spellbox, casting your intentions out to the world. Because that’s what magic is all about, is putting all of that out there and really believing that you can do this. And self belief really does carry you on so, so far in the world. And it’s nice to be able to give people the belief in themselves that they can achieve whatever they want.

Dawn [1:11:08 – 1:11:18]: That’s. That sounds really nice. I like the sound of that. What a beautiful thing you’ve done there. I can. I’ve already thought of somebody that that would help. So, yeah.

Kerry [1:11:19 – 1:12:19]: I think that that’s just so much nicer way to actually use pindles rather than putting somebody’s hair into them. Even though there’s times we would all like to do that. I’m sure there is. There is absolutely time times. We would all absolutely love to do that, but it’s just nice to use it for yourself and to feel better about yourself and just have all those negative thoughts contained in something that you can actually put away and free your mind from all those things that we pent up and have inside ourselves all the time. But again, I couldn’t do that without my friend Karen, who also really is a big, big help to me. She is so lovely and she. She lives in Thurso, too, do. And again, I wouldn’t have met Karen had I not lived here. And now we’ve got a really fantastic friendship and I couldn’t ask for better friends, and I couldn’t ask for anybody better than Karen. I really couldn’t. And it has been such a fabulous community to be a part of. It’s.

Dawn [1:12:19 – 1:12:26]: It’s been really, really wonderful listening to you and everything you’ve got to say. It’s been fascinating. I’ve really enjoyed it. It.

Kerry [1:12:27 – 1:12:33]: Thank you, Dawn. I’m so sorry that I was so nervous, but we. We got there, didn’t we?

Dawn [1:12:33 – 1:12:45]: Oh, we absolutely did, Car. You did amazing. It was really enjoyed listening to everything you had to say you did. Like I say, you literally took me there with you and it was really, really special. So thank you.

Kerry [1:12:45 – 1:12:51]: That’s good. That is good. So, Hardy, I send you the chat there, right?

Dawn [1:12:51 – 1:12:57]: Okay. So if you press, can you see where it says stop? Stop recording.

Kerry [1:12:57 – 1:13:01]: Hang on. Yeah.