HIGH STREET, ROSEMARKIE
Rosemarkie High Street, c1910
Rosemarkie High Street, probably 1930s
Open All Hours: Grocers
The collection at Groam House Museum includes images and objects linked to the village’s High Street history. In 2013 the Fortrose & Rosemarkie History Group produced a booklet entitled A Century of Shopping. It gives a comprehensive picture of the shops in both villages and the characters who owned and ran them. We are popping into just a few of those shops on these pages, but you can visit the group’s website for more.
Staff outside Robb’s Cash Grocery Store, probably 1910s
ROBB’S CASH GROCERY STORE, LATER D&G FRASER GROCERS
Built as a detached house, Dornkop, and shop in the 1890s. The shop was William Robb’s Cash Grocery Store in 1911, then D&G Fraser in the 1930s. Later it was Mrs Jones’ ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of shoes, drapery and sundries. It then became Post Office that was notoriously robbed at gunpoint and today is Panacea, a treasure trove of herbal remedies.
D&G Fraser Grocers, 1930s
(image courtesy of Fortrose & Rosemarkie Local History Group)
Rosemarkie High Street Through Time
Most of the shops listed in A Century of Shopping are long gone. The High Street, which was once bustling with retail, is largely residential now – but there are still clues to its commercial past.
Click on the photographs below and look closely. Take a walk down Rosemarkie High Street today.
Can you spot any houses that have retained their large windows and shop front features?
Staff outside Hugh Home, Grocer & Ironmonger, between 1900 and 1913 (image courtesy of Fortrose & Rosemarkie Local History Group)
Four Candles: The General Store
Look closely at the images of Rosemarkie High Street through the years and the Doric columns of one property are always prominent. This was the first purpose-built shop in Rosemarkie. It opened as Steavenson’s General Merchants in the mid-1800s, where customers could buy rifles, furniture and watches, as well as lease salmon fishing from Mr Hogarth.
Later it became Hugh Home’s High Class Grocer (pictured). Then, in 1913, Mary Ann McGillivray’s ‘Stores’. Its distinctive façade is still obvious today as the private residence Doric House.
Quiz
I went to Rosemarkie High Street and I bought…
A quiz based on the shops of Rosemarkie High Street.
CLICK TO PLAY
HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ROSEMARKIE HIGH STREET?
A QUIZ INSPIRED BY GROAM HOUSE MUSEUM’S SOCIAL HISTORY COLLECTION
Listen
An interview with Rosemarkie resident, Evelyn, about her memories of shopping the High Street.
