Ferguson family from Turriff: The 'world's most adventurous family'

Meet the Ferguson brothers from Turriff, who have done just about everything you wanted to but haven’t dared – and they’re still at school.

It’s fair to say Ollie, 15 and Harry, 12, have had an adventure-packed childhood, with Guinness World Records, ocean crossings, and a whole lot more.

Anxious about the growing, and pernicious, influence of screens on today’s youth, a decade ago – when Ollie and Harry were five and two – the Ferguson family came up with the idea of completing 500 adventures by the time Ollie turned 18.

Ferguson family from Turriff have ticked off 473 of 500 adventures

Turning a telephone box into a public library is just one of the 473 adventures the Ferguson boys have completed so far.

It’s a wonder they have time left for their ‘day jobs’ as pupils at Turriff Academy.

Dad MacNeill Ferguson, an ecological consultant, spoke to The P&J about life in “the world’s most adventurous family”, beginning with the Fintry Book Nook in Fintry, near Turriff.

One of a diminishing number of iconic old red telephone boxes, the Fintry phone box had been lying unused for years when the owner – a private individual – agreed with Ollie and Harry’s idea to turn it into a library.

Harry in the Book Nook with his and Ollie’s own book.

The idea is that when you take a book, you leave a book you’re finished with, so that the library replenishes itself.

Ten months since it opened, this is very much the case.

Fintry Book Nook: ‘We saw the phone box and thought, hey, no-one’s using this’

“We’d always wanted to create a community library,” said MacNeill.

“The boys get a lot of stuff as part of their challenges, a lot of offers – ‘do you want to come and do this’, ‘do you want to try this’ – and one thing we encourage them to think about is giving to others as well as having people help them do their adventures. And this was just a really good opportunity.

“We saw the phone box when we were visiting friends in Fintry and we thought, ‘hey, no-one’s using this.’ So we found out who owned it and got in touch. The owner said they’d love us to turn it into a library.

“So we went down and cleaned it out, got rid of all the millions of spiders and field mice living in it.

“We’ve got quite a big library at home, and a lot of books that the boys are too old for now. We thought, rather than just give them away to charity, why not create a library of all the books we weren’t using so that other people can use them and benefit from them.

“We wanted to do an adventure that was community-based. I supervised it but it was the boys who did the bulk of the work in setting it up.”

Fintry Book Nook even used by local school

The reception from the local community has been beyond expectations.

Not only are scores of people in Fintry and other hamlets and villages north of Turriff using the Book Nook, but Fintry School – about half a mile down the road – now regularly take pupils to the phone box to pick books.

MacNeill said: “We set up a Facebook page for the Book Nook just to try and gauge if people were using it.

“We know a lot of local families use it, because they’ve sent us pictures of them there having gone and taken a book.

“We’ve had very positive comments from people in the village, particularly the person who owns it, who said it’s absolutely lovely to see kids coming to the phone box because previously it was just a dead space.

“It’s got lights in it and everything, so you can turn up at night and still see the books.

The Book Nook even has lighting, meaning it can be used after dark.

“I really love that Fintry school use it, because one, it’s getting the kids out of school, and two, they’re actively making use of it and participating in it as a community, which is the whole point of it.

“The teachers have been very positive about it too, and appreciate having another space to use and take the kids along to.”

Ollie and Harry’s 500 adventures: Ferguson family wanted to keep kids away from screens

Moving on from the Fintry Book Nook – after all, it is but one of hundreds of projects, challenges and yes, adventures the Fergusons have dived into – I asked MacNeill, well, why 500 adventures?

“The point of the adventures is to engage with the kids and to find not only ways of doing things as a family that mean we take them away from screens, but also they’re getting life lessons and learning skills, and in a fun way.

‘We wanted to take them away from screens.’

“It’s all about giving them learning experiences and interacting with the world around them in a way that is engaging for them.

“We wanted Ollie and Harry to be out doing things and learning things, and having a childhood that was centred around exploring and being adventurous rather than allowing them to sit in front of screens.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’re no different to anyone else. We still have arguments, we still have tantrums. If I allowed my two to sit in front of a screen, they would.

“When we started, Ollie was five and Harry two, and we were already starting to see the attraction of kids being sat with an ipad or sitting watching TV, and we just thought no, we’re not going to do that.

You name it, Ollie and Harry have done it.

Intergalactic Sausage Day

“So one day we said to the boys, ‘right, today we’re going to do an adventure, what do you want to do?’ And they came up with ridiculous things. One wanted to go to Mars, and the other one wanted an Intergalactic Sausage Day, whatever that means.

“But still, we created it – on November 1 every year we go and cook sausages on the beach and eat them. And that’s Intergalactic Sausage Day.

“We did go to Mars as well. Well, I mean it was Rattray Beach, but they had their astronaut suits on and their equipment in their trolley and that sort of thing.

“So it started with small, silly stuff, and has grown as we’ve adapted the adventures to the boys’ age. It’s getting harder now that they’re 15 and 12. It’s an entirely different level.”

Circumnavigation of Antarctica…

Indeed, some of the Ferguson brothers’ exploits have received worldwide attention.

In 2023 Ollie and Harry designed and built model ships which they launched on a mission to circumnavigate Antarctica, in what is thought to be a world first.

Ollie and Harry with their self-built replicas of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

The boys took inspiration from the Ross scientific expedition of 1839-43 where the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror discovered the Ross Ice Shelf.

They built one-metre long replicas of the two vessels, designed to follow the circumpolar current around the coastline of Antarctica.

The journey of more than 12,500 miles was expected to take up to two years.

While they lost signal on the Erebus model after just 340 miles after it was attacked by a giant petrel, the Terror sailed 6,200 miles before signal was lost.

Ollie and Harry’s journey around Antarctica. Image: Icoteq

During the journey, Ollie and Harry’s boats transmitted back scientific data including air temperature, ocean temperature and ocean pH which can be markers of climate change.

…and a world record Atlantic crossing…

The brothers are also the proud owners of a Guinness World Record for the longest voyage by a toy ship.

Harry (left) and Ollie celebrating their world record.

In May 2017 they launched their Playmobil pirate ship, named Adventure, from Peterhead. It reached Sweden – a fine first effort.

Then in December that year, the same ship left Mauritania, spent many weeks travelling westwards across the Atlantic, and almost made landfall on the northern coast of South America before tidal currents drove it north towards Barbados.

All in all, the Playmobil ship travelled 3,773 miles, gaining Ollie and Harry entry into the 2020 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

‘It’s all about giving them learning experiences and interacting with the world around them in a way that is engaging for them.’

…and next up: the earth’s deepest point

Ollie and Harry have even published their own book, Ollie and Harry’s Marvellous Adventures, in which the Fergusons are described as “the world’s most adventurous family”.

You can also keep up with their adventures on their Facebook blog, ‘The Days are Just Packed’. They’ve even sent Lego into space.