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Passionate poem from Moray family about picturesque hometown wins award

Zara and Marie Gill overlooking Cullen Harbour, which features prominently in their poem.
Zara and Marie Gill overlooking Cullen Harbour, which features prominently in their poem.

A heartfelt Doric poem from a Moray family about their hometown has won a prestigious poetry competition.

“Bonny Cullen Toon” by Zara, Zander and Marie Gill, takes readers on a colourful tour through the picturesque beauty spot.

A host of local characters also make an appearance in the work, which encourages visitors not to miss out on the seaside village.

This week, the poem was named as the winner of the inter-generational Charles Murray poetry competition ahead of dozens of other entries from across Moray.

Cullen Primary School pupil Zara, 10, sat down with her mother and father to craft the creative words.

And she said: “I really wanted to talk about Cullen and all the people in it. I love living here and just wanted to tell people about it.”

Zara and her P6 classmates were encouraged to enter after learning how to speak Doric at school.

The only condition of entry was that the children had to work with their parents to come up with the rhythmic rhyming words.

Mrs Gill, who has lived in Cullen her whole life, added: “We really wanted to keep it local and did our best to include everything from around the village – the harbour, the church, the pet cemetery.

“We haven’t really pushed Doric, but there has been a Doric drive at the school recently – and you can hear it a lot more in Zara’s voice.”

Other entries in the top three were “Sheep Sale” from Logan MacKenzie at Newmill Primary School and “Then an ‘noo” from Heidi and Isla Wilson at Keith Grammar.

Judge Pat Fraser explained it had been a difficult process in picking a winner, due to the high standard of entries.

She said: “There were a lot of names of people and places mentioned in the winning poem. It really captured what the whole village was about.

“It was nice to see a Doric winner because we’re trying to keep it going and encourage young people to speak it. It is a terrific language.”