Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.
Past Times

In photos: Memories of when the Klondyker factory ships transformed life in Ullapool

Fish processing factory ships from around the world descended upon Ullapool from the 1970s to the 1990s, bringing an economic boom and many happy memories to the tiny fishing village.
Susy Macaulay
Scenes from the Klondyker era in Ullapool. Image: DCT Design/Michael McCosh.
Scenes from the Klondyker era in Ullapool. Image: DCT Design/Michael McCosh.

Ullapool played host to dozens of nationalities from the 1960s to the 1990s in a particularly vivid episode in its history.

The visitors were workers from visiting Klondykers, massive floating factories which followed the UK fishing fleet round the coast, canning on the spot the herring and mackerel bought from the local fleets, ready for their countries to export.

The tiny west coast fishing village welcomed thousands of workers from the Eastern bloc in a spirit of Cold War harmony which amazed visitors, particularly Americans.

An economic boom for the village

Most of the Klondykers were Russian, but they also came from East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Egypt, Africa and Korea.

Their arrival gave Ullapool much needed winter business, with crews coming ashore for everything from supplies to electrical goods to take home.

Mairead Bush, marketing and events assistant at Ullapool Museum with a display about the Klondykers behind her
Mairead Bush, marketing and events assistant at Ullapool Museum with a display about the Klondykers behind her. Image: Ullapool Museum

Mairead Bush of Ullapool Museum sets the scene.

“During its height, about three times the population of Ullapool would be out living on the loch.

“There would be queues of boats maybe six long waiting to reach the pier. The shops and pubs would be filled with locals and visitors alike.

“Other than the financial boost, morale was high at the time and by all accounts, the locals enjoyed having these visitors.

Friendly seamen

“The sailors were very friendly and loved music, would burst into song at the drop of a hat.

“They would happily welcome locals onto their ships and share their food.”

Bonanza for the grocery stores

Jan Dawson with a captain of a Klondyker in Ullapool
Topher and Jan Dawson of Scoraig made an unsuccessful attempt to invite Russian Klondykers over for a Burns Supper. Jan is pictured here with the Bulgarian captain of a Klondyker. Image: Chrissy Boyd.

Residents Topher and Jan Dawson decided to extend an invitation to some to participate in the annual feasting for our national bard.

It turned out to be a little complicated.

Topher said: “One year we decided to invite twelve Russians to our Burns Supper on Scoraig, since a whole fleet of them were moored off Achmore.

“We sailed out to the biggest ship.

They asked if I was a doctor

“They would only let one of us up the rope ladder so I went and when I got to the top they asked if I was the doctor.

“I said no, but as they did not understand what I wanted I was taken to the mate, who summoned the captain, and eventually the fleet captain who had some English.

“He had heard of the poet Burns but said there were customs problems. ‘I will radiogram Moscow,’ he said.

Nyet!

“The message came back ‘Nyet!’

“However he told me that if we went to a Bulgarian boat they would be much more flexible and so it proved.

Locals and Klondykers around a table tennis table
Locals and Klondykers competed at table tennis during the Klondyker years in the village.  Image: Ullapool Museum

“We were all allowed on to the Bulgarian ship and had coffee with their captain in a cabin crammed with Bang and Olufsen hi-fi gear he was taking home.

“In the end they could not come either but at least he was friendly.”

A Klondyker crew loading supplies in Ullapool
Klondyker crew loading supplies for their ship from the pier at Ullapool. Image: Chrissy Boyd.

MacDonald’s Supermarket enjoyed an extended season thanks to the Klondykers.

She said: “I found all the foreign the seamen very, very generous and kind.

“They were very often young men with families and had left them for months and months on end.

“I had a young son and daughter, they were generous to both, and interested in their lives.

Children went aboard Klondykers in Ullapool

“Very often my children went on board and were very well received.

“We were often invited on board if there was any celebrations and we’d go out on my husband’s Sea Rider to find they’d made a fine spread of the food, fish, caviar, very often well-cooked baking goods  as they had great bakers on board.

“We were entertained because there was a lot of singing.

Lots of vodka

“They loved their music and burst into song at a drop of a hat.

“Yes there was a lot of vodka, their national drink.

“We had many good evenings on board.”

Jean Urqhart
Jean Urqhart in The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool. Image: Les Parker

Former MSP and Ullapool’s famous Ceilidh Place proprietor Jean Urqhuart cherishes happy memories of those days.

She said: “I have odd memories of things like we had a ship that came in with an Egyptian crew.

“They were sitting cross legged on the street selling jewellery.

Russian hats much in evidence

“The Russians were always walking around with black bin bags, and they would have hats.

“I mean Ullapool was mostly, all the men were wearing Russian hats and smoking Russian cigarettes and drinking vodka.

A model ship
Bulgarian Klondykers made and sold model ships like this to Ullapool residents.  Image: Ullapool Museum.

“We had caviar on the café counter for a while as well. For there was lots of bargaining going on.

“All of it I’m sure quite illegal but I guess it wasn’t an enormous thing at the time. And another thing was the Bulgarians made these wooden model ships and sold them and you could walk round Ullapool; people would have these in their window.”

A massive Klondyker boat and local fishing vessel side by side off Ullapool.
A massive Klondyker boat and local fishing vessel side by side off Ullapool. Image: Chrissy Boyd

The boom time gradually ended

By the mid-90s, the Klondykers had stopped visiting UK waters. The fish were moving further north, and there was political and economic turmoil in the Klondykers’ home countries.

Resident Chrissy Boyd says it wasn’t until much later that villagers realised the magnitude of what had happened to Ullapool and its people.

Hard to take in the significance

She said: “We were in the middle of it all, it was all happening around us, but it wasn’t until afterwards did you actually realise the significance and the size and scale of it all.

“We didn’t properly understand it at the time, and it’s only now, looking back that we’re thinking —crikey. That was something.”

You might enjoy:

The 18-year-old Highland woman and her friend who saved countless lives close to the killing fields of Ypres