'Aye, It Wis Aabody': Reflecting on the links of a rural Aberdeenshire Parish to Caribbean slavery

The Old School in the historic parish of Birse in the North East of Scotland, presents as a modest rural Victorian building, but contains fabric from an original school constructed in the 1730s. During consideration for the future of the site, it was recognised that the school owed its establishment to a legacy in the will of Rev. Gilbert Ramsay in the early eighteenth century. Even a cursory examination establishes that Ramsay's life, and wealth, were intricately interlinked with the trade in enslaved people and that, via Ramsay's financial support, the residents of the parish of Birse have been the beneficiaries of the proceeds of Caribbean slavery. A community project, which took place in 2018 and 2019 and was entitled 'Aye, it was Aabody', was set up to explore Birse, and Scotland's, links with slavery in the Caribbean via Gilbert Ramsay's legacies and to ensure that any knowledge gained was shared with the local community through a series of community events and activities. This article outlines some of the key findings of the project's research but also higlights some of the benefits and challenges of a community-led heritage project, and the role that local communities can play, particularly when supported by academic scholars, in uncovering and disseminating the legacies of Caribbean slavery in their own parishes.