GB-NI03 – Bessie Bell & Mary Gray

Stitchers: Frances Godfrey, Anna Harkin, Audrey Kinloch, Bernie Harkin, Christine Gilloway, Evelyn Rodgers, Joan McCurdy, Lily Humphrey, Linda Finlay, Sylvia Burt, Margaret Magee, Mina Hill, Olive Kane, Peggy Sinclair, Peggy Hamilton, Phyllis Key, Sandra Moore, Theresa Hood, Vivien Moore, Amber Burt, Dorothy Crawford, Pat O’Donnell, Fiona McClean (Omagh).

Legend tells that in the seventeenth century two young Perthshire maids, Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, were visiting one another when a terrible plague erupted. A traditional ballad describes how they chose a secluded spot and built a bower to live in isolation, only to catch the disease from a young man who had fallen in love with them. Carrying this ballad with them, a later generation of Scots named a pair of hills near Omagh after the two unfortunate maidens whilst travelling through County Tyrone, and on reaching Staunton, Virginia, Scots settlers also named hills for Bessie and Mary there.

GBN03 Bessie Bell agus Mairi Gray
Tha uirsgeul ag innse dhuinn gun robh dithis shearbhantan òga à Siorrachd Pheairt, Bessie Bell agus Màiri Gray, a’ tadhal air a chèile nuair a sgaoil plàigh uabhasach. Tha bailead traidiseanta a’ dèanamh iomradh air mar a thagh iad àite iomallach agus thog iad sgàileadan an sin gus fuireach ann ann an leth-oireachd, ach ghlac iad an galar bho fhear òg a bha air tuiteam ann an gaol leotha. A’ giùlain a’ bhaileid seo leotha, dh’ainmich ginealach eile de dh’Albannaich às dèidh sin dà chnoc faisg air An Ómaigh às dèidh nam maighdeannan bochda seo fhad ‘s a bha iad a’siubhal tro Chontae Tír Eoghain, agus nuair a ràinig iad Staunton ann an Virginia, dh’ainmich luchd-tuineachaidh Albannach cnuic às dèidh Bessie agus Màiri an sin cuideachd.