For a while in the 1970s Jim lived near the clifftop fishing village of Auchmithie on the Angus coast north of Arbroath. The village is famed as the birthplace of the Arbroath smokie - the oak smoked haddock that is now exported worldwide from smoke houses in Arbroath. The song originated as a poem by Norman Buick whose family emigrated to Canada when he was just a boy but who returned many times to visit his birthplace in his later years. Jim loved Auchmithie and after meeting the poet he set the words to music and created what has become Auchmithie's athem.
Fishing boats in Auchmithie harbour
1: There’s a wee fishing village on the shores of the North Sea,
Once famous for smoked haddock and they ca’d it Auchmithie;
I don’t know where this name came from or what it really means,
But once ye know Auchmithie ye’ll see it in your dreams.
2: It was there that I wis born many, many years ago,
In a wee old stone cottage overlooking the round-o,
Wi the cliffs sae high and rugged, washed by wild seas from below,
Such a place ye will ne’er see, no matter where ye go.
3: For I’ve been around Loch Lomond and Tobermoray Bay,
Inverary and Loch Fyne and all along the way;
But the bonniest spot that I’ve seen and aye will be tae me,
Is the rocks and cliffs and green braes o ma dear home Auchmithie.
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History: The Arbroath Smokie
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c 1981 J Reid & N Buick/ Springthyme Music
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