This 1993 drawing by Dianne Sutherland shows a Foy* in full swing, sometime in the 1600s when the Dutch fleet used Keith Inch Island as a summer base. The drawing is a rather romantic view of what was very likely a most drunken and sordid affair!

Originally the foy was a fee paid to men when they signed aboard a whaler for a voyage north. With this money the crewmen entertained themselves and their women in the inns and taverns of Peterhead harbour before setting sail. The harbours buzzed with activity day and night as sail-makers, rope-makers, butchers bakers, blacksmiths, coopers and wrights all enjoyed a busy time as the whalers made ready for the February and March sailings.

©SCRAN/Aberdeenshire council
The traditional Peterhead Foy

* The Oxford English Dictionary defines Foy as: A parting entertainment, present, cup of liquor, etc., given by or to one setting out on a journey. In different parts of Scotland applied variously to a party given in honour of a woman on the eve of her marriage; to a feast at the end of the harvest or fishing season; and the like.