- In circa 1700, the occupants of the croft of Stutaft, near Baltasound,
Unst, were shearing corn, and after having shorn a number of sheaves, set
them up in stooks. As they did this they moved a short distance away from
where their infant, Mary Anderson, was laying fast asleep in a shawl.
Then, to their horror, a sea-eagle, or erne, swooped down and picked up
the bairn in its shawl with its talons, and carried it off to the south.
With some of their neighbours, they followed the eagle's flight which on
reaching Colvadale, altered course for the Blue-Banks of Fetlar. The men
carried on to the south-east corner of Unst where, at Ramnagio, they took
a boat and made for Fetlar, landing at Colbinstoft. When they told the
local inhabitants what had happened, they were informed that the eagle had
her eyrie at Busta-Pund, at the East Neaps. They were joined by a number
of Fetlar men, and made their way, with ropes, to the top of the cliffs
above the eyrie which was situated under an overhang on the cliff face.
Among the Fetlar men was a 12 year old boy, Robert Nicolson, the son of
Peter Nicolson of Crosbister. He volunteered to descend on the rope to
the nest, and was lowered over the cliff. When he reached the nest, to
his amazement he found the child fast asleep along with two eaglets in the
nest. He carefully disentangled the shawl from the nest, and was hauled
back up the cliff to the crowd of men waiting there. While being
congratulated for his courageous deed, an elderly Unst man said that he
would maybe get her for a wife yet. Several years later, some of the
Fetlar men had occasion to go to Unst, and Robert taking the opportunity
to go with them, visited the home of the young woman he had carried up the
cliff-face at Busta-Pund when an infant. The old man's prophecy was
fulfilled as a result of the meeting, and they ended up marrying, settling
for a short time at Fetlar, later moving to Kirkabister on the north side
of Mid Yell Voe, where they raised their family. To this day, Mary
Anderson has been known as the "eagle's bairn".