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Thurso re-dedication ceremony marks 200 years of Masonic lodge





From left (front): Rev Adrian Bunnell, Ramsay McGhee, Grand Master Mason of Scotland, William Durrand, Right Worshipful Master of St Peter’s Operative No 284, Jim Beattie, Provincial Grand Master of Caithness, and William MacLeod, immediate past Provincial Grand Master of Caithness, with lodge members looking on. Picture: Willie Mackay
From left (front): Rev Adrian Bunnell, Ramsay McGhee, Grand Master Mason of Scotland, William Durrand, Right Worshipful Master of St Peter’s Operative No 284, Jim Beattie, Provincial Grand Master of Caithness, and William MacLeod, immediate past Provincial Grand Master of Caithness, with lodge members looking on. Picture: Willie Mackay

Freemasons in Thurso have held a ceremony of re-dedication to mark the 200th anniversary of their lodge.

It was on February 7, 1820, that St Peter's Operative Lodge No 284 Thurso was granted its charter, and a civic reception was held in Thurso Library on the corresponding date in 2020.

The intention was to have a day of celebrations in the town in June that year, featuring a re-dedication dinner dance, but it had to be cancelled owing to the pandemic.

Members of St Peter's Operative Lodge gathered recently for the delayed re-dedication event. The proceedings were conducted by a delegation from the Grand Lodge of Scotland led by the Most Worshipful Grand Master Mason, Ramsay McGhee, a retired senior police officer.

There will now be regular meetings of the lodge for the first time in 19 months.

St Peter's Operative Lodge over the years went by various numbers, but 284 has been used since 1826. Though the lodge was formed in December 1818, with the principal founder Alexander Carnaby, it did not have its first meeting under the Grand Lodge until February 15, 1820.

There have been 84 Right Worshipful Masters, a position held since 2018 by William Durrand.

Office-bearers and past masters in a group photo taken for the centenary in 1920. Picture: Thurso Heritage Society
Office-bearers and past masters in a group photo taken for the centenary in 1920. Picture: Thurso Heritage Society

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