William Murray (1874 - 1950)

William Murray son of James Murray (1849 - 1907) started his first bakery in Gardenstown at 108 Main Street buying the premises from the Chalmers family with money borrowed from his uncle William. Prior to 1903 he moved to Inverness with his wife Christian and daughter Margaret Jessie where he had bakery at 78 Church Street and it was in Inverness where his son also called William was born on 15th December 1903 eventually he sold this and moved back to Gardenstown, building a bakery on Main Street during this time he had another son James Murray who was born in Gardenstown in 1910.

Around 1914/15 the family moved again this time leaving the bakery on Main Street that was eventually owned by William Craigen and moving to Mallaig where William had a bakers near the harbour and the family lived in a house above the shop and bakery premises.
William returned to Gardenstown in the 1920's and took over the bakery at the end of main street on Bankhead owned by W Young opposite the Garden Arms Hotel which was then handed down to William Murray Jnr with James joining the business around 1924.

William Murray Jnr (1904 - 1981) & James Murray (1910 - 1987)

The two brothers William and James (known as Millar) had the bakery at Bankhead until 1934/35 when they bought two small houses at on Main street that where knocked down and turned into a purposely built bakery where it still stands today and at opposite side of Main Street at number 96 they bought another house, part of the ground floor of this house was converted into a shop while the rest of the ground floor and the first floor was kept as living accommodation.

Design for shop interior (click to enlarge)	Design for shop exterior (click to enlarge)

The brothers shared various duties William ran the bakery while James ran the shop and the vans, he also taught himself how to ice cakes and did all the birthday and wedding cakes which were much sought after. James married Mary Anderson in 1937 and had a daughter Margaret and two sons William and Douglas

Bill Murray & Douglas Murray

The present owners of Murray Brothers, Bill and Douglas Murray took over the running of the business in the 1960's, Bill now runs the shop and Douglas runs the bakery he also does all of the wedding and birthday cakes, inheriting his fathers skill for icing cakes. Bill went to work in the shop when he left school at 15 he would also go round the farms in the surrounding area with the van selling products from the back while Douglas moved to Edinburgh to go to the School of Bakery at that time on Castlehill at the top of the royal mile to learn his trade, he lived in the city for six years, working at Mcvitties Guests bakery as an apprentice baker, he met his wife to be Isobel Pheasant and came back to Gardenstown to join the family business in the 1960's

When they moved back to Gardenstown Douglas and Isobel had three sons Kevin, Steven and Paul and in the mid eighties the shop was extended buying the bottom floor of the house next door allowing more space for packing, shelve space and allowing the addition of a fridge and freezers so we could provide a wider variety of products to our customers.

In the late eighties two of Douglas's sons Kevin and Steven carried on the family tradition by entering the family business. Kevin went from school to college in Aberdeen to do Baking before coming back to Gardenstown to work in the bakery, Steven also joined the business straight from school and attended college on a day release basis for three years. Over the years many people in the area have also worked in the shop and bakery helping to keep the business going until the present day.