Ireland, then Home

Here we are at Glasgow airport having finished our whirlwind of activity in Ireland. But I digress....back to the Ireland bit:

Bushmills proved to be a very interesting area. Just outside the town is the famous UNESCO site of the Giants Causeway which has unusual rock formations caused by lava flows.

Giants Causeway Pillars


















Giants Causeway














Also nearby is the ancient town of Dunluce, which the MacDonnells once called their home and castle.

Dunluce Castle....home of the MacDonnels

If you look closely, you can see an old longship etched into the rock, here at Dunluce Castle, near a lookout post.

And of course the famous Bushmills Distilllery. Even though we'd visited seven distilleries in Scotland, we needed to compare here....so yet one more tour was in order.

Lesser known is a laneway overgrown by unusual tree formation known locally as the Dark Grove.

Driving in the "Dark Grove"

Besides admiring the local scenery we received help from a number of locals and managed to find the birthplace of Linda's grandfather and the marriage information for his parents. We also found several WW1 remembrance plaques in honour of him and two of his brothers (Linda's great-uncles). Several churchyards and graveyards had to be closely inspected, with a few interesting headstones found, and which will require a bit further research. We met with a fellow who had authored 9 local historical books, who led us to further investigate some other churches in the area. We were finding enough to warrant staying in the area a bit longer, so stayed at a B&B in Bushmills area for one night, and then in the nearby town of Coleraine for yet one more, where we could visit the library, with it's research facilities and (yes – you guessed it – microfilms and microfiche!) . That took a full day.

It was then time to continue on to see a bit more of Ireland before our remaining week ran out. So we wound our way westward, still following the coast, and then entering the Republic of Ireland, viewing the ancient walled city of Derry. With a bit more time to explore, we continued west and north, onto the west coast of Ireland, and found ourselves entering a much hillier terrain, with some great sea vistas.

Seaside Vistas

By late afternoon we'd stopped in the seaside resort and surfing community of Bundoran. We picked a hotel on the waterfront, planning on getting an ocean-view room – but the room we ended up with faced a non-descript brick wall. Ah well.....hard to look at the view when your eyes are closed, anyways.

The surfing/resort town of Bundoran

Next day we decided to cross back to the east side of Ireland, as time was running short......and we needed to check out the fair city of Dublin. By staying off the main roads we were able to wind our way through some pastoral countryside, dotted with sheep, hills, villages, and lots of green valleys. Early afternoon found us crawling in very heavy traffic all proceeding into Dublin. When we'd made it into the city, we learned that there were no rooms to be had for love nor money, as there were football games in progress, and the rock group “Take That” were in concert, with fans travelling in from all over the country. So we had a very short visit, taking a hop-on, hop-off tour bus around the city, before heading out. 30 miles north of the city, we still couldn't find accommodation, and the day was getting a bit long in the tooth! So we continued back across into Northern Ireland again, finding a B&B just north of the border in Newry (actually, the only way to tell you've crossed is the speed/distance signs on the highway go from KM to miles). So we hadn't seen a lot of the southern part of Ireland – I guess we'll just have to go back and spend more time! But we still had two days left, so followed the coast road along the Mourne peninsula, passing several more castles and seaside vistas, and even took a ferry ride across a Lough (aka Loch, aka Lake). We ended up near the village of GreyAbbey which has, strangely enough, a very old Abbey dating back about 1000 years – those monks were very busy back then!

An old Irish Fishing Village, with traditional whitewashed homes.

Next day found us heading back toward Belfast for our last day in Ireland. One particularly interesting stop was a museum commemorating the WW1 battle of the |Somme, in which the Irish Regiments were particularly involved (as were Linda's grandfather and gt-uncles). We had to stop at the Oldest Pub in Ireland for lunch. They tell us they have documentation to prove that they are indeed the oldest, although we had seen two other pubs also advertising the same claim. On the outskirts of Belfast, we'd planned to stop and visit the Titanic exhibit (she was built here), but the museum turned out to be closed on Mondays. So back to our hotel in downtown Belfast. We'd already scoped out a nice little pub for dinner, where we had to have Irish Stew for our last dinner in Ireland.....followed by and Irish coffee, before retiring early. Early is the watchword here, as we had to get up at 0430 for our morning flight the next day, returning to Glasgow.

We were able to check our bags at our hotel in Glasgow the next morning, even though we couldn't yet check in. Then it was a bus ride into town to walk in the rain around the town, and to try and finish off a few of our “things to do” in Scotland. For example, we'd heard that Glasgow was famous for its deep-fried Mars bars.....but now I'm guessing that it is some kind of urban legend, as we couldn't find this delicacy anywhere, and most people turned up their noses at the thought of it. We'd also tried to find, and try, as many different Scottish ales. In reality, although we were able to find and try about a dozen different ones, most of them were only average to below average tasting, and usually we were the only ones drinking them.....the locals seem to prefer Budweiser or Heineken! So we did try a few more ales, along with brunch, before busing back to our airport hotel for an early evening.

Again, we were up quite early, to check in for our flight home. After checking through security, we had a bit of time to kill.....hence able to catch up on the blog, but unable to upload it. So this last section has been written in the holding area for our flight.

Writing from home before posting : It was a long, smooth, but uneventful flight home. Clear skies welcomed us into B.C., with awesome views of the Rockies, and onto the coast. Our first warm sunny day of the trip was in Vancouver, as we took the Skytrain and bus to the ferry, and sailed across the Strait of Georgia to be met by our friend Tony, who'd been minding our car. A warm visit with Tony and Barb, and a barbecue, and we were too tired to stay up. Early to bed, and then up early the next day, for a short drive home. The opening of Costco has started a gas war at home, and we were able to fill up with gas at a savings of over 15 cents/litre. But now that we're home, I guess it's time to sign out of the Blog, at least until the next trip. Time to prepare for another sailing trip.

One week left

Up at the crack of dawn the 35 minute flight to Belfast went by in a snap. We picked up what turned out to be an identical car to what we had in Scotland except for colour. Makes the adjustment a lot easier. Being a Sunday made for easy travel through the city as well as we got a feel for the country.

As it was still far too early to go to our hotel we decided to check out a nearby waterfront town that had a marina (Bangor) - and a fine one it was as well. Footpaths along the waterfront with lovely gardens, and lots of boats to ogle, made it an interesting stop.

Marina entrance at Bangor

We watched some men driving their remote-control model boats on a large pond....some were sailing boats, some warships, some freighters – all quite nicely detailed. We ended up chatting with a fellow with a large model aircraft carrier. He advised us of a nice drive along the coast, with a great place to stop for lunch. Already we were learning that the Irish tend to be less reserved than the Scots or English, and are quite happy to engage in quick conversations with strangers. We took the advice of our new acquaintance, and travelled south along the shore, and stopped for a great lunch at a restaurant a few miles away.

By early afternoon the clouds had dropped in, and were starting to throw out the inevitable rain – so we continued back into downtown Belfast to our hotel for the night. After such an early morning we were soon asleep. A nice afternoon nap, and then a short walk in the rain to a pub dinner.

Next morning Tomasina the GPS had her hands full trying to sort us though morning rush hour in downtown Belfast having innumerable one way streets and pedestrian precincts (streets for pedestrians only) to deal with. I'm sure she (it?) was quite as happy as we were when we finally got to quieter roads along the coast. First stop was Carrick Fergus a delightful little waterfront town with it's own castle right in the middle of town. We soon learned that just about every community along the way has it's own castle....a result, I guess, of having a long history of the towns needing to defend themselves from various invaders.

Another fine castle....this one at Carrick Fergus

After about an hour here we continued north through other scenic towns. The landscape was more rolling green hills of vegetation.. Not the craggy austere beauty of the Highlands of Scotland. So close yet so different. We stopped a couple of times along the way including this tiny harbour where we treated ourselves to ice cream.

Cute little Harbour....the area reminded us of Newfoundland.

As the afternoon was getting on, and we hadn't yet booked accommodation, we headed inland a bit, to the town of Ballymoney, where we booked into a B&B and then walked through town and had an early dinner. Back in time to check our emails and prepare another Blog instalment. We are now in the area where Linda's family from Ireland ties in, so will get to do some more family history in this area, as well as touristy things. But more on that after it happens.

Final Days of Scotland

Thursday turned out to be another showery and cool day, but not bad for driving. We headed inland (East), passing the Trossach's (the highlands of Rob Roy fame) and Loch Lomond, ending up several hours later at Stirling, where Linda's mother's family hails from. The castle here is truly spectacular – it has an excellent exhibit and presentation, particularly referring to the history of James V and VI/I. It took us several more hours to tour the castle premises, and then a couple more of walking around the old town of Stirling, eventually having a late lunch in a 300 yr-old pub haunted by several ghosts. Our accommodation for the night was only about 20 minutes out of town, in Falkirk, so we made for that, and made ourselves comfortable.

On Friday, we discovered Falkirk was the home of an engineering marvel – the Falkirk Wheel. It is a unique lock system which joins up two different canals. Instead of traditional lift locks, it is a very large wheel which rotates a “tub” of water, and boat, to the level of the other canal. Apparently it is extremely power-efficient, using the equivalent of the power of a few toasters for the operation.

A view of the Falkirk Wheel. You can see the gearing, and the "tub" of water which carries the vessels up/down to the canals.

Another view....the top left channel is the waterway which joins up to the upper canal.

We spent a couple of hours marvelling at this, before heading out to find Linda's family. The area has become quite industrialized, and finding the graveyards and communities of 100 years past turned out to be challenging. We did find a few clues, and visited several cemeteries, but much of the evidence is now gone.

Linda is still searching for her kin.

By late afternoon it was time to head back to Glasgow, where we had our accommodation booked near the airport. Then we were able to return our rental car, and organize our luggage – we'll only be taking one bag over to Ireland with us, and storing the rest at our hotel, for pickup on our return to fly back out. Dinner, and a lazy night in our room. As we were eating dinner, a red fox sauntered by our window – a bit of wildlife we hadn't expected to see so close to civilization. For Saturday, we have an open day for doing a bit more exploring of Glasgow, and for catching up on internet and mail/etc.

So here it is, Saturday, with a day to explore Glasgow. We took a bus into town, looking around the town centre again – some of it seems familiar, as we were here a month ago....but we must have been a bit zoo ed out then, as a lot of it seems all new! Or maybe, with my age, I'm just easy to amuse with the same things! A bit of lunch, and then a bus trip to – gasp!- another distillery! We managed to find the Glen Goyne distillery at the end of the #10 bus line, and took our 7^th tour – each time learning a bit more. This time, we paid a bit more, and got a “taster's tour”, which included four extra tastes of various flavours of the Glen Goyne waters of life.

The stills of GlenGoyne

By the time we got back to the centre of the city, it was after 5 PM, so we decided to just walk around a bit. Amazingly to us, the streets, and especially the pedestrian malls, were filled with people. Apparently most of the city comes into town to shop and walk about on a Saturday evening.....it seemed that most of the city was there.

Even late on a rainy Saturday afternoon, the city streets of Glasgow get crowded.

We did manage to find our bus back to the airport and hotel where we're staying, planning on an early evening to allow a fairly early morning wake-up and flight to Belfast in the morning. So next you'll be hearing from us from Northern Ireland. Slainte.

Westcoast Rambling

Monday morning was cool and misty – a perfect day for a big Scottish breakfast, followed by a bit of Talisker whisky. So after leaving our hosts at the Phoenix B&B, we toddled off down the road for yet another distillery tour. Talisker does a very nice and informative tour, and even though we've now done 6 of them, we seem to pick up a bit more at each one. The sample of Talisker was very nice.....the second one even nicer – so we decided to get a bottle to bring home. By noon we were driving into the main town of Portree, and had located the laundromat. Between washer loads we managed to walk around town a bit, to get a feel for the town. We then had clean clothes again, and celebrated with a bit of lunch before hitting up the local archive centre to do some further research. They did have a few odd bits of information to help us out in our genealogical quest, but mostly things we'd already found, and couldn't locate the records we've been finding extremely elusive. So we headed down the street to our next B&B, overlooking the bay in Portree. We were feeling still satiated from our previous meals, so decided to skip dinner this evening, and just stayed in our room to read.

Tuesday was more of a Scottish west coast day, with rainshowers throughout the day. We had an appointment to meet a local genealogist, Norma McLeod, at 11 AM, so dawdled through breakfast and brushed up on our background for our McInnes family lines before setting out to meet her. She is very focused and efficient, and I believe she can help us investigate this line. She had done a bit of preparatory work and confirmed our research to present, in locating the correct family for our Martin McInnes. With her resources and local knowledge I am hoping she can continue to flesh out our McInnes and Beaton family lines. We then headed south again, to investigate the Clan Donald Castle and museum, which has a family resource centre as well. The castle and gardens and museum are just added benefits to our principal reason for visiting the family history resources. Again.....too many lost or missing documents to help much, although they did have some interesting census data for the Isle of Eigg, which could be relevant to our Campbell family research. It was late afternoon by the time we`d finished there, so headed back into Portree, to look for headstones in the old cemetery, which Norma had told us about. It was unlikely that any of our people could be located, but I had to look. We did find a few names which may tie in, but none that we know about. For a change of pace, we decided to do Indian food for a change, so had dinner at an Indian restaurant before retiring back to our B&B.

Wednesday was our day to head south again, off the Isle of Skye, across the bridge this time. A serious accident on the roadway kept us waiting for over an hour on the roadway, but we crossed back to the Kyle of Localsh by noon. We had a short look around the town before continuing along the coastal route southbound. We did a bit of an inland detour to drive along a bit of Loch Ness.....but no monsters could be seen.

We passed this castle on the coastal route....it was featured in the end of Monty Python's "Holy Grail" movie.

Then back to the coastal route, ending up in Oban, which is a seaside ferry town (ferries to several of the Hebridean Islands), built on a hillside. We explored the town a bit, but decided to look for accommodation a bit out of town, so backtracked a bit north to stay in a B&B in Connel, 5 miles north.

The town of Oban

Right alongside our accommodation is a bridge over the loch, with a tidal flow reminiscent of Skookumchuck Narrows, called the Falls of Lora (tidal ebb over a rock ledge creates a bit of whitewater and waterfall). We walked over the bridge, and found a nice little pub on the other side, where we tested some local ales and Oban whisky, which I discovered I like! So back across the bridge to the pub beside our B&B, where we had some dinner and tested a couple more ales and whisky. So now we are finishing off the envening with the last wifi for a few days. Tomorrow we will be heading inland to Stirling to look for Linda`s roots there, before returning to Glasgow to give back our rental car and heading to Belfast (N. Ireland). Until then..........

Across the sea to Skye

June 4 – Breakfast at the Captain's House was rewarding. We had a delicious, somewhat large Scottish breakfast followed by dessert of photograph albums showing Julia's ancestors, and some of her Finlayson family tree information. At her suggestion, we visited the Kirkton cemetery, where we viewed numerous Finlayson, Matheson, and Cameron headstones.

This castle, near Kyle of Localsh, Eilean Donan Castle, is the most photographed of all the many castles in Scotland.

Continuing with her suggestion, we skipped the bridge to Skye, and continued a bit south, past the palindromic-named town of Glen Elg, to view the 2300 year-old stone residences of early people, called Brochs.

This Broch is the remains of 1900-2300 year-old living (note the size, by the tree).

Then back to Glen Elg where we caught the very unique ferry to Skye. It is a very small vessel, holding only 4 vehicles on a turntable. The vehicles drive down a concrete ramp onto the turntable platform, which is then rotated for the 5 minute trip across the strait. Once the boat is tied up again, the platform is rotated again to allow the vehicles to leave. The strait itself was running with a good 7 knot tidal current, too.

The Ferry to Skye

We then negotiated a very narrow and twisty roadway inland a bit, where we got on the main roadway. Some of our McInnes and Campbell ancestors lived in the southern part of the island of Skye, so we negotiated ourselves down to the southernmost end of the island, at Sleat, where we could look across to the Isle of Eigg (some of the Campbell's came from there). Sleat itself is now only a couple of farms clutching to the sides of steep cliffs and hills, and isn't much of a place anymore, other than scenic. We turned back northward, and turned inland toward the west side of the Island, passing the Cullins, steep and rugged-looking hills, and checked into the Phoenix B&B in Carbost. This is a delightful B&B on Loch Harport, just a short walk up the road from the Taliker Distillery, and across the road from a fine little pub. We managed to enjoy the pub a bit, for an evening meal, and crashed for the night.

Sunday morning turned out to be another nice day (apparently not normal for Skye to be bright and sunny several days in a row). Time to explore a bit....so off we went, viewing another site of a Broch, and many miles of treeless hills with lochs.

Down one road we discovered an old, reconstucted croft house, laid out just as the homes of our ancestors had . They were known as “Black Houses” because of the peat smoke from the central, chimneyless fire inside. In behind was an illicit still, for making whisky in the traditional way. Nice to see how our ancestors lived!.

An old Crofters Home (a Black House)

Inside the Black House

Inside an Illicit Still

Continuing along the north side of the island toward the East, we came to Snizort Loch, where many of our McInnes and Beaton people lived. We found the cemetery there, near Glen Bernisdale, but although there were many of these surnames here, they were all too recent for us to make a connection.

This memorial perhaps refers to a latter-day cousin.

We continued on a loop on the northern peninsula of the island, with numerous views out to the Atlantic, and other Hebridean Islands. Spectacular scenery struck us at every bend in the road. One area we stopped is known as “Kilt Rock” due to the pleated nature of the terrain, like a kilt.

Kilt Rock

We found ourselves completing our loop of the island, after passing the principal town of Portree, and then returning to Carbost. We returned to the pub across the street for a magnificent repast of prawns. At least that's what they called them......they looked more like small (but delicious) lobsters, and tasted like it. The plate was piled high with them. I'd treat you to a photo of that, but alas – we didn't take our camera with us.....the Dutch couple sitting next to us promised to email a photo, so perhaps I can add that later. That made a full day. Time to retire. Internet a bit slow, so the Blog must wait for better internet.

Through the Highlands, To the Islands

.....Glenfarlcas distillery to start the month with. Good but not a winner as our taste buds are getting more discriminating. Next on the list was the brand-new Archives in Inverness where we presented a document referring to an ancestor that gave his location of birth but that we couldn't interpret, and needed local knowledge/expertise. The first girl handed it off to the second followed by the senior member of the team who pored over it with his books and magnifying glass before giving us his professional opinion. Alas this didn't fit with other data but at least it gave us another perspective.

Onwards to Fortrose, where we had booked a night in a pub that has 200 whisky's in stock.. After a short walk through the local ruined cathedral we settled down to one of the best dinners we've had in ages (Don with Angus beef and Linda with duck) followed by 4 more tastes of single malts. Sooo many whiskys, so little time.

June 2 - Thursday

Guess what! We started the day at a distillery. This time we toured the Glenmorangie site not far from our B&B. This is the largest and most high tech one so far and VERY good. A keeper here!

Maturing Glenmorangie in Kegs

Just down the way near Tain is a Pictish site of some note, that we explored.

Pictish Artwork in Stone

Then we headed west over some spectacular highland country, sometimes on narrow single-lane roads, to the western side of Scotland and down the coast a bit to Ullapool. This location figures into some of our genealogy so we had to visit the local museum whose staff were very kind in their attempts to help us. We really need more information however before we can trace this particular group and that is hard to come by.

Later that evening we had pub dinner overlooking the harbour followed by a concert by the Ullapool district pipe band and highland dancing by local childrens' Scottish dancing school. The townspeople follow the pipe band through town to the concert, which reminds me of my many happy summers in Kincardine (Ontario) where this is also a tradition.

Highland Dancing at its Finest

We still managed to make a reasonable early night of it, and had a very quiet and restful sleep. This has been our very first warm and sunny day, and even reached 20C. Considering we were at 58 degrees latitude (the same as last summer in Juneau, Alaska) it makes sense that 20C is a warm day here. (For those of you thinking in Fahrenheit, that's about 71.

June 3 – Friday morning was another bright sunny and warm day. We had a nice breakfast in our B&B, and visited a short while with our hosts Simon and Anne, who have some family back in B.C. We drove south along the coastal route out of Ullapool, stopping to take in the many vistas overlooking the numerous lochs and glens along the way.

Highland Cattle

By 1400 we'd arrived in Plockton, which we believe to be significant in our family history – the trouble is proving or disproving it. Being a bit early to check into our B&B, we walked around the village and stopped into the Plockton Hotel for a refeshing beverage (we're also testing local ales). Then on to our B&B, the Captain's House, built by Captain Duncan Finlayson over 200 years ago, and (possibly) related somehow to our immigrant ancestor, John Finlayson. We were greeted and checked in, but our hostess, who is descended from the said Captain, was out – so we wandered about town a bit more, chatting with locals, and combing through the gravestones in the churchyard (finding no known ancestors, but a few names worth investigating further). When we came back late in the afternoon, Julia, our hostess, was here, and we discovered that she just didn't have the time to research her history, but knew that Capt. Duncan Finlayson was born abt. 1790, and that his family was likely the only Finlayson family in the area. So perhaps they were related – certainly contemporaries. Nothing further is to be found here, although Julia tells us she has numerous documents and papers dating all the way back – she just doesn't have the time to sort/investigate. Sigh.......

Dinner at the local hotel was very good, and followed by several more whisky tastings. Then onto the internet to get the Blog, email, news, etc. Tomorrow we will continue to Localsh, and then cross the bridge to Skye, where another several branches of our family wait to be discovered.

On to Speyside

May 31 -last day of the month. Departing Aberdeen we wound our way north west through some of thehamlets where Linda's ancestors were known to have lived. We hit up several kirk graveyards on the off chance that we'd find some of their graves and were rewarded with one 'Eureka' moment in the village of Kemnay. Took a number of other photos as well on the off chance that one day they will all fit in. Lovely countryside and the first really sunny day we've had. Along one small road was a lay-by where we found a Pictish stone called the Maiden Stone which hails from the 9^th century.

The Maiden Stone, a Pictish monument.

Next stop was the Glen Garioch distillery where we lucked into having the tour guide to ourselves to answer our questions. The process of making whisky is becoming clearer as we attempt to educate ourselves. We didn't realize how much the shape of the still affected the flavour of the final product. Almost as much as the cask.

Distilling the "Water of Life"

North again to meet up with another of Linda's cousins. This time in Elgin, the heart of the Speyside\whiskey area. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and early evening having a lovely visit as Linda hadn't seen the couple for about 32 years. We had booked into a Victorian hotel in nearby Lossiemouth for the night and it proved to be a delight as well. It was like walking into an Agatha Christie novel.

We expected to run into Miss Marple at any time, in our hotel in LossieMouth.

The town has a yachting harbour so of course we did a walk about to check out the boats followed by retiring to the in-house pub to test 4 more whiskies. We are trying to be diligent about our search for the ideal whiskeys to bring home.

June 1 – a new month! Lots to do today so must run.......

Northbound Again

Tuesday morning we headed back into downtown Norwich, to have a bit of a look around the city centre itself, and to visit the Family History Centre. The city seems to have at least, and sometimes several, churches in each block.....most of them very imposing, with spires and turrets. We walked around a bit, and found the Family History Society's building. Here, we were made welcome, and given a tour of the facilities. None of the family trees they have on record seem to match ours, but they do have a lot of access to historical documents of all kinds, most of which are available online, for members. So we joined up and became members. Then we walked around the town a bit, trying to find a pair of sunglasses for Linda, and just generally being tourists. By lunchtime it was time to move on. We bought an apple and an ice-cream in the market (lunch!) and headed on, driving back past Swaffham and then turning northbound. All through Norfolk and the trip into Lincolnshire, we passed flat agricultural land, well ahead of our fields back home. We stopped for the evening in Lincoln, which, I'd like to say, was named for my gt-nephew – but I don't think anyone would believe that! It's called “Historic Lincoln”, because of all the takeovers and regimes the area went through – but from what I can see, almost all of the UK is able to claim a great deal of historical authenticity!

We continued northbound on Wednesday, passing places such as Grimsby, Whitby, and other places similarly named back in Ontario. Much of the coastal route we followed was still several miles from the North Sea, so we mostly just got peek-a-boo views of the ocean, but still enjoyed the winding, narrow roadways with fields interspersed with little villages. So far, we've seen far more sheep in the fields than we'd expected. In fact, I swear there are many more sheep here than in New Zealand! A big factor in this, I believe, is the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic of a few years ago, when many of the cattle farmers were forced to kill off their herds, and turned to sheep instead. At any rate, we bypassed the mostly industrial, and large, city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, then turned back along the coastal route. Although we liked the village of Amble, but accommodation was all taken, so we were referred to the next village north, where we found a little B&B in Alnmouth (at the mouth of the river Aln!). While walking around the streets there, we met a fellow researching the same family line as the ones we'd been researching in Preston – a possible cousin! While standing in the street chatting with him, we were introduced to many of the locals, all out walking their dogs....but we eventually had to leave for a warm meal as it was quite cold outside, with a wind blowing in off the North Sea.

Thursday found us leaving England, and back in Scotland, headed for Edinburgh. Before leaving, however, we stopped to view a castle at Alnwick, which my new-found cousin had recommended. It turned out to be quite impressive, and some of you may remember details of it from the Quiddich matches in the first Harry Potter movie.

Quiddich Anyone?

With that stop, and a leisurely drive in the countryside, over a wide area of moors, where even the sheep won't graze, we entered Edinburgh in early afternoon, booking into our hotel by 4PM. That left us time to walk around town a bit, viewing the very imposing castle perched on an extinct volcano, and walking the “ Royal Mile”, which is a major tourist roadway extending from the Castle to the old royal residences a mile away.

Edinburgh's Castle perched above the City

There are lots of whisky shops here, with a selection of hundreds of choices. A bit of a challenge! There is also a locally celebrated dog, Bobby, who, after his owner died, continued to stay by his master's grave for 12 years as a loyal companion. Several shops and pubs have named themselves after this dog, and a statue memorializes him.

Bobby, memorialized.

Following a pub dinner with some local ales, and a bit of a wander, our feet were starting to get sore. We made it back to our hotel in time for a late cleanup, and then off to bed.

Friday we had a choice to make – with our limited time here, we decided to take our laundry to a laundromat nearby who would do it for us, leaving us more time to explore. The Scottish Records Office is also in Edinburgh, with all of the Parish and Genealogical records centralized here, rather than in various county offices and parishes, as it was in England. However.....almost all of these records are also available online – so we decided to give the genealogy a bit of a break, and we did the “Tourist Thing”. We walked into the city and took a tour bus, with a guide, to get the feel of the city and to learn about it in our limited time. Perhaps it was the noise of the city as we rode around in the top of an open double-decker, or maybe it was the scottish accent, or maybe it's just my very old ears – but I had a bit of a problem understanding the whole “spiel” of the guide, so we took the same tour a second time. By then I'd adjusted a bit to the accent, and got most of it! I managed to get a taste of some whisky while visiting a shop, and ended up getting 3 small bottles of single malts which I'd never tried, but was assured, based on my present tastes, I'd enjoy. Linda and I actually did enjoy them....so now I'm in a quandary as to what bottles to bring back with us. More tasting is surely in order! I was also tempted to get a kilt here, but at least for now, my practical side (Linda) has over-ruled that temptation.

Obviously, we didn't have time to see everything here, but we did manage to go through much of the National Museum, which has an extremely good presentation of Scottish history. We made it back to our laundry by 6 PM, in time to get our laundry – and then had our supper at our hotel.

By Saturday it was time to continue on, bound for Aberdeen. On our way out of Edinburgh, we crossed the Firth (a bay at the mouth of a river) of Forth (the Forth River) on a very impressive bridge. I'd promised Stan, a friend who'd seen us off in Vancouver, that I'd look for his cousins' cottage on the northwest side of the RR bridge there – but – sorry, Stan – I couldn't see it. Must have been the pouring rain, or the other 5 lanes of traffic passing me by! We entered Perthshire shorly, and then turned inland as we drove north, ending up in Pitlochry by 11AM – just in time for a tour of the Edradour distillery. This is the smallest distillery in Scotland, with a good reputation for fine whisky, so we had to check it out. A very good tour, and a tasty sampling! We even ended up purchasing our first bottle to bring back, a cask-strength whisky which can't be found in Canada. We continued on into the highlands, crossing into Cairngorm National Park, and scenery which I'd always considered to be typical of Scottish Highlands.

Driving through the Highlands in Cairngorm Park.

At the north end of the park we found ourselves passing the village of Braemar, where the castle for the Clan Chieftain of the Farqhar Clan (of which the Finlayson clan is a sept, which we are researching). The Earl's Hunting Lodge/Castle is here, so being an official Finlayson, we had to stop and see it. I was even asked to sign the guest book as a visiting Clan member.

Our "Finlayson Family Hunting Lodge"....seat of the Clan Farquharson

Sunday was another day of looking for kin – this time, Linda's. Her father comes from a town near Aberdeen, a place called Peterculter. We contacted some of her cousins, and then headed into the area to explore a bit. At the churchyard, we found some of her long-lost ancestors' headstones, overlooking the Dee River. Then we visited her cousins, Sid and Mary, and joined them for a pub lunch before visiting the Family History Centre and the graveyard to locate a few more kin. Several hours of visiting at their home, with some old family photos, and we headed back into Aberdeen for the evening.

Today is Monday, 30^th May. Internet useage is reasonably expensive or not available, at least where we've been stopping.....so this ended up being a long entry on the blog.....not sure if this will continue, but I'll try to update when I can. We went into Aberdeen itself today, to have a look around the Granite City, and to visit the city Family History Centre, where we found some books and records pertaining to Linda's family. By afternoon it was time to find another distillery – this time to Glen Garioch (pronounced Glen Geery), for another wonderful tour, and several samplings of their whisky. Back to Aberdeen for the evening, with just enough time to get this Blog updated finally.