Another Christmas come and gone!

 Well, it's been awhile since I last wrote but I just couldn't think of what to write about. 

Christmas has come and gone. We had the traditional family gatherings, even though those have changed over the years as my nieces and nephews left home and started their own families. I hosted a Boxing Day dinner for my two sisters and their husbands. The menu was tomato panko topped haddock with salad as the appetizer, chicken Cordon Bleu with a mashed potato casserole and roasted asparagus as the main course; and for dessert there was gingerbread cake with vanilla sauce and whipped cream. Everything turned out fine but I don't think I'd make the Cordon Bleu again. 

Haddock and salad

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Gingerbread cake

Before the Christmas season really got started, I had some friends over for brunch and to help decorate my tree.  One of the friends is vegan so brunch was vegan pancakes, maple curry roasted vegetables, hash browns and fresh fruit. There was also sausage for the non vegans. After eating, we decorated my tree. A few years ago, I decided to start naming the Christmas tree. This year from those names that were suggested, the name Cailun was chosen. 

If you Google Cailun, you're likely to find it means "little girl" in Irish Gaelic but one web site said it is derived from the word "caille" which is Scots Gaelic for "from the forest". So whatever definition you like, it was a good name. Cailun was a near perfect tree. I'm sure I say that every year but it was a beautiful tree. 

Cailun - the Christmas tree of 2024

I also had friends over again at New Year's. We were a small group this year as only five people could make it. It was nice though with just a small group as we seemed to have more time to sit and chat. We did our group photo and toast to the New Year around 11pm but everyone stayed until we could actually celebrate the New Year's arrival. 

Since the holidays, I've had a cold followed by the flu, neither lasted very long but it certainly doesn't get you in the mood to do anything and I'm not much of a winter person anyway. Liam and I have started back to agility and hoopers classes. In the Spring, Teddy will probably go back to doing some ratting classes. I'm already thinking of camping season but haven't made any plans. We'll probably stick close to home this year. 

So that really brings you up to date with what's going on with Teddy, Liam and me. Pretty boring right?

Family History

Well, I intended to do blog posts on churches and history before doing this one on my family history but since I've taken so long to write the next post I thought I would finish our Scotland trip with this post on a bit of my family history.

My father's parents were both born in Scotland. My grandfather Stewart was born in Kirkintilloch which is outside of Glasgow. My dad's mother, who was born a Templeton, was born on the Isle of Arran. When I was posted to England, I knew that she had been born in the town of Kilmory on the Isle of Arran but not exactly where. In this digital age, I found her birth record on the website Scotland's People, which showed where she was born. From her birth record, I found that she was born on a farm named Clachaig. Her older sister Jane and brother Gilbert were also born on this farm. 

The farm is still a working farm although the working name of the farm has changed. On our drive around Arran, one of our stops was at this farm.  At first it seemed as if there was no one there as the only ones to greet us at the honesty box was a pack of border collies.

But a few minutes after we arrived, the owner drove down from the upper fields.  He was very hospitable and invited us to walk around and take pictures. He told us there was a farm cottage nearer the village and some cottage ruins in the upper fields but as our great-grandfather was listed as a ploughman and not a farmer, it was likely that our grandmother had been born in the bothy. In the picture above, the bothy is the one story extension to the house and it is where the farm labourers lived. It is just three rooms, the main room had a large fireplace; there was a large communal kitchen right next door in the house. The bothy has been renovated and is now a vacation rental.

The current owner told us, when my great-grandfather worked there, the farm was run by a tenant farmer named Spears. He tried to find the deed from that time to show us but couldn't locate the paperwork. He did tell us that same family bought the farm in the mid 1950's and said it was one of the first farms in the area that the government sold to private owners. 

Current owner - Peter Brown

Clachaig Farm House

It was kind of strange walking around that farm, thinking my great-grandparents and their children had lived and worked there. I doubt my grandmother would have remembered this place as she would have been very young when they moved away. Her youngest sister Janet (called Jenny) was born on a farm near Ayr, Scotland.

Fields - Clachaig Farm

Clachaig Farm - driveway

LtoR Helen, Janet, Gilbert and Jane, the four youngest Templeton children

I wish I had  talked to my grandmother more about her childhood, perhaps she did recall some things about those days on the farms. I'm sure she could have told stories about their lives in Scotland as she was a teenager before the family moved to Canada.

Wordless Wednesday - Luca Roger - 2 Sep 2024

 

Home from the Highlands

Two days ago, I got home from a 15-day self-driving vacation in Scotland. I went with two of my sisters, and a brother-in-law. We started and ended the vacation in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Castle from Princes Garden

We had two nights in Edinburgh before we picked up the rental car. We arrived in Edinburgh while the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo was on; we decided that we couldn't miss that opportunity. It's an hour and half show that only starts at 9:30 pm and we had a rental car to pick up the next morning but it was a once in a lifetime thing.

Massed Pipes and Drums

We picked up the rental car. It was a black Suburu Boxer SUV. It was a nice vehicle with GPS, back up and forward cameras.  The car was also a hybrid so it switched to an electric motor when we were going slow enough.

It was a little difficult to get out of Edinburgh. I took a wrong turn and ended up having to make an illegal right turn to get back on track. We were heading to see  the Falkirk Kelpies, Stirling Castle and  the Wallace Monument. Then it would be off to our first B&B in a little town called Bridge of Cally. 

Falkirk Kelpies

Stirling Castle Great Hall

Wallace Monument

The driving in Scotland was intense to say the least. People drive really fast on little twisty turning roads. I had driven in England and Scotland before but I don't remember the roads being so narrow and, for the most part, without a decent shoulder.  I certainly wasn't driving fast enough for the locals and got honked at quite a few times that first day.  The GPS in the car got us to our destination but it chose a rather strange route going off on the smaller roads rather than staying on one of the more main routes. We did get to our destination eventually but just as we arrived, I hit a traffic cone that was in a pot hole. We had a rubbed spot on the front corner of the car and quite a scratch on the back passenger door. 

Bridge of Cally Hotel

The next day's journey was to Scone Palace about 1/2 hour away and then on to Inverness for a two night stay. This time the GPS did take us to Scone on the road I thought it would the day before. The driving was getting somewhat easier although I still hated seeing large trucks coming around a curve at me. 

Scone Palace

Cavell Guest House

The following day was only a short drive to Culloden and to the Clava Cairns.  The only driving issue on this day was that to get to the Clava Cairns there was about a 500m road that was single lane with only one small pull out. You had to watch for oncoming traffic. 

Culloden

Clava Cairns

The following day was a longer drive along Loch Ness to Urquhart Castle, then past the town where the next B&B was located and onto the Glenfinnian Monument and Glenfinnian Viaduct, made famous by the Harry Potter films. After we saw the Glenfinnian attractions, we back tracked about half an hour to Spean Bridge where the Distant Hills Guest House was located.

Urquhart Castle

Glensfinnian Monument

Glenfinnian Viaduct

I think the Distant Hills Guest House was the nicest of the B&B's that we stayed at. I wished we had at least two nights there as we would have had time to enjoy the hot tub in the back garden. 

Pergola and hot tub

Guest Lounge

The next day was the drive to Glencoe and on down to Glasgow. This is a spectacular drive when the weather is nice but as luck would have it, we had our first really rainy day.  In Glasgow, we were staying two nights at the Holiday Inn.  There was no parking at the hotel but the hotel subsidizes the parking at the car park across the street. We left the car in the parking garage and used the Hop On Hop Off bus. 

Glencoe Visitor Centre

I drove that!

Three Sisters

Holiday Inn bar area

We left Glasgow early so as not to miss the check in time for the ferry to the  Isle of Arran.  Thankfully we had the use of Google maps in addition to the car's GPS. A bridge was closed and, of course, that's the way the GPS directions wanted us to go. Once out of Glasgow the drive was fairly easy and we made it to Ardrossan in plenty of time for our ferry. There was an Asda located close to the ferry terminal and we walked back to see if we could buy some T-Cut to buff out the scratches on the car. 

Ardrossan Ferry Terminal

On the way to the Isle of Arran

Isle of Arran - Scotland in Miniature

We arrived on the Isle of Arran too early to check in to our B&B so we first went to Brodick Castle, home of the Dukes of Hamilton. After visiting the castle, we then went to the Belvedere Guest House to find our host had popped out, he had left us notes with the keys to our rooms but when checking out the place, we set off the security alarm.

Brodick Castle

View of Goat Fell from our room

Belvedere Guest House

The following day was a drive around the island. The principal stop for me was at the Clachaig Farm where my grandmother, one of her brothers and one of her sisters were born.  The current owner invited us to walk around and take pictures and showed us the bothy and the original farm kitchen.  We also visited Lochranza Castle. Little did we know that we would see it again the very next day.

Clachaig Farm

Lochranza Castle

When we went out to dinner at the local pub that night, one of the men at the bar said the ferry had broken down and that the service between Brodick and Ardrossan had been cancelled. Sure enough about 40 minutes later I got an email about the service disruption. We had not been rebooked on the other ferry service from Brodick so the only option left was to book on the ferry that was first come, first serve. We bought a ticket for the Lochranza to Claonaig ferry.  The issue with that route was we would have a four to five hour drive to Edinburgh rather than about a two hour drive.  The next day was a gorgeous sunny day, we headed up to Lochranza, arriving at about 9:20 am and then proceeded to wait, we made it on to the 1:15 pm  ferry crossing. 

Lochranza Ferry

Good Bye to the Isle of Arran

It was beautiful drive and the scenery was wonderful but I didn't have much time to enjoy it as I was focused on driving.  We got back to Edinburgh around 6pm and returned the car without incident.  In a dark car park the Enterprise agent didn't notice the scratches, that really were barely noticeable, as they had been buffed with the T-Cut. I was really mentally exhausted from being so focused on driving that I couldn't back up in the parking garage to park the car into one of the free spaces. 

We now had three more night in Edinburgh before our flights home.  I'll do some other posts on the sites and places we saw on our travels. 

"My heart's in the Highlands

My heart is not here,

my heart's in the Highlands

a chasin the deer.

A chasin the wild deer and following the roe,

my heart's in the Highlands wherever I go."