My Scotland

Much of my heritage contains Scottish ancestry, although the nearest person to me who was actually born there was my parental grandfather who I never met. He was born and grew up in Edinburgh.

I have been studying my family history for a few years now. My grandfather, however, came from a family based mostly in Ayrshire and western Scotland on his father’s side. He moved to North West England for work, as happened often. He married my dad's mother in Lancashire, near Liverpool. She also had lowland Scots ancestors. I asked her once if she liked the bagpipes, her reply was, she liked them when they played over the hills and faraway, then spoilt it by saying the further away the better! My parental great-grandmother's father came from a small town in Perthshire, the sort of place if you 'blink and you will miss it' place. Her mother from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, descending from fishermen, when it was a really dangerous way of life.

My maternal grandmother’s paternal relatives were also Scottish, we understand, from the Highlands originally but I haven’t found any real proof of this so far, need to keep investigating of course. With all this in my family we have visited different parts of Scotland over the years.

Firstly Edinburgh, divided into the Old Town and the New Town. The New Town has the main famous shopping centre, Princes Street and alongside, the beautifully laid out Princes Street Gardens. Near the Gardens, Edinburgh Castle can be seen from many vantage points along Prince Street. The Scottish National Gallery is on Princes Street. Carlton Hill, the Balmoral Hotel, Waverley station and the Sir Walter Scott Monument are at the other end of Prince Street.

The Old Town has the Castle, St. Giles Cathedral and lots of little closes. Plus, a very nice fudge shop!

We spent a few days in Glasgow, a very vibrant place. This was where my 2018 Conference was held, so didn’t see very much of the city, as we made for Edinburgh by train, when it finished.

We visited Ayr, where my great-great grandfather had been a butcher (flesher as they were called in those days). We were shown where the shop had been. Ayr also has the Brig of Doon, a medieval bridge. Robby Burns was born in nearby Alloway and his birthplace is a tourist attraction. We also went to Culzean Castle, a Scottish National Trust property.

Pitlochry is a pretty highland town. We stayed there and travelled to Spear Bridge to visit the Commando Monument. We had a particular purpose in going there, apart from the interest about my father being a marine commando in the 2nd World War, although he ended up in Burma.

Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most photographed places in Scotland. The car park was full of cars and touring coaches, so we gave the Castle a miss this time.

Glenelg, across the water from the Isle of Skye. There is a car ferry which takes about 4 cars at the most. This could be where my maternal grandmother thought her great-grandfather came from! She called her house 'Gleneig' but I couldn't trace this as spelling, the nearest being Glenelg. A pretty little place spread out along the estuary, with a pub which is also a guest house (full when we wanted to stay there) and a church. As you approach the village you see Glenelg (Earth) twinned with Glenelg (Mars)! I think NASA set up some sort of 'station' on Mars and named it Glenelg.

I will have to go back to do some further research at some time.