An Aha Moment, Swimming, the Archive Centre and Culloden Battlefield

Red Coat Soldier at Culloden

McLennan's Captured the day prior 

McLennan's on the Front Lines

The Battle Field

Cairn on Culloden Moor

The Flumes

Looking one way - it's the pool

Same spot, looking the other direction it's the Archive Centre

I stayed up late last night on the internet trying to find out information on a McLennan Monument at Dores when I stumbled across a Clan McLennan newsletter and an article about a family from Australia, tracing their McLennan roots which pretty much mimicked our search.  In this article they had been to the same church and graveyard we had been to, but they stumbled upon a leaflet written by the Auchtertyre grade 6/7 class about the old cemetary on the hill that the locals call Angels Hill.  I brought up this discovery at breakfast and Poppa's face lit up and said "That's where Alex is buried!"  It was with this renewed hope that we headed to Inverness and the Archive Centre for Ken and Janet to search for more clues.  They spent the better part of the day there and I think maybe found a few bits of info, but are no further ahead.

As Aidan has been begging us to swim every day, we decided today was the day.   I think it was really meant to be as when we pulled up the Archive Centre and the Leisure Centre were a parking lot apart.  The boys were in heaven with 3 water slides (they call them flumes) that wound their way out and back into the building.  You rode a tube down on one, one was twisty and the other was a straight drop.  We did all 3.  There was a wave pool and river area that adjoined an outdoor pool as well.  We are still puzzling over the outdoor part as it rarely even reaches 23 C here in the summer.  (We looked it up yesterday, we are at about 57 latitude which is further north than Fort McMurray - just they have the benefit of the Gulf Stream so it doesn't get too cold here in the winter and can grow palm trees).  Having worked in pools for many years it was interesting to see the foam toys covered in mildew, along with a few spots of the pool edges.  Is it because of the humid climate?  Things had to be pretty darn clean when I worked for the city, I don't think it would have passed, but it was fun.  Oh ya and what looked to be the hot tub was actually cooler than the wave pool.  That was a bit unexpected.  They have a colored armband system so you can be in the pool for about 65 minutes and then you are out to keep the numbers below 250.  Didn't apply today as it wasn't that busy.  So we stayed until we were good and wrinkled.

We had picked up lunch at a bakery we stumbled across in the morning and set the GPS for Culloden.  The route took us right through the middle of Inverness - it is much smaller and cleaner than the other cities we have been in and looked to be quite beautiful. 

We weren't sure we really wanted to go to Culloden Battlefield, but kind of felt we should as it had such an impact and in the end we were glad we did.  The interpretive centre is done really well with the story being told from the Jacobite perspective on one side and the British on the other.  It highlights all the events that led up to the fateful day.  In a nutshell the Highlanders had many victories, but were short in supplies and numbers and the British had large numbers and were well supplied and had been working on honing fighting techniques which could defeat those of the Highland Warriors.  The Highlanders tried to ambush unsuspecting British soldiers at night, but it failed when the fog set in and they realized they would never get to their destination in time.  Turning around, come morning they were starving and exhausted and some of their numbers were off in search of food.  They still could have retreated, but Prince Charlie pushed on and the rest is history.  They show a reinactment of the battle on 4 screens surrounding you in a room which sets the mood before you go out on the Moor.  There are many artifacts on display and there were 2 men dressed up, one as a Jacobite the other as a Redcoat demonstrating the weapons used.  The boys really liked that part.  Keeghan was instructed on how to load an English musket which took a minute or 2 and then was told an English soldier had to be able to shoot 3 rounds a minute and if they couldn't they would get 50 lashes.  Also if you were left handed and couldn't shoot right you got 50 lashes as you had to shoot right with these guns due to the position of the flint.  They pointed out to me, the mother of 3 boys that on the field fighting that day were an 11 year old and the youngest casualty was 14 years old.  From historical information we know that many McLennan's were killed in a prior battle and that not many were at Culloden, but it was listed here that some McLennan's were captured a day prior to the battle and that others from Glen Garry were on the front lines.  The Moor itself is something that cannot be explained, you need to experience it for yourself.

The Loch Ness Exhibition Centre and Time to Rest

Woke up to a chilly, very rainy day and were all very glad we had decided that it would be a day to relax, take stock of where we'd been, what we'd bought and what we still wanted to see and do.  We all enjoyed the morning just lazing around the B&B. 

Shortly after noonish we drug our lazy bones out the door (except for Poppa who decided to make a day of it at the B&B) we headed off to Loch Ness Centre.  Like many touristy places here it is good to get a fast track entry ticket and so I had done this online just before going.  When we got there we walked right in, no line up.  So I said to the fellow, "good thing we got fast track tickets".  He chuckled and said that this was the first 2 minutes all morning that there were not 100 people lined up to get in and that 5000 people had already passed through.  That was unbelievable, kinda like Nessie herself :)  The exhibition itself is fairly well done and they talked about how the lake was formed and that there is little in the way of food to support much life, yet alone something as big as Nessie.  There have been extensive sonar and other scientific searches done that have shown some unexplained occurances, but nothing definitive.  Part of the reason it is so difficult is that the Loch is 230 metres deep and very dark.  (They said it is big enough to put the entire population of the world in it 3 times over).  There are thousands of eye witness reports and there have of course been many hoaxes.  You are a little better informed and left to your own opinion on the subject in the end.  The most probable theory seems to be a stray sturgeon from time to time.  When we returned Miriam asked what we thought of the exhibit.  We all agreed what was there was done well and interesting, but there could have been more, especially for the price of admission.  I asked her if they had ever seen anything and she said they had.  Prior to moving here from Holland, they were here on holiday sitting on a hillside with friends visiting when they spotted something that she said behaved most like a seal or an otter.  They watched it for about 30 minutes.  Later when they went back to their accomodations and started doing the math, they knew it had to be much larger than a seal.  Later that week there was an article in the newspaper and people on the other side of the Loch had seen the same thing and it was reported as a proper sighting.  Who knows??  Sells a lot of stuff, if nothing else.

Grannie's Birthday on the Isle of Skye

Aidan's Card for Grannie

Birthday Surprises

Aidan got to dip his feet finally.

Portree, Isle of Skye

Uig, Isle of Skye

We have all thoroughly enjoyed staying at Knowle B&B.  Miriam and Bert are great hosts and we appreciated the morning chats over the fabulous breakfasts.  I approached Miriam last night to ask where we might get a cake to celebrate Janet's birthday and she volunteered some of her baking, which she said she hadn't been able to serve us yet because we're never here!  Well, she outdid herself.  When we arrived for breakfast she had a banner up, a handmade card and served delicious squares complete with candle.  It was a terrific start to a great birthday for Janet.  Due to our lack of paper, the boys sent her an ecard.  Aidan used some paper from a little notebook we had and created a card complete with drawings of Nessie and a Highland Coo (cow as they say) and wrapped up a shell he discovered the other day in Plockton and presented it to Grannie.  I am not sure who was more proud.  We found a book about the Highland Clans and the clearing and immigration to Canada which may shed some light on our own Mclennan heritage and gave that to her. 

After consulting the weather forecast which was for sunshine in the west and rain every other day we are here, we decided to head to the Isle of Skye.  It was the same journey we did in the fog and rain the other day (only further) and so it was nice to see it in the sunshine.  On the way we stopped at a stone croft complete with stone fence beside a small brook that Janet had spied the other day.  It was a great stop - Aidan finally got to dip his feet in some water (which was freezing cold and stopped his incessant request to go swimming in a loch or ocean), the boys and Dave skipped stones and Janet and Ken explored the building and I took pictures!  We made one more stop at the Eileen Donan Castle - both to see it in the sunshine and to pick up a few more things from the gift shop that we decided we must have. Once on the Isle of Skye we travelled up the island to Uig (pronounced oo-ig), had  a short walk on the pier and some of the shops.  We followed some signs in to a house with a private gallery and shop which was a little sketchy, but added to the adventure.  We went back to Portree and explored some shops there and then headed back to the main land.  The scenery on Skye is spectacular, from tall, jagged, dark mountains, to rolling green hills speckled with rock, sheep and cattle to whitewashed stone houses along the ocean shores.  Words do not do it justice, I hope the pictures do!  We saw 2 thatched roof houses that are still inhabited too, which was really interesting to see.  We were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day to have such great views - the Isle of Skye means Misty Isle and there are not many days like the ones we experienced.  It started to rain just as we entered Kyle of Lochalsh on the other side of the bridge.  We decided to have a birthday supper at the Jac-o-bite again as we had all enjoyed the view, service and food there a few nights before.  Janet had vegetarian haggis, neeps & tatties for her birthday in Scotland (I tried the haggis and actually quite liked it) and we all had sticky toffee pudding for desert.  It was a great day.

Castle Urquhart, Fort Augustus Canals & The Clansmen Centre and the Wee (heathen) Midges

A Highland Coo (as they call them)

More Highland Coos

Urqhart Castle and it's Savior

Clansmen Centre

Castle Urquhart is now a picturesque ruin with an amazing view of Loch Ness.  It started out as a spot where the Pictish king lived.  St. Columba came to bring Christianity, later Scotish Nobility built the first castle and was a relatively peaceful place until the English invaded and thus ensued a number of battles between the Scotish and English and later amongst the clans, finally being destroyed in 1692 when the Grants chose to leave the castle and blow it up rather than leave soldiers to defend it.  As an extra today there were period games set up to play.  Some we knew like dominoes, checkers and cup and ball, but there were some others that were new and interesting and we took photos so we could make them at home.  On we liked in particular is called the Wedding Game, which is a simple dice gambling game.  There were 2 men dressed in ancient Highland garb explaining the games and in talking with them they were very knowledgable in the area and Highland history and pointed Poppa in a couple of directions that may be helpful in continuing to trace his McLennan ancestry.  The ruins themselves are nothing spectacular, but the views are spectacular.  Taking away from the ambience was the mowers and whipper snippers going at top speed, which I am sure they must do whenever there is a dry spell and today was a warm sunny day.  I particularly got a kick out of one man who was visiting the castle, I am sure in his newly purchased full Highland outfit, who posed himself on a spot with the main part of the castle in the background as if he himself had just regained contol of the castle for all of Scotland.   If you ever go, be sure to see the short film before going out to the castle site, it tells the story of the castle in 8 minutes and has a spectacular finale. 

While at the castle we got our first introduction to the wee midges we had read about (wee heathens as Dave calls them).  They are wee little things, I'd guess maybe even smaller than a fruit fly and paler in color so hard to see.  Some of us were quite bothered by them.  I am happy to say there is justice in the world as I am a mosquito magnet, but the midges didn't bother me.  Quite the reverse for Dave and Grannie.  We purchased some Smidge and all was well.

Before leaving home we had been told that The Clansmen Centre in Fort Augustus was worthwhile and so I looked it up on the web and off we went.  We found it easily and were there by about 2:30 and thought, great we'll have an earlier end to our day today and then we discovered the next show did not start until 5pm.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  There is a canal that runs through the village and as luck would have it there were a number of sailboats passing through the lock to get from loch to loch and so we enjoyed seeing that.  There were also a number of shops to explore including  Iceburg Glassblowing where Cael in particular loved whatching the demonstrations of how to make a Nessie.  We purchased a few souvenirs and had a chat with the artist who said her Mother who's family was from Canada is named Alberta.

The Clansmen show was worth the wait.  Although a little crude in spots and not highly polished, you sit in a replica of a typical Highland Croft that is 7 metres long and 3 meters wide.  It is made of stone with a thatched roof with no windows and only one door.  It was heated with peat and housed up to 20 people and all of their animals at night.  They built the house this size to maximize the use of the small amount of land they had.  The animals in the day grazed on common grazing land.  The demonstrated the ancient Highland dress - using a single piece of plaid that was 7 metres long (the full length of the house) and 2 metres wide.  It was laid on the floor and folded uniformly making the pleats on the lower half.  You laid on this and wrapped it around you, securing it with a strip of cloth.  When you stood up the lower half resembled a modern day kilt - with amazing pleats, considering how quickly he did this.  The top half could be folded and tucked into the waist in various ways to either form pockets, to cover up at night or hide in the heather.  He said that the colors then were all the same based on the plants used to dye the wool and the pattern depended of course on the skill of the weaver.  The bonnets were what distinguished one clan from the other.  The women wore simple shifts in the summer and wraped a smaller length of plaid around their waste in a similar fashion to the men but only in the back.  He also had authentic highland weapons including a claymore, daggers and another killing device that had a hook and a long blade on one end and the other end held a metal tipped point.  He chose our crew to demonstrate how they used this last device.  Dave, Keeghan and Cael were a little tentative and poor Aidan just cowered beside me as he watched his family be "attacked".   The Highlanders were very supportive of and would fiercely defend their own.  They were a mix of Pict and Scots (perhaps mixed with some Celt and Norse blood as well).  There were no roads and they travelled by foot - which when you see the landscape and touch a gorse bush - you realize how though they must have been.  The fellow also told us not to lie in the heather (which covers the hills and lucky for us is currently in bloom) as it can be infested with parasites including fleas and ticks from the wildlife.  So great to be a 21st century girl.  They claim that the Clansmen Centre is the only place in Scotland where you will see them demonstrate the housing, dress and weaponry in an ancient traditional way and he was very passionate about keeping the traditions alive, passing them on to the next generation.

The McLennan Trail

Kintail Cemetary

Kintail Cemetary

Eileen Donan Castle

Poor House at Auchtertyre

Balmacara House

Plockton

Breakfast was served in a lovely sunroom and was as yummy as we had all anticipated.  As predicted it was foggy and drizzly and looked like that was the way it was going to stay for the day.  That did not deter us though on our quest today.  Today we were heading to the area where it is believed our McLennan ancestors lived in the late 1800's.  As such it meant scoping out churches and graveyards all along the way.  The boys and I decided we were in the Mystery Van looking for ghosts and solving the mystery of where's Christie and Alex McLennan.  This path took us all along Loch Ness to the west coast of Scotland.  It was a windy, narrow, busy road that was single track in some places - once again Dave did a fabulous job driving.  The scenery was spectacular and lots of photos were taken - what beautiful places to be laid to rest.  We found many McLennan's, most of whom were named Donald or Farquhard - not who we were looking for.  We stopped at Eileen Donan Castle - it is beautiful and in a striking setting.  We opted to just have a look around, taking photos and checking out the gift shop.  Stops were made at Auchtertyre - at what was the poor house that we believe Alex died at (Poppa's great, great Grandfather), Balmacara - where Christie and Alex were Married and Balmacara house where Alex's brother Rodney lived before immigrating to Canada, Eurbusaig where Christie Died and Plockton where Christie was born.  All these places were very small and scenic.  In Plockton we were told that there is a man still living in the village that would know the history and could perhaps verify the details we know about Christie.  Unfortunately he was believed to be away in Inverness for a funeral and so we left our contact information and hope to hear from him.  Strangely, by coincidence, we had parked right in front of his house.  The boys enjoyed Plockton, the tide was out and so we did some beach combing, finding shells, beach glass and even 2 jellyfish.  I got to poke around in a few more craft stores and Grannie and Poppa found the cemetary, so we were all happy.  All these places seem so remote, but there was lots of traffic and we found it very hard to find places to park any time we stopped.  In Plockton there was a Rigatta going on so that may have been why it was so busy there.  On the way back we stopped at a cafe called the Jac-o-bite and from the outside it looked a little sketchy, but turned out to be a diamond in the rough.  A gorgeous view, great service and awesome food.  The boys were getting a little silly and so I took them out to the van while Dave stayed back to pay and was serenaded with the sound of Irish Whistles and great belly laughter.  It was a fun, but long day and we all crashed when we got back.  Photos to follow, too tired to download.

Driving the Mercedes to the Highlands on the wrong side of the road

The Mercedes

The Sign Says It All

Lovely

It was a tired crew that dragged their bottoms out of bed and took a cab to the outskirts of Edinburgh to pick up our Mercedes people mover aka a mini van.  The taxi ride was in a 9 passenger van where the middle and rear seats face each other.  I am not typically sensitive to motion, but after a 20 minute ride full of swerving, stopping and starting suddenly and being a little on the warm side, I thought I just might toss my cookies.  We made sure all the seats in our van were foward facing!  It's a pretty plain van and the boys keep saying "it's not what you expect a Mercedes to be."  It is a fine van and holds all seven of us an our luggage comfortably.  At first we declined to pay the extra 60 pounds to waive the 500 pound deductible, but when a lady next to us said they were just in an accident where they were sitting in a car park and someone backed into them, we decided to take that as a sign and pay it.  We also got a GPS and at first named her Gertie, but since we are in Scotland we decided that just wouldn't do and so now she is affectionately known as Nessie.  So Nessie has been exceptionally helpful, except off the start where she didn't know about the road closure due to construction.  As a result our fine planning to get directly onto the motorway and out of Edinburgh did not go quite as planned.  Dave was forced to drive through 2 traffic circles in his first 5 minutes of driving a right hand vehicle on the left side of the road.  From a passenger in the front seat, he did admirably.  From the passengers in the back seat, it was quite a ride as the circles were taken at some speed.  We made it to the motorway and Nessie guided us very well.  Most of the drive to Inverness is a 4 lane divided highway with many small layby's and Dave soon was feeling quite comfortable.  The landscape changed as we headed north, first rolling hills and then evergreen forests and then more mountainous.  It reminded us all of British Columbia, especially the Okanagan Valley.  We decided to just keep going through Inverness and head to Knowle's Bed and Breakfast in Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness.  The boys didn't spot the other Nessie in the Loch  - Aidan decided she must be "in her hidey hole waiting for her prey".  Cael thought perhaps she had captured a boat and was wearing it as a hat and was therefore disguised as a boat.  No comment from Keeghan yet.  The B&B is very nice.  It is in a small village where the Loch Ness Center is.  They are on a hill and so our rooms have views of the Loch, the surrounding moutain forests, the sheep and cows down the road and the hens in the back yard.  Mirjam (pronounced Miriam) and Bert are our hosts and are very nice people.  They immigrated here from the Netherlands in 1997 and it has been her dream to live here and do this since the late 1970's after a holiday in the area.  We have 3 rooms (each with it's own bathroom) and a sitting room so there is lots of space and privacy.  Looks like breakfast is going to be a treat - smoked salmon scrambled eggs for me!  Once we got our stuff in we went out for supper and yet another ice cream with flakes and then came back to plan tomorrow and get to bed.  Another beautiful sunny day was had in the UK.  The forecast is for that to change tomorrow.

Holyrood Palace and more on the Royal Mile

Entrance to Hollyrood Palace

Okay, so I am a day behind on the blog.  What I posted yesterday actually took place the day before and this blog is what we did yesterday.  We decided to split up again today.  The boys (except maybe Keeghan) are castled out and decided to try something different and so went to Our Dynamic Earth which is an interactive display about the evolution of earth and its inhabitants.  When it started with the Big Bang we thought for sure it would be a hit with at least Keeghan, but I think it got a luke warm rating.  Aidan just wants to find a beach or a pool and go swimming.  He has really been a trooper.  Grannie and I decided we should see Holyrood Palace because we were right there and almost rubbed elbows with the Royals at the wedding.  It was a rainy day so we donned our rain gear and brellies and off we went.  Definitely not as grand as Buckingham Palace but still full of splendor and history.  The kids thought it would have been fun growing up in Buckingham because it was a great place to play hide and seek, especially when they learned of a secret passageway.  I think they would have found the same here.  As Zara's wedding was only 3 days prior they were still dismantling what looked like a dance floor and plastic roofed area in the central courtyard.  Oh to have a grand party and have all these people set it up and take it down for you.  Just show up and have a grand time.  More brutal history as well with Queen Mary of Scots personal secretary David Rizzio being murdered by her husband and then a year later her husband being murdered by her lover and soon there after being taken to the London Tower and subsequently being beheaded for treason.  Maybe being Royal wouldn't be so hot after all.  We all met back at the apartment for lunch.  The boys had stopped back at the bagpipe store and were busily practicing on their Irish Whistles and the Chanter - not surprisingly within the hour they were playing a few recognizable tunes.  Poppa, Cael & Aidan decided to take the rest of the day off while Dave, Grannie, Keeghan and I marched on.  We poked around some more shops on the Royal Mile - actually found some authentic souvenirs in the form of pewter celtic jewelry and we ordered a custom kilt in ancient McLennan Tartan that is measured to fit Dave, but as the boys get older has some adjustments built in so they can share.  Keeghan was really excited about this - already planning which events he could wear it to :)  Aidan is thrilled with his plaid tam and scarf, putting it on first thing in the morning today and walking around with a huge grin on his face.  He at first tried to wear the scarf like a kilt without much success and so he too will be excited to wear the kilt some day.  Had a take out dinner of panini's, packed up and booked a cab to take us to pick up our rental van - could be an adventure!