July 1 - Last Day

Yesterday was our last day seeing the sights in Scotland - today we drove to the airport and turned in the car, and will stay here overnight before flying out Thursday morning - can’t believe it is over.

I can’t say that Dumfries has been my favorite city but we have seen some interesting sights in town and nearby.

The Globe pub - Robert Burns' favorite

The Old Bridge - built in the 1300s and still used for pedestrians

Closeburn Castle - owned by my Kirkpatricks for centuries

Today we drove south to Caerlaverock Castle. Because of its location right across Solway Sound from England it has been attacked and destroyed several times since it was built in the 1200s. After things finally looked peaceful in the 1600s, the Maxwell family built a fancy manor house inside the walls of the castle but it was destroyed too just a few years later.

One of the manor house walls

In the afternoon we drove to a little town called Kirkcudbright - it looks like an ugly name, but it is pronounced Kir coo bree. Has a little harbor, a castle ruin and streets full of cute little houses.

Then we drove back to Dumfries for a last dinner before getting packed to go home :(  Last blog entry - the big adventure is over!

June 29

Well, the day at the Bannockburn festival was the closest thing to a disappointment on this trip - a huge crowd so it was mile-long "queues" for everything and on top of that, it rained almost all day. We decided that the KC Renaissance Festival was 10 times better at about 1/3 the cost!

Statue of King Robert the Bruce with pipe band

Stirling Castle above the Bannockburn site

 

Unfortunately, we had to leave "Robertson Country" this morning (Sunday.) On the way out of town we went to a place called Queen's View for a last look at the loch and the mountain called Schiehallion. We hate to leave!!

 

 

 

 

Took the long way down to Dumfries in southwestern Scotland, where my Kirkpatrick ancestors might have originally come from. On the way we passed this cool memorial tower to Robert Burns, who was from this part of the country. Many building here are made from this red stone.

 

 

 

June 27 - More Robertson Country

Spent the last two days in clan gathering activities and exploring this amazing country. Here are some of our photos. Tomorrow we will take a bus to the celebration of the 700th anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn (where Robert the Bruce beat the English). It should be amazing too - reenactment of the battle, food, music, etc.

Blair Castle

 

St Bride's chapel ruins and graveyard

In the town of Blair Atholl

June 24 & 25 -- Robertson Country

Flew to Edinburgh and picked up our rental car - it’s a BMW!!! Got to Blair Atholl up in the Highlands without any trouble and were immediately plunged into clan activities - a reception and dinner. Got to meet the clan chief - Gilbert Robertson of Struan - and Gary got his photo taken with him.

The view from our window at the B & B

There are people here from all over the world - lots from England and Scotland, but also Canada, Australia, and even a couple from Spain. Lots of interesting conversations going on!

Most of Wednesday was spent on a bus tour of Robertson sites in this beautiful country with a published author and clan historian as the tour director - a very nice day but my mind is spilling over with history and stories. That was followed by a session on the clan DNA project - after all that brain work, we had to go out for pizza to decompress!

Schiehallian - the highest mountain in the area.

The old burial place of the clan chiefs.

June 23 - Last Day in Ireland

Got out first thing this morning and drove to Bru Na Boinne - the site of several large 5000-year-old passage tombs and dozens of smaller ones. These are built so that the sun shines down the passage at the winter solstice and were also used for burials, or at least funeral-type ceremonies. Older than the pyramids and Stonehenge and very impressive. Lots of geometric carvings in the rocks too.

The Newgrange passage tomb - we got to go inside.

Then we went on to the Battle of the Boyne site - an important battle between the Protestant King William of Orange and the Catholic King James II that decided the future of Ireland and Britain. We are learning so much about the history of the British Isles!!! Finally we found our way back to Trim and took a tour inside the Trim Castle. There are the walls all around and a huge cross-shaped keep in the middle - that is what we got to go all the way to the top off with an Irish guide who was really a character.

The Keep

The stairs we climbed to the top of the keep!!

　

One of the towers on the outer wall.

Tomorrow we move on to Blair Atholl, Scotland, where the international Robertson Clan Gathering will be held this week. Not sure about internet access there in the Highlands but I will blog if I can.

June 22

Got an early start today and drove through more awesome County Donegal scenery in the Glenveagh National Park before heading east across Ireland to the small medieval town of Trim.

　

Lough Veagh

Mt Errigal in Glenveagh National Park

Trim has a great old castle - built around 1200 - and other buildings or ruins nearly as old. Nearby are two 5000-year-old tombs, the Hill of Tara, the site of the Battle of the Boyne, and other things. We’ll see as much as we can tomorrow and then drive to Dublin the next morning to fly to Edinburgh.

Trim Castle

The River Boyne

June 21 - County Donegal

Awesome scenery here! We drove to the northwest part of County Donegal and then down the coast. On the way we checked off two of the sights we hoped to see in Ireland - cutting peat for burning, and sheep in the road!

We stayed in a little town called Bunbeg that I picked because it’s near the tavern owned by the musical Brennan family - think Enya and the group Clannad. They’re all cousins or family of some sort and all got their start singing in Dad Leo’s Tavern. So of course we had to eat there - there was music later, but none of the famous ones!

The B & B in Bunbeg is on the tiny old harbor - a very picturesque spot.

The yellow building is our B & B.

June 20 - Ulster American Folk Park

I was really looking forward to today, and the Folk Park turned out to be even better than I expected. I have Scottish ancestors who were brought to Northern Ireland in the 1600s to tip the balance in favor of Protestantism, and emigrated from there to Pennsylvania. This folk park was all about those people and later emigrants. It started with cottages brought in from various areas in Northern Ireland.

The middle of the walking tour was like a seaport area where you walked thru a ship and out the other side in America. One of the shops on the Irish side of the seaport was a general store - we thought it was cool that the tea, sugar, flour, etc. was packaged in different colors so that the shoppers (mostly illiterate) could tell what they were buying.

Then the last part of the walk had cabins and houses of Scot-Irish settlers brought over from Penn, Virginia and Tennessee and reconstructed there. It was all very well-done and very interesting - spent about 6 hours there altogether!.

June 19 - On Our Own!

Well, it wasn’t always pretty but we managed to rent a car, drive 100 miles on the wrong side of the road to Omagh in Northern Ireland, and find our B & B. It’s a great old country house in the middle of woods and fields and we enjoyed doing a little exploring before retiring to our comfortable room to relax and get ready for tomorrow.

Arch of Irish Yew Trees we discovered on our walk.

Clanabogan Country House B & B

 

June 18 - Last Day of Coach Tour

On our way back to London we made one final stop at Blenheim Palace - another huge, over-the-top place that I can’t imagine living in! This one was owned by the Churchill family - Winston Churchill didn’t live there (his father was a younger son and didn’t inherit it) but he was born there because his mother went into premature labor while visiting. We did learn the difference between a castle and a palace - a castle was fortified and built for protection, while palaces are built to show off wealth and position. These people apparently had lots to show off!

This was just the center section - there were huge wings on each side too!

Beautiful gardens

Then it was time to say goodbye to our friends on the coach tour and get ready to fly to Dublin tomorrow. We stayed overnight in the same hotel in London, but this time we had a great view from our window.

June 16 - On to England

Last stop in Scotland was Floors Castle, the largest inhabited castle in Scotland. The current duke is a young man with a bunch of cute kids - hard to imagine them running around in that elegant place!

Hadrian’s Wall was built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago when they occupied England - it was supposed to keep out the wild Picts up in the Scottish Highlands. There are some places where you can still see what’s left of the wall and we stopped at one of them.

On to York, England then - a great old city that still has quite a bit of its city walls, and several narrow old streets lined with 14 and 15^th century shops and homes. Fun to wander around there.