Scotland Day 5: Autumnal equinox in the old country - searching for ancestors and high places.

 I have been doing some minor genealogy for a few years and when my friend said she was getting married in Scotland, I started digging more. My grandfather's middle name is Cluny, named after Cluny Castle in Scotland. My cousin has done a lot of research, so I hit him up for more info and he pointed me to the village of Echt, where my great great grandmother was born in 1798.

We checked out the church where she was christened and the graveyard behind the church. We asked the person in the post office, but she didn't know any of the surnames I gave her.

So, kind of cool to be in the village, but a bit of a strikeout. 

Next stop was Cluny Castle, my grandfather's namesake.

The gates of Cluny Castle

The Cluny estate is privately owned by the Gordon family. There is a rock wall stretching for miles around it, all in good repair. The gates is in good shape too. We couldn't see the actual castle, but a Google maps search shows that it is grand. 

I don't know why grandfather is named after this place. Did the family work on the estate? There were major renovations going on around the time they were living there, so it could be. My grandfather was born in the new country, so did my great grandparents name their child after the place they called Home to remember it by? I wish I knew.

 Our next stop was where I really hoped to find traces of my ancestors: Cluny parish church. 

This is the church where my great grandmother was christened in 1839 and where she married my great grandfather in 1868 before they emigrated to Canada.

 

The doors were locked but we peeked in the windows. Cool to see where those events happened. Sunday service is still held in the church. That's a lotta prayin' inside those walls.

The cemetery on the church grounds was where I hoped to find my great great grandmother and gg grandfather's graves. They both died in Cluny so I thought maybe they would be in this cemetery. GG grandmother died just a year or so after my great grandmother was born, but gg grandfather lived another 28 years here. We checked every headstone but none that we could read carried the surname of my great grandmother. I did find some with the surname of her mother though, and a couple of other surnames that match cousins of great grandmother. Still, the cemetery was super super cool. 

There were lots of graves from the 1800s. Most we could make out but some were beyond legible. 

Drew likes to call me "Digger" for me affinity to old graveyards. I really earned my nickname this time. 

The yellowish moss made me think there was a grave under the vegetation so I scratched the surface.

I easily peeled back the mat of moss to reveal a very legible grave marker. Not the names I was looking for but I hope the people buried here feel better with a little fresh air. 

The little pilgrimage to these family heritage sites made me feel complete in some way. I've long wanted to visit where my ancestors called home, before the Irish and Scottish upheavals in the mid 1800s lead so many to emigrate to America. Our trip to Ireland in 2018 was cool, but Irish heritage is difficult to trace because the records have been destroyed. Scottish genealogy is a little easier. I know for a fact my great grandmother and grandfather were here, living their lives. Getting married, having kids, and eventually deciding to leave everything they knew - home - to eventually homestead in North Dakota a few dozen miles from where I was born and raised. It is hard to imagine what they would have been feeling as they made that journey. 

Drew was so patient while I dug gravestones. We missed the lunch hour, so had to settle for cakes and coffee as sustenance. 

With biking, culture, and genealogy checked off the list, it was time for what Drew wanted to do: HIKE. 

Walkhighlands.com is an amazing website that gives info and GPS tracks for loads and loads of hikes in the Highlands. We found a short but steep hike nearby to a top of a big hill which included an ancient hill fort site, which seemed like a bonus. 

Mither Tap (Mother Top)

The view of the Scottish countryside was glorious. 

The wooded part of the trail could be very spooky if it was dark.

We were headed to the top!

The hike was gorgeous and steep. No switchbacks here, just strait up! But with stone steps to walk on. 

Walls of the hillfort.

The hillfort is on top one of the highest peaks around, and shaped like a woman's breast (Mither Tap = Mother Top), so it is no wonder Pictish people built a fort here as early as 500 AD.

View from the top of Mither Tap with the remnants of the hill fort wall on the fore slope.

Today being autumnal equinox, we couldn't help but think that ancient people had chosen this site because of some celestial alignment.  

The hike included some really cool and large mushrooms!

As the sun set on Mither Tap, we loaded into the car for a 2 hour drive to our next lodging at a B&B in someone's home in the town of Newtonmore, south of Aviemore, the de facto headquarters for Cairngorms National Park. Hats off to Drew for driving tiny curvy roads as it was getting dark. 

We got to the B&B just after 8 pm, which, we learned, is well after any restaurants serve dinner, especially without a reservation. The only thing open was the truck stop.  

Not the fanciest dinner, but the staff was friendly and the food not half bad. Mushy peas are surprisingly tasty. 

It had been a long but very good day.