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From Glencoe to Aboyne I: reversing the riddle
YE loyal Macdonalds, awaken! awaken!Why sleep ye so soundly in face of the foe?The clouds pass away, and the morning is breaking;But when will awaken the Sons of Glencoe? Mary Maxwell Campbell | Lament for Glencoe So, after around 30 journal entries exploring the origins of the Cromars in Aberdeenshire, and with all of that…
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Migrations II: first forays out from Aboyne
A guilty pleasure I’ve made no secret of one of my deeply guilty pleasures: watching Outlander. You’ll find this show somewhere in a demonic Venn diagram intersecting Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, World on Fire, and H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, with some generic beach-read romance novel love scenes bordering on female-gaze porn thrown…
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Peter Cromar 1690: parallel universes
I’ve completed the chronicle of our study abroad trip to Scotland, a journey that gave me the opportunity to see the Kirkton of Aboyne burial ground and close the circle for my family by burying a lock of my father’s hair at the head of slab stone for our progenitor, Peter Cromar. A lock of…
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Scotland: Day 9 and 10: Edinburgh: Beannachd leat Alba
Wednesday 23 Nov: A little brush with history in the making Breakfast on this, our final full day in Scotland, is the standard buffet fare at the Holiday Inn City Centre, but today will be anything but a standard day. At our final group meeting, I turn the cats loose for a full day on…
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Scotland: Day 8: Stirlingshire and the Trossachs
Tuesday 22 Nov: A Hairy Coo Highland adventure Early rising today, as we get an 8 AM start with Hairy Coo Tours on this program’s second journey to the Scottish countryside. No group meeting today, just breakfast and out the door to meet our bus at Waterloo Place, just to the east of Waverley Station…
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Scotland: Day 7: Edinburgh: A Royal Mile Immersion
Monday 21 Nov: We explore three major cultural sites For the next three days, the epicenter of our activity shifts from Dundee to Edinburgh, the ancient capital of Scotland, and potentially Europe’s newest seat of sovereignty — if the IndyRef 2 folks get their way, that is. The capital seems abuzz with that possibility, as…
