Trip to Scotland 1983: Four and half months in the Highlands and Islands

[Kiltedjohn]

How prices have risen since your visit!! We are being told that the average price for fish and chips in my area
(Central England) is now £9.

[DCampbell16B]

Thanks. I was wondering what they go for now. I remember getting the fish and chips from a van there on the pier. Probably right off the boat. It was the most wonderful tasting fish I think I have ever had. Of course, I wasn't eating much to spare the pennies, so I was probably hungry...

[DCampbell16B]

Water in Loch incredibly clear. Inverary Castle pokes head over trees. Sun shining, air clear. Little haze in the distance. (Sign "Do not ask for credit as a punch in the mouth often offends" not in Inverary). Service at Inverary Church of Scotland. Pastor with neck thing, robe ect. At least 4 kilts. Warden's wife grew up on farm just outside of Inverary. She spoke no English until she went to school. Says she now understands but can't speak [in retrospect she was probably in her late 40's]. Try to get her to speak next two days. Also says a Miss Lamont is still a fluent Argyll Gaelic speaker.
[I wore daywear all day. I asked Mrs Ramsey, the Wardens wife, about wearing a kilt, if it would be OK, Campbell tartan and all. She said if I couldn't wear it here where could I? I climbed up Duniquaich. Not the trail. Straight up the side. In Oxfords.]


Glen Aray and Ben Cruachan from Dun aChuaich


Inverary from Dun aChuaich


This is what I wore 40 years ago. Same kilt, jacket, sporran, hose and flashes. Shoes might even be the same. Quality lasts. I did have a tie. The jacket and hose are more green than the photo shows. (New shirt though. I'd had some health issues, or I never would have fit in that kilt. IIRC, it was a gift from my grandfather when I graduated from high school, or there abouts.)

Could not ask for a nicer day. Finest since I've been in Scotland. MacLeod Great Bernera ###.from Thurs or Fri.
[Met the son of the older couple I would be staying with in Ness, Lewis. I sure he was vetting me. He was a little older than me, perhaps late thirty's? It had been set up by his cousin in the States. We sat on a bench and talked quite a while. He loved salmon fishing. Through his business he would get invited to fish with other business owners who were quite well off, on these highly expensive beats. He said some were £5000 for a week. The businessmen would spend the week drinking and he had these beats to himself. He and his sister grew up in Ness and spoke only Gaelic til they went to school. They had moved to a Glasgow tenement by that time and were horribly picked on for having no English.] Discussed various things with MacLeod. Also Wardens wife only had Gaelic [redundant]. She knows Ronnie MacCallum who is still Argyll's piper! This morning after church I heard Mrs MacCallum [aka Mrs. Ronnie] was talking to Ramsey's (Wardens) and said "I don't know if the Duke and Duchess were in church, but the Duke's piper wasn't!" Also it is Ronnie's picture on the cover of "The Glory of Scotland". Argyll will have to fire Ronnie as he gets more visitors than the Duke does. His daughter runs the Argyll or Lorne Hotel west of Inverary. I didn't think he was still around, but it makes sense that he would live in Inverary. [I knew of Ronnie years before I went to Scotland].
John Campbell of Ballachulish knows A MacLeod, Gaelic? See Warden about Miss Lamont? Dunnadd, Skipness, Dunderave? Others? Must come back to Inverary. Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh, Aberfeldy (Grandtully) and Castle Douglas.


Glen Shira from Duniquaich

[Silmakhor]

Wow!

I've found the kilt I wore in high school and ... let's just say it is now a keepsake rather than a practical garment! ;)

[DCampbell16B]

£1.00 Auchendrain
£1.65 hostel
50p
72p [probably food and tea]

Picked up a ride to Auchendrain [outdoor museum]. Older couple from Aberdeen. She said her grandparents were from near here and spoke nothing but Gaelic. Try for Tarbert, Lochgilphead (Dunadd), and Ardrishaig. Lochgilp for Dunadd, Kilmory Castle, Ardrishaig.
Auchendrain: Argyll stone houses have gable ends. Building have black plastic under thatch. Nets over thatch and rocks with ropes hanging straight down.
(Inverness, Culloden, Candor Castle? Kingussie, Ft George - Queens Own Museum)[places I was thinking about going].

Cruck frame Perthshire/Argyll - down to ground
Wood and stone lintel
Old house Auchendrain c. 1700
Thatch ropes on sticks stuck in rocks. Wattle door
No windows north side. Inside wattle wall in middle
Inside about 10x25ft? 10x20ft?
Straight ropes and rocks over horizontal ropes tied to hooks on ends (wood or iron)
[All this makes more sense with pictures. Even more if you go there.]


Auchendrain old house

Auchendrain newer house


Tourists and Campbells, Stonework in many places around Dunadd rock. [I met several of the Campbells afterwards. They were on a tour prior to the gathering at Inverary]


View from Dunadd


The boar carved in the rock (very hard to see)


Ogam and footprint (why did no one think that the Coronation should be here?...)


Lift to Auchendrain, Auchendrain to Lochgilphead, Lochgilphead to Dunadd, Cairnbawn to Loch. Walked to Ardrishaig. Watched locks on Crinan Canal and Swing Bridge. Mountains in distance down Loch Fyne. Arran. Mrs Isa MacIntyre works advertiser's office Lochgilphead. Has Gaelic. Mr and Mrs Forsyth Hamilton. [He made kippers for the Queen. Quite a long talk with him and his wife. Saw the Loch Fyne kippers being smoked. She made me a cup of tea. I stopped as he was a cousin of Mrs Ramsey the hostel warden]

[While at Hamilton's] Met MacDonald family from Glasgow originally Barvas. Taught children Gaelic in Glasgow. Mrs H gave me a mug.

[stickman]

You are bringing back memories. I was raised in a stone house built in 1634. It even had a stone staircase, and the tread’s were worn down with wear. The kippers you mentioned had my mouth watering. No telling how many I had for breakfast. Sure would love some now. Keep the memories coming. I can hardly believe how prices have gone up. I can remember when you could buy a house for £300 same house now is close to £100,000. I can’t understand where all the money is coming from. Of course £300 in those days might as well have been £100,000. When I started work I earned £1-17s6d for a 48 hour work week. The good old days.

[DCampbell16B]

Inverary Games. (semi-impressed I made it) Wore 18th C clothes.*** Saw parade. Had picture take in Inverary by 100 or so at the games, including the Glasgow Daily Herald, with Argyll [and others], who asked me questions, and "interviewed" by Daily Herald. Met Bill Steadley-Campbell's [Bill was president of the Clan Campbell Society US] son John/Joe [??] who also makes targes. [He was about my age and we rather hit it off]. We're going to attack His Grace tomorrow for permission to examine the target in Inveraray Castle. Didn't see much of the games. Mostly sat around and talked with Campbell's, particularly Aussies. Saw Ronnie McCallum around, but didn't speak to him [way to shy]. Write Herald photographer to get print. [I never did, but found it in the paper a few days later. There were perhaps 15 or so of us with both the Duke and Duchess in the middle. It was a color two page spread, and included a bit of my "interview". A similar photo was in the Oban times in black and white.] Also American will send one. Their Graces were very approachable all day. Must be nerve racking getting constant photos and listening to gushing of Colonials.
Evening at Argyll Arms Hotel, heard piping (small music) but good. Talked to Duncan and Muriel Cameron of Aviemore (silk screeners) about life in general and piping. Ask His Grace? Bill Steadley? about reweaving tartan [ @figheadair this would have been the one worn by John the Bank Campbell's of Lochlane which you actually did do] and targes.

[This was a small local games. Very different from even our small local games here. I vaguely remember solo piping, but not bands, although there was one in the parade. It was rather more like a carnival. There were games similar to our carnival games. There were also athletic events, traditional and track and field. The Argylls had a recruiting both.]

***[I wore 18th C highland dress. In some respects I'm embarrassed and some I'm not. There were very few over here doing anything like that. Researching that period was difficult from a distance. We had "The Cut of Men's Clothes", access to well done research of clothing from the Revolutionary War period, and pictures of period paintings. I did look rather closer the the Highlanders in Morier's painting, rather more so than many reenactors I see pictures of now. It was the only time I wore it, and ended up hauling all that stuff around Scotland. In one respect it did pay off as it caught Argyll's attention. I remember meeting him and snatching off my bonnet, in which I had secreted my ticket stub. It immediately fell to the ground...]


Lady Louisa Campbell and some American girls control access to the jumping pits.

[DCampbell16B]

[I just found these photos today. I pulled a bunch of stuff out of the attic, including a bag filled with flyers and cards I brought back. Includes the newspapers mentioned above.]



Parade to Inverary Games
Argyll in front. His son, the present Duke, right behind.




Photo for the papers. The Duke and Duchess in center. Alastair Campbell of Airds (Younger of, at the time). Myself on the right. I remember some of these people but not their names.

[I just found that the photos were sent to me by the Oban Times, so I need to credit them]



Inverary games program. I can add more pages if there is interest.


Auchendrain pamphlet

[DCampbell16B]

Not in Daily Herald today.
Most of muskets in armory are 1st Model Brown Bess
Yesterday met Alistair Campbell, Yr of Airds, Strachur here today.
At the American meeting met Torquil, Marquess of Lorne, [present Duke] afterwards Ronnie McCallum as he put Duke's gold and silver banner on pipes. [I sat and talked with Ronnie for almost half an hour. What a nice man he was. One of his duties a piper was to play in the Great Hall each morning at 8:00.]



He plays the house pipes 1857 by Glen. Own chanter.

Torquil and friend Mark Mitchie (from Aberdeen) from Glen Almond school switched name tags yesterday. Duke's dog very friendly. Drives British Leyland Rover '83 with license SB1 (SB is Argyll). Uses sunroof to get the cromag in the car.
1st Model Bess's used by militia in '45 (some acquired in 1742 and some 1747).



Part of the American contingent. That's a young me, last row, no bonnet, behind and to the right of the duchess.

After Gathering went with Joel Steadley to Stronshira House and waited w/ Bill Steadley-Campbell's til 6:30 to meet His Grace and see targes.

3 very nice ones [targes] with engravings on bosses and piercings showing red wool (very fine) underneath. Small tacks in double row on one. 2 w/ 7 circle design and small brass plates. Examined backs. Also saw "draperies" in dining g room (£1000 apiece). Dining room used by family in winter. Armory has sofas, ect in winter. His Grace said as young officers they would get really drunk, climb on each other's backs, put on helmets and charge each other with halberds. He does have a rather puckish sense of humor. He showed us various parts of the house. Didn't recognize me without my '45 outfit, but when I told him who I was said "Oh yes. The chap with the spectacles". Knew I was from New York. Flattering anyway. Offered to send me a rubbing of dirk blade (Give me a drink of blood, for I am thirsty) if I will write when back in the states. One learns so much from one who lives in such a place. Argyll knows all the stories associated with each piece. All the muskets fire damaged. He said they were stripped, blasted and reconstructed. 95% now in working order. He was very kind, but very tired.

Can use thinner leather and cut it some. Also a sort of binding might be used.

Trip was informative but hurried. His Grace was in jeans. I was with Joel and Maryanne Steadley, Ralph Godwin, Barbara Campbell, Wini and Bill Steadley-Campbell. Argyll Estate tied by trust. Has one full time gardener, no servants. Argyll sells wine, whisky. Ex-Xerox rep for Europe. Also share in Argyll Arms Hotel.

At Argyll Arms Hotel in evening. Godwin [Army brat, in every sense of the word] told story of stampeding Buffalo w/ 65mm mortar and 45 cal blanks into a golf course and pool on an Oklahoma Army Base, [which ended up with the Army] removing them with crane. Sentenced to 5 yr suspended with weekend work at course. Then he blew up a garage and room. [The way he told the stories was hilarious. But I had to wonder what kind of person he was.]

Weather cloudy both days.

[There were meetings for the contingents from the States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Britain. Joel and I were standing on chairs to get the targes off the wall. We could see how the walls were actually a false wall to allow alarms to be attached from behind to the items on the walls. The draperies in the State Dining Room had been replaced after the fire, and were silk. Floor to ceiling. The Gathering was at least partly to celebrate the castle being open after the fire. As for the targes, there was no way to know their dates. Any could have been from the Tartan Revival in the early 1800's.]

[DCampbell16B]

Reprint about the kilt from the "Scotsman" magazine
Flyer from Blair Atholl
Scottish Youth Hostel Assoc. on travel
Duart Castle flyer
Youth Hostels in Scotland
Receipt from purchasing my daywear jacket