We had a luncheon arranged with Alice and Steve, their daughter Pam and her husband Bob (Robert) and Alice’s two brothers Bob (and wife Paddy) and Jim (the eldest). I think that makes them 2nd cousins once removed to Di, and Pam is her third cousin, I guess that makes Hilary Pam’s 4th cousin is that right? Diana’s great grandfather (Colonel Robert Law) and Alice’s great grandmother (whose name was Alice McKenzie Law) were brother and sister.
In the morning the weather was intermittently freezing cold showers and then fine spells, then freezing showers…. On and on. We intended going for a walk up the hill behind the Glengoyne Distillery (where the water is sourced for the whisky) but we didn’t trust the weather so instead went in the opposite direction to Aberfoyle where there were/are a number of walks in the forst and up the “Fairy Knoll” and a little more sheltered than the exposed tops of the Glengoyne Hill. Unfortunately we aren’t made of as stern stuff as the Scots so when the weather closed in just as we were about to embark on our morning walk we opted instead for a browse through the information centre followed by morning tea (coffee cake/Victoria Sponge/chocolate cake shared three ways).
We headed back to Endrick House in time for a banquet prepared by all, except us. We had a wonderful afternoon chatting, laughing, eating and being entertained by all, really congenial and convivial lot, very welcoming and warm of/to kin (and I imagine non-kin as well), it was just like being amongst New Zealand family, that closeness even though we hadn’t met before.
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| Steve and daughter Pam |
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| Alice's brother, Bob |
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| Alice's brother, Jim |
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| Steve and Paddy (Bob's wife) |
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| Steve and Alice |
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| Pam and her husband, Bob (Robert) |
Saturday evening we spent with Steve and Alice, they had given Hilary a book on British Wildlife which had a big section on birds. Hilary is devouring the information, reading about the birds, their appearance, habitats and all, and can identify many. Saturday afternoon/evening we put out a whole lot more birdseed into the feeders (wild-bird seed we had bought in Keswick in the Lake District), the Scottish birds enjoyed it too. Many finches, great tits (what a name!!) sparrows (house, tree and hedge (aka dunnocks). Hilary compiled a tally of what she was observing, she had the feeders labelled, 1, 2, 3 and the peanut feeder separate along with the bird table (five observation points in all), she spent hours documenting exactly when she commenced and ended her observations, and the number of different birds (and types) at each station. I keep meaning to get her to enter the info onto Excel (which she tells me she knows how to do) and then help her make some charts and graphs to post on her blog. She has learnt about tally graphs at school so I must continue with that with her, about something which has interest and meaning for her.
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| The five of us, Sunday morning |
We drove to Helensburgh (we had to go didn’t we) where Alice had arranged for us to meet John Stirling (who is more distantly related to Diana) and his wife Isabelle, for Sunday lunch at their house. Diana’s great great Aunt was John’s great aunt by marriage (and Alice’s grandmother)… whew no wonder they talk about seven degrees of separation when you start following down the lines like that.
We found a place on the side of the road, well slightly up a forestry road where we settled in for the night and enjoyed a largely sunny evening.
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| Helensburgh "Marine Parade" |
We had been going to go to some gardens south of Helensburgh but we lost a bit of time with a wrong turning, and the weather was not conducive to lovely walks in the garden!!!
Instead we had another lovely meal with family before we went with Isabelle to visit Hill House which is a National Trust Property in Helensburgh. Isabelle is a volunteer who works at Hill House telling people about the property, and also ensuring people behave, by not taking photos or touching things. Hill House is stunning. It was designed by Charles Rennie McIntosh for the Blackie family, and also he had control over the design and decoration of some of the interiors. McIntosh was an architect and designer in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, this house constructed in 1903 or thereabouts. McIntosh’s style was Art Deco with very clear lines and symmetry, and lighter colours. His designs for furniture and fittings were equally as stylish as was the garden, all following the clean symmetrical lines and patterns. Somehow I do happen to have a few photos to illustrate what I am talking about, but of course they were snaps rather than perfectly judged and lined up studies. (I wonder why!!), I promise I’ll try not to let anyone publish any photos and break any copywrites, and we did buy postcards as well. I didn’t use a flash, and I certainly didn’t touch anything. I can’t help myself, it was all so gorgeous.
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| Reading her bird book while we walk in Charles Rennie McIntosh's garden |
From Helensburgh we drove on up past Loch Lomond on the Western side, windscreen wipers swishing, wind buffeting… through to Inveraray, a pretty little Loch side town which was pretty sleepy on Sunday night even though it was another Bank Holiday weekend.
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| Scenes of Inveraray |
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| Our van is the white spot in the middle background |
It rained on and off during the night but when we awoke at 0530 it was sunny with barely a cloud in the sky. We were excited, almost euphoric in fact at the prospect of a sunny day, precipitation free. We were premature with our glee and plans, by 0630 it was raining heavily and the sky was dark!!
This behaviour (the changing of sky and rain presence continued for the day, but we made the most of our time. First thing we drove back into the town (we had gone south last night to find a suitable place to park) and visited the Inveraray Jail. It was similar to the Perth (Australia) jail experience though this was much smaller. They had displays about the horrendous punishments meted out to people in the 1700s and thereabouts, sometimes for relatively trivial deeds, sometimes not. I mean hanging is just part of it, but sometimes they would cut off hands first, burn letters into faces with branding irons, having metal masks with tongue screws in screwed to your face and tongue for supposedly saying mean things about the big men of the town (and that was a young woman), lashings with birch branches, having your ear nailed to a post (with you still attached)………
Apparently this jail wasn’t so bad (and the views across the Loch were pretty good). There is an old bit and a new bit, though cramped at times the conditions weren’t so bad (not that I would have liked it) but it got central heating long before the majority of local people, the inmates got three meals a day and a roof over their heads. They had baths (compulsory, every two weeks) and a doctor was in attendance with weekly examinations for inmates. If you were transported to Australia you didn’t fare so well, the holding prison in England was not of the same standard, it was riddled with disease and often those incarcerated there while waiting for the ships to come back (often up to 8 months)didn’t survive. Those that did survive long enough to get on the ship, often didn’t get off alive having contracted disease on the voyage or just succumbed in transit.
The prison experience had a mixture of actors playing the parts (inmates or guards) to tell you their stories or really good models with audios to go with the visuals. It was really well done, and after the initial feeling of distaste and squirming at reading some of the earlier punishments it became an interesting, informative and enjoyable experience.
From here we stopped at the open air museum at Ach???? Can’t remember, which had displays about the crofters and their lives. We didn’t end up going in to the display, partly slight disinterest from me and Hilary, partly cost for something we weren’t totally enthusiastic about, and partly it was bloody cold and wet and it involved walking outside a lot, so instead we had lunch in the van in the car park, watched the rain fall, had a quick visit to some highland cows and then headed south along the banks of Loch Fyne.
I was keen to visit a National Trust Garden (Crarae Garden) which is renowned for its rhododendrons and other Himalayan plants/trees. The others weren’t so keen but that is one of the advantages of being the driver!!!!! I said if they preferred to stay in the van and read while I risked the rain that was Ok by me, but once they saw the weather had cleared they decided to go with me. I think they are pleased, the gardens/woodlands were really beautiful with plenty to occupy and distract, fallen rhododendron flowers were collected as were coloured leaves, trees were admired, rivers and waterfalls gushed over, a children’s quiz was mostly completed and cane pandas, deer, otters searched for amongst the trees and shrubs. And….. it stayed sunny for nearly the whole adventure, and we didn’t need our umbrella at all!!!!
We were doing really well with our time today so we drove on south to Lochgilphead around the coast before turning at right angles to head north again up towards Oban and the Highlands.
We stopped briefly at Kilmartin, which I'll talk about in my next post, and stopped for the night at a little spot near a forestry road just north.
We stopped briefly at Kilmartin, which I'll talk about in my next post, and stopped for the night at a little spot near a forestry road just north.
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