Today we leave Scotland -- Sunday June 30, 2013

The Scotland Highlands were a real treat.  If the weather had been a little warmer and sunnier, they would have been spectacular, but it's hard to not feel the grandeur of the area regardless of the weather!

We are off to the Lake District in North West England.  This area was highlighted on Chronicle one night and peaked our interest.  We know, however, that it can be a very touristy area and I had made no reservations yet.  At breakfast, the two hikers talked about the  area with us, and suggested Grasmere as one of the villages in that area that are beautiful but with less traffic then the others.

I got down to checking out hotels or bed and breakfasts in Grasmere on Booking.com and settled on the Dale Lodge Hotel.  Turns out to be a good decision.  As you are approaching  the beautifully refurbished Georgian building, you get to see a sample of their mature gardens with secluded seating areas all around. There's a large lounge area for guests with lots of comfy leather couches.

Our room

Given my criteria of WiFi, free parking, full English breakfast and cheap, this worked out well.  The room was quite tiny (the pictures on the web site show some of the more lavish rooms) but very clean and comfortable.



We were ready for lunch by the time we arrived so we went to their Pub, Tweedies.  Turns out their food is almost gourmet-like.

This is a beautiful area of England!  The ride here was through miles and miles of beautiful rolling countryside and  sheep grazing all around.  The town itself is really quaint.  And what's interesting is how many people are walking around with their dogs.  All dogs on lead are welcomed in these pubs and they all seem to get along well.

Looking forward to a couple days in this area.

Last full day at Eagle View -- Saturday June 29, 2013

This morning at breakfast there were four couples.  Along with us, there was a couple was from Spain, two men from England who have been hiking lots of miles around here, and a new retired couple from Florida.  They're very chatty so breakfast conversation flowed nicely.  In the conversation, they threw out words like 'ancestors' so I knew I had a kindred spirit!  She's very excited with her new found hobby so we'll be in touch when we both return home.

The weather looks like it has a few breaks in the clouds today.  The temperature starts out in the 50's which is good for Ed so off he goes for a hike.  I am in the guest lounge writing the blog and doing genealogy.

I'm the only guest left in the house today.  A few hours in, it appears the owners are having some personal family issues.  Their teenage daughter apparently has some challenges and
is yelling and crying about John (her step dad) not being her father.  Moira (her mom) is very calm but everyone else is yelling and cursing.  F***k doesn't sound quite so bad to me with a heavy Scottish brogue.

I stayed very quiet just hoping they wouldn't realize that I was in the house. I'm afraid they would be a little embarrassed.

It calmed down after awhile so all is well.  Ed arrived back in one piece.  He met another hiking buddy and had some good stories to tell.

After showering, we headed out to the Pub at the Glen Hotel. The bartender is really nice and told us all about how he and his wife came to own the pub.  He's the perfect personality to create a comfortable local place to meet, eat and drink!

A good day!

Touring the Isle of Skye, Scotland -- Friday June 28, 2013

Ed's walk yesterday was a good one.  It should have been 6 miles but was longer because the trail was not well marked, so he's pretty tired.

The weather forecast continues to not look good for the next few days.  We decide if we're going to see anything around, we had better do it anyway--the Scots are all complaining that they haven't seen their spring yet.

Coastline of Isle of Skye

We decide to head to the Isle of Skye.  The Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly large island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillins, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country.  It's about a 3 hour ride to get there each way and then a few hours of tooling around the islands so it will be a long day of driving.

Hairy cow

Here's one of the cows we saw on the roadway: 






We stopped in one of the little tourist towns, Portree, for lunch.  Portree is the largest town on Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is the location for the only secondary school on the Island, Portree High school.  It's name comes from the Gaelic Port-an-Righ, which translates as "King's Port" and dates to a visit by King James V, plus a fleet of warships, in 1540, to persuade the island clans to support him. It had earlier been known as Kiltraglen.

We found lunch at a bustling Café.   They had GREAT onion rings. 

The Scottish Highlands -- Thursday June 27, 2013

The weather continues to look forbidding this morning in Newtonmore in the Scottish Highlands.  Ed decides if he is going to get out there to hike, he better do it soon.

He heads out to do a 6 mile hike while I settle into my couch to do genealogy all day on the computer.  I'm really glad for the break of going, going, going. 

This vacationing stuff is hard work!

Walking the graves of Ancestors -- Wednesday June 26, 2013

 Since we are spending less time in the Edinburgh area then I had originally planned, our goal today is to head to the Scottish Highlands a little early.  Our reservation in Newtonmore wasn't until tomorrow, but they have room, so we can get in early.

First, however, we have to take a detour to the west coast.  My research into the Osborne's had indicated that they lived in Kilmarnock and at least one 3rd great grandmother was buried in Irvine.

During the winter I had been communicating with other genealogists on line and telling them about the upcoming trip.  One of them who grew up in the area of Scotland actually made both Kilmarnock and Irvine sound grimy and not a nice place.  We didn't find that at all!  Kilmarnock was actually a bustling town.  It almost reminded us of a Framingham area.  I had an address in Kilmarnock where the Osborne's actually lived in 1861--20 Princes Street.   However, that street is not there any more.  It's a public parking lot now!  But the rest of the town was pretty nice.

Irvine Old Parish

We moved on to find the Irvine Old Parish in the town of Irvine about 10 miles away.  Not sure how or why she would have been buried here, but that's a mystery to be solved another day.

There was no one around mid week to help with identifying if Isabella McEwen Osborne's grave is actually here.  I think I will do that research by e-mail.  But the cemetery was filled with really, really old head stones.  Many from 300 years ago, and lots from the 1800's so it's possible.

It was sad, though, that so many beautiful headstones were tipped over and in disrepair.

Once we left the cemetery, we headed to our next area of Scotland....the Scottish Highlands.  I had booked a bed & breakfast in Newtonmore.  It took us an additional four hours to reach there, but the ride was beautiful. 

Our room at Eagle View

The name of the B & B was Eagle View Guest House.  Not sure I saw any views of eagles (very foggy and overcast) but the place itself was beautiful!  Nice room with lots of personal touches throughout.  It also had a very comfy guest lounge to sit in, which we like.


We have this room for four 4 nights--and there are lots of hiking opportunities for Ed.

We had dinner at a local chef owned restaurant called The Letterbox.  Another diamond in the ruff kind of place.  It was a fairly pricey restaurant so we went in for the 'Early Bird' time (we are old folk after all!).  We were the only ones there the whole night!  Couldn't believe it!  Dinner was delicious!  The waitress said they have been really busy lately so they were glad for the lull!  It's a completely non-discript storefront, so let that be a reminder to you not to 'judge a book by its cover'!



Ruins of Castle Roy

After dinner we road around the area and came across the ruins of Castle Roy. Castle Roy is one of the simplest, and possibly the oldest, thirteenth-century fortresses in Scotland. It is said to have been a stronghold of the Comyns, but nothing authentic is known of its history.

It is situated on the edge of Nethy Bridge next to the Old Kirk, it stands elevated above the general valley of the Spey.  It consists of the usual high enclosing wall, which crowns a rocky site, raised some 10 to 15 feet above the level of the surrounding fields.


  The nature of the site has probably rendered a ditch unnecessary, as there is no appearance of there ever having been one. The walls are 7 feet thick, built with strong rubble-work, and are still from 20 to 25 feet high.    So it's beautiful scenery, great hiking trails and comfortable surroundings.  Looks like a great place to settle in the Scottish Highlands!.

Last day in Edinburgh area -- Tuesday June 25, 2013

Today is my genealogy research day in Edinburgh. For years I have been researching the Osborne side of Ed's family--his mothers paternal line.  For many of those years I was having no luck.  I was told the Osborne's were from England.  Well, they were.  But before that, they were from Scotland!

About 7 years ago, since I wasn't getting anywhere, I decided I would expand my search. I had found the marriage certificate of James Godolphin Osborne to Emma Elizabeth Cousens in England.  On that document the father of James was listed as William.  With that information I used the ScotlandsPeople web site.  I was looking for death and will information for a William Osborne after the date of that marriage.  This site is a per use site.  You can do a search but to get the copies of the information related to that search, you have to pay. 

I actually hit pay dirt.  While I had to 'kiss a few frogs' before I found the right William Osborne, I finally did.  I found a copy of William Osborne's Will.  In that will he mentions Emma Elizabeth Cousens as being married to his son James Godolphin!  So I was SURE this was our William.  This William was a teacher in Kilmarnock, Scotland and proprietor.  He either owned property or managed property for someone.  The will was 6 pages long, all hand written.  Wonderful gift!

During this past winter, I hired a researcher in Scotland to confirm that I had the right info and to find some additional information that I might use on our trip.  She found additional wives and children and there were still some church records that she unearthed but had not copied for me so I was headed to The General Register House.



General Register House

The building is a spectacularly beautiful old building! General Register House was the first purpose built public records repository in the British Isles and is one of the oldest custom built archive buildings still in continuous use in the world.


They actually had four rooms for researchers.  Disappointing, though, all you had was a computer to do research.  There were no actually dusty ledgers to look thru.  It was like researching from home!



I did spend the day there, but did not really learn anything new.  I saw copies of the church ledgers of some of the baptisms of his siblings but learned no new info.



Edinburgh Castle

When the building closed at 4:30 pm, I met back up with Ed.  He had spent the day using the bus pass again, only this time going into the Edinburgh Castle which we had not done yesterday.  It certainly is an impressive building!

Aberlady, Scotland -- Monday June 24, 2013

After a good nights sleep and delicious breakfast this morning--with WONDERFUL freshly made croissants!--we decided to take the train to Edinburgh.

The train was super easy to get to and really nice.  Seemed really new and was extremely quiet. Nice way to travel.

Open air Sightseeing Bus

We decide the first order of business was to get on a sight seeing tour of the city.  We signed up for the Hop on-Hop off bus tour.  With the pass we got, we can get on any of the 5 different tours available....each has a slightly different focus.  Ed got a one day pass and I got a 2 day pass--in case he wants to hike tomorrow.




Each bus has a guide pointing out features as we pass by them. 

Scottish Tour Guide

Once we got use to the Scottish accent of our very knowledgeable guide, we learned a lot!

As it turns out, we really like this city.  It's almost quaint.  The architecture is really beautiful and flowers are blooming all over.



I'm writing this Blog a week after we made this trip.  It's amazing how much you can forget about what you see if you don't write it down!  I remember that we had lunch that day in an interesting pub who's name I can't remember!  There were small, round tables in the middle of the room with a second tier on top of them that looked really strange.  Then two men (obviously locals) came in for a pint and brought their beer over to one of these tables.  The top tier was to lean you arm on while you're drinkin'!  Who knew?

After hoping off the tour bus a few times to look at specific areas of the town, we tried to get back to a place where we saw really decadent desserts in the window.  We walked and walked but couldn't find it!  Very disappointing!  So we took the train back to our hotel in Aberlady and had dessert and coffee at our hotel.  Not nearly as fattening, but a nice ending to the day.