Scottish Castle

(image copyright 2008 by Dan Routh)

If there is one place I would like to be right now it would be Scotland. My family is of Scottish descent (circa 1750) as is my wife's. It is said that there are more people of Scottish descent in North Carolina now than there are in Scotland itself. During the "Clearances" of the 18th and early 19th century, thousands of Scots left Scotland and many settled here in North Carolina. Names such as Chisholm, McMasterss, McCallum and Wallace are prominent in our genealogy. We attend highland games. In fact North Carolina has the world's largest such games at Grandfather Mountain each summer. My older son is a piper and my younger son plays the flourishing tenor drum. When my older son was married recently, the males wore kilt.

One of my favorite spots in Scotland is Eilean Donan Castle near the Kyle of Lochalsh on the western coast near the Isle of Skye (where my family originated). It's a misty place that shouts "Highlands" and is near the Kyle Bridge that leads over to Skye. The day we were there, it was a normal Scottish day, slightly cool and rainy or as they say, "fresh". The BBC produced a television show back in the 1990's called "Hamish Macbeth" which was filmed near there.

Postscript: I got an email from Peter Hunter from Fife just north of Edinburgh. He had some very kind things to say about my blog. If Scotland interests you, check out his website at http://www.scotlandinoils.com