Scotland and England

I suppose you can safely say that we are not the best bloggers.  We stayed in Ireland a week then onto Scotland.  We stayed in a small village just east of Ayr (pronounced Air) called Coylton.  Part of what has been so great about this holiday is that we have had the opportunity to meet and make new friends as we have traveled.

We stayed in Scotland for a week.  We traveled north to Loch Lomond to find the Buchanan Castle.  This area of Scotland was once home of the Buchanan Clan and some of our ancestors.  It is located on the Buchanan Golf Course near Dryman in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.  One of the great things about the UK is that you don't have to pay entrance fees to their National Parks.  The castle, even in a ruined state was beautiful.  At some point in the castles history they were heavily taxed and so they removed the turrets and other parts of the roof to save money.  Once the turrets were removed the castle started to deteriorate.  There were several homes built around the castle and it sits quietly in a residential neighborhood on the golf course.  The crest still hangs on the front.

We spent a couple days in Edinburgh.  It's an amazing city and pictures don't do it justice.  You just have to come see it.  We took the train into to Waverly Station.  Thank heavens because originally we tried to drive to city centre.  I was still trying to learn the rules of the road and follow Chuck at the same time.  The lights go from red to yellow then green.  Green goes straight to red and yellow means get ready to go.  There are lights for each lane and instead of yield it's give way.  I was only yelled at twice in Scotland for my driving skills.

We spent time in the National Gallery and got to see our first Monet, Van Gogh and others.  Like most of the city centre's we have toured there are groups of musicians performing and in Edinburgh they had bagpipers on every corner.  We shopped, bought bagpipes and kilts and Scottish shortbread.  The architecture is incredible.  We loved visiting with the locals.  "Here is your wee receipt, sign on the wee line, follow the wee road."  We drove past the Wee Barber Shop and saw a picture of a mother and daughter pulling a plow in the early 1900's.  When we saw the picture of Mr. Veitch's father plowing we realized when he referred to mother and daughter he meant horses, not his mother and sister.

Part of the reason why we stayed in Coylton was because it was centered in Ayrshire where the Mitchell family came from.  We walked through Dalmellington's cemetery and visited with residents who directed us to an older cemetery in Dalmellington.  We found Mitchell's there, in St. Quivox (pronounced saint key-vix) and Beith (pronounced beeth).  All were areas where my side of the family were either born or died.  Even though we didn't find those we were specifically looking for it was a humbling experience to be there.  Dad said, "I wonder if William ever thought that his posterity would come back to Scotland to look for him?"  I am convinced they are there.  The older cemetery in Dalmellington had been vandalized and in the corner was a pile of broken headstones.  I didn't know if I would get in trouble by going through the pile and they were not small headstones.  I did find a history center in Kilmarnock that contains records of the area back into the early 1500's.  When we come back I will spend a few days their.  We also found names that could possibly be family on the Brandt side.  We just need to do our homework and come back.  The two oldest buildings in Dalmellington were the church and the pub pictured below.  Both were around when my grandparents lived there.