Macca's Meanderings

- December 21, 2017

No 9 - EDINBURGH, TOMATIN, RIVER FINDHORN and MACQUEENS

On the way from Inverness to Edinburgh we visited the Stirling Castle. Some people say this is better than the more famous Edinburgh Castle.

Laura and a knight - both with their head gear.

The Great Hall of Stirling Castle. This venue can now be hire for weddings etc. This ceiling structure was designed by a ship builder and resembles the inverted hull of a Tall Ship.

A couple of Australian tourist - anyone would think it was cold! A decent fire place but fuelled by oil/gas these days.

Some of the defensive positions with their commanding views over the surround area.

Some Edinburgh lights - the train station in the centre with the older part of the city and the Edinburgh Castle in the distant left.

Around Edinburgh many of the old streets still have a cobble stone surface. We stayed down the bottom of the Royal Mile then turn left through this old arch and down an old cobble stone lane.

Laura left us on Friday to fly back to Australia. We have so enjoyed spending the last two weeks with our gorgeous daughter. We have managed to pack quite a bit into this time. Laura is already making plans for a return trip to this part of the world.

For us it was back to the Scottish Highlands. Bryan's great grandmother was Catherine McQueen who's parents came from an area 20 kms south of Inverness. The family had a letter that showed that they attended the Dalarosie Church on the River Findhorn. Below is the rail bridge built in 1897 over the River Findhorn. The Dalarossie Church is a short drive upstream beyond the bridge.

The A9 is the main highway from Inverness to all places south. This is the A9 road bridge over the River Findhorn with a good covering of snow on the hills.

The Dalarossie Church - a peaceful setting by the babbling Findhorn River.

Looking down Strathdearn towards the Dalrossie Church. A Strath is a wide valley with a river running down it. The church can be seen in the middle right hand side of the photo near some trees.

Highway in the snow! As we drove around we noticed sheep using their feet to scrape away the snow so they could eat the grass. They seem to stick to the same walking trail even in the snow, and not straight forward.

Old census records show that the MacQueens lived in a place called Woodend. Below are some photos of the Woodend area.

Now days the Woodend buildings are occupied by tenants of a McPherson Laird (landlord).

Some of these old buildings would have existed in the 1850s and may have been occupied by the MacQueens.

Wester - well really a wee bit west and more north of the downstream end of Woodend.

Some more old buildings that may have been inhabited by the relatives. Their crofts (small farms) looked down towards the River Findhorn with high ground behind them.

In the Scottish Highland sheep are everywhere, Shawn's cousin was very kind and stopped for a photo.

Our Tomatin accommodation - the one in the centre of the photo. We looked out onto the Findhorn River Rail Bridge.

If you are into whiskey you may recognise the name Tomatin. There is local whiskey distillery called Tomatin. Tomatin means - Hill of the Juniper. The Juniper is the name of a tree in Scotland. A wee bit of history - way back when there were lots of illegal distilleries in Scotland the English tax inspectors would try to find these distilleries. If they saw smoke this could mean an illegal distillery. The wood from the Juniper tree burns with no smoke, so........ guess what wood the illegal distillers used? Hence the name - Tomatin for both the town and the whiskey. We did a Tomatin Distillery tour. The guide was a young lady from South Uist on the Outer Hebrides.