Beginnings

The beginning of Scottish Clans and Castles was in February 2001 when I booked two clients to stay at Castle Stuart - a place that, over the years, has probably given more pleasure to our clients than any other lodging. The authenticity is important (that's why people choose it) but what they write about when they leave is the food, the atmosphere and, above all, the warm welcome from the Stuart family

The land was given by Mary Queen of Scots to her half brother, the first Earl of Moray. But he was murdered, as was his son, so it was the third Earl of Moray who built the castle in 1625. He had plenty money to make a statement with his new property and Castle Stuart was the finest in the Highlands in its day. However the ravages of time, history, and a few ghosts conspired to prompt its demise and it was unroofed in 1835.

In the late 20th century it was restored by a family of Stuarts from Canada and it is they who are your hosts today.

A Happy New Year to anyone who reads this. I hope that I can amuse and interest you with my 2008 observations!

The New Culloden Visitor Centre

Camera pans the battlefield as curlews cry, and the lilting tones of Finlay MacDonald intone, "We are here. On Drumossie Moor. Now restored to look more or less as it did in 1746. Except for the gravestones of course. They came later."

Yes, I liked the old presentation of Culloden Battlefield - simple, effective, familiar. But today I visited the new, multi million pound, hi-tech version. And I liked it even more. The new centre works on a number of levels - attention-grabbing presentation, plenty detail for those who want it, and good Scottish wood and stone to house it all. But most of all, this new exhibition is effective in setting the battle in a global, rather than a highland context. This will surprise, and I hope intrigue, many people. It also presents the whole Jacobite campaign of 1745/46 in shades of grey, rather than the black and white view with which many visitors arrive. This was a complex campaign of difficult decisions, bad decisions, divided loyalties, a campaign in which public relations and half truths drove the actions of both sides.

So, I recommend the new centre heartily. But allow a good two hours to get full benefit from your £10 entry fee.

Meall Fuar-mhonaidh

A perfect day on the hill today, not a cloud above us, but it was blanketing the glens below. To the west we could see the familiar line of Ben Nevis above Fort William on the west coast (below), to the east the Moray Firth; beyond Loch nam Breac Dearga to the north was Ben Wyvis and to our south the Cairngorms. We were on Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, 'the rounded hill on the cold moor'. This is a perfect five mile walk for anyone staying in the Inverness area: you are at the start point in half an hour, the walk takes less than four hours, you have the satisfaction of reaching the summit of a significant hill, and down below you throughout is Loch Ness. Choose a day like today and you won't forget the experience quickly!

Above photo of Ben Nevis in the far distance taken by my walking companion Tim Honnor of Piccolo Press!

Burgie Castle Saved for Posterity

One night in January 2006, a crashing sound reverberated round the small Moray town of Rafford. Next morning the last remaining five storeys high tower of Blervie Castle, built by the Dunbars in the 16th century, had been replaced with a pile of rubble and the stump of one wall.

In the same century, the family had built another fine castle just two miles away. This is Burgie, and like its sister Burgie was once a 'Z' Plan castle with towers on diagonally opposite corners of a central keep. Now the keep is destroyed and just one tower remains. I visited Burgie on a clear frosty day last February and could not fail to be struck by its height and authority, but also by a long ominous crack in the west wall.

Happily now, it looks as if Burgie is saved. A private trust to consolidate the building has been set up and the Highland Buildings Preservation Trust, are arranging funding and will project manage the work. Emergency works to stabilise the tower start late next month. This will buy time for a full feasibility study into options for a permanent solution.

More castles will doubtless crumble this winter but Burgie will stand for a few centuries more.

Skye and Pennsylvania 1706: Norway and France 2007

Earlier today Margaret, an American in Norway (below) emailed Harriet, an American in Paris as follows:

This morning I googled "James Anderson Isle of Skye 1706" and found your September 2003 letter of appreciation to Alastair Cunningham on his Clans and Castles website, in which you mention a James Anderson in your ancestry. I wrote to Alastair, asking him to help me locate you, and he immediately wrote back that he had sent my e-mail on to you at your 2003 address. We are related, Harriet! I googled your names myself, and found your incredibly rich and fascinating website and all the proof I need to say that we are related via Andersons and Schencks. My father was Jerome Schenck Anderson III, born in Stonington, CT, in 1906.
I am Margaret Marion Anderson, born 1958, eight generations after James.

They realised that both descendants had lived for a lengthy period in Iowa.

James Anderson probably took three months to reach Chester County, Pensylvania from Skye. Now, three hundred years and eight generations later, his descendants have been able to find each other in different parts of Europe within a matter of hours!

Who knows? There may be a whole lot more of you out there waiting to be linked up.