Were back from Scotland, where I/we.... A. threw at four Highland Games, including throwing with former World Champions, Steven King, Bruce Aitkin and Aaron Neighbor, as well as Scottish Champions Craig Sinclair and Sinclair Patience I managed to not utterly hash up anything but the 56 HWFD at Inverary, and I acquitted myself respectably in all the cabers but Alva...which is an insane caber at 17-something feet long and 165 or 175 pounds. I managed a 50 foot LWFD throw at Airth, and got a knockoff-bar-PR in 56-pound weight over bar at Airth by clearing 10 6 clean. I even won 180 pounds of prize money at Inverness. ...and I even managed to squeeze in one bout of Scottish Backhold Wrestling at Inverary! B. I explored my Scottish family roots in the Borders by visiting Otterburn Castle, the home of Mad Jack Hall, as well as just driving through the regions of Liddesdale and Redesdale. We got into the Smailhome Tower in the Borders, and saw what those structures would have been like during the days of my Border Reiving ancestors. On the MacNaughton side, I explored Loch Dubh, near Inverary and documented by photographs and video, how to find the MacNaughton castle site that is there. Joan and I rented a boat on Loch Awe and we motored out to the Froech Eilean and explored the 14th century MacNaughton castle there. I managed to get some good photographs of Dunderave, as well. C. As a boy, the books of Rosemary Sutcliff were things I devoured, one after another. Shes a historical writer from the UK, and a long series of books that she wrote were based on a fictional family living in Roman Britain. Because of Rosemarys books, Hadrians Wall, The Antonine Wall and Dunadd hill fortress are very real to me, and I was thrilled to walk those walls and stand beside the footprint of the first Kings of Scotland on that hilltop. D. We did some great hiking and bicycling around Glen Affric, Little Glenshee, Jock Williams path outside Braemar, around Glen Coe, Loch Voil and Loch Katrine. E. On my kiltmaking side - we visited three mills: Locharron, DC Dalgliesh and the historical mill at Knockando Woolmill, where I purchased a yard of really nice tweed (my one big souvenir of the trip) which I will make into a cap and waistcoat. We dropped in on two real kiltmakers...Gordon NIcholson in EWdinburgh and Redshank Kilts in Inverary. It was a wonderful vacation. I took hundreds of pictures, of which I will selectively post a gazillion of them here on FB along with a bit of commentary. All righty, then....back to Real Life!
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:34:24 +0000
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