Day 17 - Wednesday 15 March - Portsoy and Cullen

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Well! What a difference a day makes - after our snowy day yesterday, today was quiet, calm and sunny! ‘Twas lovely.

We decided to spend the morning doing the one activity that needed to be rain free, and spent the morning walking and driving the streets of Portsoy - the village where my dad’s grandad Davidson (who died in Sydney in 1954) was born, and where the various branches of our family lived 1792-1919. We found two of the streets they lived in and walked up and down them, as well as the main shopping street. We also found one of the houses, if they haven’t been been renumbered since 1895. Grandad Davidson became a baker here in Portsoy (his father was a Cooper in the fish curing business), before moving to Northumberland. We came across several churches, but only one proclaimed to be the parish church for the Church of Scotland. Unfortunately some technicians were laying phone lines inside it and they would allow us access. Apart from that, Portsoy was just lovely.





Alec was 12 years old when his grandfather died in Portsoy - did he travel up here from North Sunderland to visit his grandparents? Did he walk the streets of Portsoy? I wish I’d had the opportunity to hear his childhood stories as I did for both my grandmothers.

After Portsoy we drove over to Cullen, where some our family were born, baptised and married, and had an amazing lunch in the Royal Oak Hotel. Then Tom walked the incredible viaduct that looms over the town. It was originally built for the trainline that was closed some decades back and it’s now a popular walking/biking trail. We’d seen it on a TV show so we knew it could be walked.





I’m beginning to feel sad, as we are getting toward the end of our travels. I love it here. But I do miss our family.

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