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Published: March 20th 2023
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We had another amazing breakfast by Sheila today (included in our tariff) - the food is delicious, but she has such a sense of style in the plating up. Her sons wedding happening in 3 weeks time has an amazing story. It was supposed to happen 3 years ago, but then they went into lockdown and it was postponed indefinitely. During the covid lockdowns they decided to continue with their plans for a family (hence the highchair at our table last night), but first off, Sheila tells us, during the lockdown her husband said “Sheila, I need you for an hour or so today”. She asked if she needed to get changed and he said no, we’ve got to go now and they drove off. She thought it was to see her son’s plot of land but they drove past it. They pulled up at a lovely old building by the beach and two of her sons were there. Sheila started crying, she had jeans and an old shirt on, no makeup, hair was a mess, and one son was missing, but this was covid. Out of the door stepped a bridge and just like that they quickly married, her son
gave her a can of gin and tonic to calm her nerves, and then Sheila was taken back home. But in 3 weeks they’ll do the proper wedding they were meant to have and had paid for. It’s amazing, Sheila’s 3 boys are the same ages as our girls.
So, we set off on our explorations for today. ‘Twas such a huge Davidson day.
We drove through:
* Bower (where our 7G grandfather, Donald Cormack, was born in 1691)
* Killimster (where our 4G grandmother, Euphemia Cormack, was born in 1771, and our 5G grandfather, Anthony Cormack, was born in 1739)
* Reiss (where our 3G grandfather, Anthony Davidson, was born in 1808)
* Watton (where our 6G grandparents, Donald Cormack and Marjorie Gun married in 1735
* Wick, too many to list here but it includes Tom’s 4G grandmother’s birth, and baptisms of our Davidsons- Anthony Davidson (3G) 1808, John Davidson (4G) 1769, George Davidson (5G) 1744, and marriages of Anthony Davidson/Jean Dunnet 1831 (3G), John Davidson/Euphemia Cormack 1794 (4G), George Davidson/Isabel Mowat 1759 (5G), William Davidson/Margaret Sutherland 1738 (6G)
And finishing up at Thurso where our 7G grandfather was baptised
and our 4G grandfather, John Davidson, died in 1816.
The two churches we visited today were the shells of what once was. It was nice to visit their space and think about them. The countryside is very sparsely populated - sort of reminiscent of Ireland.
For dinner, after our nap and skipping lunch, for went to the pub up the street - my last bowl of Cullen Skink (Tom had Tomato soup), followed by catch of the day for me (hake) and hunter’s chicken for Tom. I took pics of the soups but forgot about the mains, sorry.
Seriously contemplating our packing now. Only one more day of exploring. We’re not going to get to Orkney after all - the weather has been too uncertain for us.
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