Day 23 - Tuesday 21 March - Canisbay & Kirkstyle

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What a sad day, our last day of exploring in Scotland, for tomorrow we drive to edinburgh and fly to London.
Caithness was bright and shiny. We drove through and around more town lands of my ancestors. Just Kirkstyle and Canisbay.

A number of our Davidsons, Dunnets and Cormack lived in Kirkstyle over the years, and so many of our cousins are buried in Canisbay

The Canisbay Kirk is the most northerly church on mainland Britain, and it looks out to the Orkney Islands. From 1959 until her death, the Queen Mother worshipped here, as her local parish church for her holiday home, Castle Mey. Now it belongs to King Charles (and is currently closed). Jan de Groot, the man who found John o’Groats is buried here, as are many, many of our distant cousins. We had 7 direct ancestors baptised here (mostly Dunnets), and 4 marriages of eight direct ancestors. We found the headstone of George Baikie, our 6G grandfather who died in 1802.

We have DNA tests to thank for all of this. When my test threw up some strange results my big brother Terry tested, confirming our suspicions with even more matches that I don’t have but from the same family. I have embraced my Scottish roots and I feel this trip has gone some way to pay homage to them, and to Uncle Alec who always was like a grandfather but never got the acknowledgment he deserved.

After we finished in the kirkyard we drove around the villages nearby, and came upon an old dilapidated mill we had seen the other day. I later googled it and found it was a grain threshing mill. It had a water chase, and a mill pond with swans on it. Tom went and explored it. Then we found the pier where the ferry to Orkney leaves from, and another pier in Dunnet Bay that the queen used. It has been really lovely.





We returned to our suite and packed and then went to the pub up the road for dinner. We both had a wonder braised beef, feather blade I think it was called. It was tender and juicy, with lots of vegies. Then we had an Irish coffee for dessert.





Sheila’s banking machine has broken and she’s not received a new one yet. I tried to transfer money online, but it wasn’t compatible for an international transfer. I rang TMB and they told me how to get a form, but the iPad couldn’t write in it, so that didn’t help at all. In the end we drove into Castletown and withdrew the funds we needed to pay our bill. Sheila was saying not to worry till we got back home but we prefer to pay our bills.

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