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Published: July 13th 2011
The weather was pretty dreadful again this morning as we headed off for the Breadalbane Folklore Centre at Killin at the western end of Loch Tay. Family records indicate that Bernie's 6x great grandfather, Finlay Campbell, was living in Glen Lochay, at the western end of Loch Tay, in the early 1700s. According to the family history, the Campbells were a powerful family in the Breadalbane area at that time and we expected to learn quite a bit more about the Campbells at the folklore centre.
Well ... it turned out that the displays focussed mainly on Clan McGregor and their allies Clan McLaren and Clan McNab, before they were supplanted by the usurping Clan Campbell. There was only one interpretative board devoted to Clan Campbell and it pretty much said that the Campbells came from Loch Awe and initially agreed on an alliance with Clan McGregor before reneging on that agreement and displacing the McGregors and their allied clans!! It seemed that the people who put together the displays at the folklore centre might have been descended from Clan McGregor because Clan Campbell was not recognised in a very positive light??!!
From the folklore centre we ventured out
into the drizzle to take some photos of the Falls of Dochart. The falls were not all that dramatic, more like steep rapids than falls? We're not really sure what distinguishes rapids from a waterfall?? Anyhow we took a number of gloomy, overcast photos of the River Lochay rushing over the rocks and under the bridge on its way to Loch Tay.
Back in the car, we set out in the rain to drive as far as we could up Glen Lochay. We drove just past Kenknock Farm and ... looked out into the mist where, on a clear day, their is a stunning view of six mountains!! Having driven all the way there all Bernie could do today, was take a photo of the mist. From here we could have done a walk to 'a kink in the River Lochay' known as Luibchorran where 75 families, including Finlay's, used to support themselves on their little crofts, but the weather was simply too awful to contemplate it.
We headed back down Glen Lochay and set the SatNav for Aberfoyle. As we drove back along the A84 we stopped at the Kingshouse Hotel for lunch. We were the only
people in the hotel so we ended up having quite a chat with the barmaid while Bernie ate his vegetable soup and I ate my cullen skink, a traditional Scottish cream soup made with potatoes and smoked haddock. She was born in Poland and married her Scottish husband about eight years ago. Her husband farms 2,000 head of sheep while she is working at the pub.
As we drove along the A821, beside Loch Venachar, we spotted some Highlan' Coos in a paddock beside the road. About three miles later we found a spot where we could turn around and go back to photograph said coos!! The cows were up by the fence because another group of tourists had been feeding and patting them as we went past. Undeterred by the midges that were biting us severely, we loitered around trying to take some good photos of these highly photogenic cows. Mad? Yes, we are!
We stopped in Aberfoyle because Bernie's 5x great grandfather, Donald Campbell (born about 1750) moved from Luibchorran to the Parish of Callender and then to the Parish of Aberfoyle, where he was employed as manager of the woods belonging to the Duke of
Montrose in Menteith and Aberfoyle.
We visited the parish church where the family history tells us there is a window in the west gable installed by Donald's grandson (Bernie's 3x great uncle, I think?) in memory of Donald Campbell, his son, Finlay Campbell and Finlay's wife, Christian McAllan. Unfortunately the church was all locked up and we could not go inside to view the window. If we had thought that the church would be locked up we could have contacted someone ahead of time to try to arrange to be let into the church. So many of these small parish churches are left open all day, every day ...
Next we drove around to the ruins of the old church where we managed to find Finlay's and Christian's grave. Finlay (born 25/9/1779) and Christian (baptised 29/9/1782) were Bernie's 4x great grandparents. Thank goodness the family history described in detail where to find the grave otherwise we would have spent hours trying to locate it in a very large graveyard with lots of badly weatherworn headstones!!
From Aberfoyle we headed back to Stirling by way of the Port of Menteith where Christian's mother hailed from. We had thought
that we might have time to go out to the Inchmahome Priory on an island in the Lake of Monteith, but the afternoon had slipped away. We did stop in at the hotel at the end of the lake for a drink so that we could take some photos of the lake ... with huge thunderclouds hanging over it!!
We think the fishing club next door to the hotel was holding a competition because at 5.25pm boats started coming in from all over the lake. Bernie's guess was that they had a 5.30pm deadline to hand their catch in to be judged??
We walked into town again tonight and decided on Thai food for dinner. We had a really good mixed starter and then a green curry and a Pad Thai. Just about the best Pad Thai we have had anywhere outside of Thailand!! We ordered a bottle of Thai wine to go with the meal which was quite good. Apparently they have developed a warm climate grape that is being grown in Thailand so that they can produce wine in an area not generally known for its viticulture!!
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Leo
non-member comment
Waterfalls
Hi Tracey and Bernie, Still reading your Blogs with keen interest and admiring the great photos. Hope I haven't breached Copyright, but I've forwarded some of your Blogs on to Ray Calverley. Ray really loves shooting waterfalls (plus he's a RAW fanatic like you two). Ray has been suitably impressed! Also, thank you for your birthday card which arrive on Bastille Day. A very pleasant surprise and brilliantly timed! Envious regards, Leo.