Somebody Play A Lament

Edinburgh Castle

War Memorial

Guns

Swords

Targe

Highland Soldier Clothing

Edinburgh

Brough of Birsay Stone

Norse Silver (Found in Orkney in a stone-lined pit)

Isle of Lewis Chessmen

Rooster

Storage Chest

Swords

The Spottiswoodie Ox Portrait (Somewhat Exaggerated)

Curling Stones

Steam Engine

Targe

Not much to report tonight, we spent the whole day in Scotland’s People looking up ancestors. The Fergusons were relatively easy to find, thankfully they never left Ayr, so the searching was great. We didn’t even leave for lunch so starved all day and left just prior to 4:30 when they shut the place down. There is so much more searching we need to do, grandmother Ferguson’s mother came from Ireland so we need to go to Ireland, hahahahahaha. Grandfather James’s family is from Ayr for a long way back, we got back to somewhere in the 1700's but ran out of time. We chased our tails for a bit until we figured out that death records are the major find as they give the most information. We could cross check to make sure we had the correct family in the census records which started in 1841 and keep going until someone dropped off the census then we knew they had died and could check death records.

This is interesting stuff and we were shocked at how busy Scotland’s People is, almost every computer was full and nobody leaves, they all want to get their 10 GBP worth. We printed out a bunch of records as it costs double the amount to save electronically on a stick, which is complete bullshit.

Then we went to the whisky store and had a great time talking to the young guy who works in there, he was wearing a tartan tie and handing out whisky and mulled wine samples. He said a person came in and asked him if he could recommend a whisky made in Scotland hahahahahaha.

We decided we cannot live on whisky and sandwiches alone, which is what we have been doing for two days, so we went to the Café Royal for dinner. There is a lively bar on the other side but we forced ourselves into the restaurant so we would not have a repeat of last night. We had a seafood feast of mussels then a platter of a lot more seafood. Then I finally had raspberry cranachan which is very good. We had whisky too, I had a Lagavulin, it was very peaty and good, from one of the islands but I would have to look it up, John had a Talisker, not as peaty, but good too.

This has been such a fantastic trip, we are completely mad for this country and want to travel here again and see more of Scotland. Staying a week in one area is really the thing to do, then you get to spend a decent amount of time in one place and are not rushed. On a travel day it was really hard for us to take our time and not just speed to the destination, when you stay for a week in one place that is not an issue.

It is impossible to say which area we like the best, Orkney and Lewis are just amazing but I love the Highlands as well and would like to spend more time there. We fly out tomorrow.