Now for something completely different

[MicCanberra]

10 hours ago, Mareblu said:

I have Somerset ancestral lines as well.  Through all the west country, in fact.  My mother’s lines are Scottish, Northern Irish  and west midlands.  I feel I’m home when I’m in the Scottish Highlands.

I have no Scottish links at all apart from laughing at Billy Connelly and watching Hamish Mcbeth.

However when we toured Ireland and the UK driving through Scotland around the lochs and such just felt like home. It was a strange feeling, as it doesn't really even look like anything I have seen in Australia.

[ceeceeDee]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

I have no Scottish links at all apart from laughing at Billy Connelly and watching Hamish Mcbeth.

However when we toured Ireland and the UK driving through Scotland around the lochs and such just felt like home. It was a strange feeling, as it doesn't really even look like anything I have seen in Australia.

If you go to Kirkcudbright, there are kookaburras! It's surmised they escaped from a wildlife park somewhere in Scotland.

[MicCanberra]

wow. I am surprised they have survived and not been deep fried by now 

[arxcards]

4 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

wow. I am surprised they have survived and not been deep fried by now 

Kookaburra swims in an old chip fryer,

Flapping up and down with his butt on fire.

Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh.

How hot your beak must be.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I have no Scottish links at all apart from laughing at Billy Connelly and watching Hamish Mcbeth.

However when we toured Ireland and the UK driving through Scotland around the lochs and such just felt like home. It was a strange feeling, as it doesn't really even look like anything I have seen in Australia.

But it's very similar to parts of NZ, especially around Dunedin. Otago Harbour would be called a sea loch in Scotland. 

 

I had that feeling of "home" when we were in Scotland too. Somewhere back in my father's ancestry there are Scots but I have no details other than my birth surname (Campbell). My mother was from Lancashire with Welsh ancestry. 

Edited April 18 by OzKiwiJJ

[Aussieflyer]

6 hours ago, arxcards said:

Kookaburra swims in an old chip fryer,

Flapping up and down with his butt on fire.

Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh.

How hot your beak must be.

don't give up your day job 🤣

[Mareblu]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

But it's very similar to parts of NZ, especially around Dunedin. Otago Harbour would be called a sea loch in Scotland. 

 

I had that feeling of "home" when we were in Scotland too. Somewhere back in my father's ancestry there are Scots but I have no details other than my birth surname (Campbell). My mother was from Lancashire with Welsh ancestry. 

Campbell is the dominant clan in the Highlands.  The Duke of Argyle is Campbell Clan Chief.  He’s a delightful, particularly handsome man.  My close friend (originally from NZ with Shetland Isles ancestry) calls him “Lord Yum Yum”. 

[Mareblu]

8 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I have no Scottish links at all apart from laughing at Billy Connelly and watching Hamish Mcbeth.

However when we toured Ireland and the UK driving through Scotland around the lochs and such just felt like home. It was a strange feeling, as it doesn't really even look like anything I have seen in Australia.

A friend who lives in the Highlands told me the Scots believe that when you visit and feel that comforting, familiar sense of belonging, a mystic cord has been tied to your body.  The spirits of the Highlands can gently tug that invisible link at any time, and often, during your life, no matter how far from Scotland you stray.  I love these myths and legends.  They raise us to their realm.

[MicCanberra]

My wife has ties to the Fraser clan, whatever that means.

[Mareblu]

29 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

My wife has ties to the Fraser clan, whatever that means.

It means she’s a Highlander.  Frasers are prominent all through the Highlands, particularly around Inverness and Orkney Isles.  Explains Rosie’s beautiful red hair in her photos.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

I'm from Clan MacLeod 🙂

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Mareblu said:

Campbell is the dominant clan in the Highlands.  The Duke of Argyle is Campbell Clan Chief.  He’s a delightful, particularly handsome man.  My close friend (originally from NZ with Shetland Isles ancestry) calls him “Lord Yum Yum”. 

We stopped in Inveraray for the night when touring and visited Inveraray Castle. We didn't meet Lord Yum Yum though. From looking at family photos my dad was a handsome man in his younger years. It obviously runs in the family!🤣

 

We also visited a couple of other Campbell sites - the remains of Castle Campbell in Dollar, and Cawdor Castle near Inverness.

[Mareblu]

6 hours ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

I'm from Clan MacLeod 🙂

My friend who admires Lord Yum Yum is a MacLeod by marriage.  Her husband finds her infatuation worth a chuckle in his rich brogue🤣

[ceeceeDee]

14 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

My wife has ties to the Fraser clan, whatever that means.

Our's is Campbell 😂

[OzKiwiJJ]

34 minutes ago, ceeceeDee said:

Our's is Campbell 😂

Then somewhere way, way back in the past we might have a common ancestor.

[possum52]

1 hour ago, ceeceeDee said:

Our's is Campbell 😂

 

31 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Then somewhere way, way back in the past we might have a common ancestor.

Both Rob and I have Campbell ancestors - his from Cork in Ireland and mine from Northumberland. I assume they were originally Scottish. I have not been able to go back further in tracing where they originally came from. 

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, possum52 said:

 

Both Rob and I have Campbell ancestors - his from Cork in Ireland and mine from Northumberland. I assume they were originally Scottish. I have not been able to go back further in tracing where they originally came from. 

I have a fair bit of a family trace from Northumberland, but definitely not the Campbell clan. By some connection, I live in Northumberland County (the early pre-council pastoral & parish boundaries). Have a fair bit of my ancestry from around Hadrian's Wall

[possum52]

1 minute ago, arxcards said:

I have a fair bit of a family trace from Northumberland, but definitely not the Campbell clan. By some connection, I live in Northumberland County (the early pre-council pastoral & parish boundaries). Have a fair bit of my ancestry from around Hadrian's Wall

My Northumberland roots are in the south - North Shields, Tyneside and Bedlington. Interestingly, our former next door neighbour came from Bedlington and has moved back there to be closer to her family. I find it fascinating to think about how our Australian accent developed from the dialects and accents of the first settlers and convicts of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and then the immigrants from the mid 1850s from the various areas of England, Scotland and Ireland. Plus of course those who came from all over the world from the gold rush times up until now.

[Aussieflyer]

20 hours ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

I'm from Clan MacLeod 🙂

And on my father's side Clans Mackenzie and Ross (from Tain north of Inverness). Have done quite a bit of family tracing - even back to one who was apparently a Jacobite in Aberdeen. 

[Mareblu]

5 hours ago, arxcards said:

I have a fair bit of a family trace from Northumberland, but definitely not the Campbell clan. By some connection, I live in Northumberland County (the early pre-council pastoral & parish boundaries). Have a fair bit of my ancestry from around Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian’s wall is an incredible construction.

[MicCanberra]

Or at least it used to be, however it never did keep the rabbits out.

[Mareblu]

12 minutes ago, Aussieflyer said:

And on my father's side Clans Mackenzie and Ross (from Tain north of Inverness). Have done quite a bit of family tracing - even back to one who was apparently a Jacobite in Aberdeen. 

Culloden battlefield site, where the courageous and hopelessly outnumbered Jacobites were  defeated, is a haunting and sobering visit experience.  Close to Inverness and easily accessible.  My ancestor John Fletcher of Inveroran fought there, but survived.  His father, my sixth g. grandfather,  was Fletcher Clan Chief.  I have visited their gravesites at the Fletcher castle cemetery by Loch Tulla, near the Pass of Glencoe.  

[Mareblu]

1 minute ago, MicCanberra said:

Or at least it used to be, however it never did keep the rabbits out.

Nor the Scots in🤣

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, Mareblu said:

Culloden battlefield site, where the courageous and hopelessly outnumbered Jacobites were  defeated, is a haunting and sobering visit experience.  Close to Inverness and easily accessible.  My ancestor John Fletcher of Inveroran fought there, but survived.  His father, my sixth g. grandfather,  was Fletcher Clan Chief.  I have visited their gravesites at the Fletcher castle cemetery by Loch Tulla, near the Pass of Glencoe.  

It is indeed.

 

We visited there while we were on the Royal Scotsman train. Our guide to Culloden was a guy who was also an entertainer - The Highlander. He was not only very well versed in the history of Culloden but was also dressed for the part in a traditional plaid (which is not a kilt).

 

 

He demonstrated how the plaid could be used for warmth.

 

 

The opposition were, of course, dressed in an entirely different manner.

 

Edited April 19 by OzKiwiJJ

[Aussieflyer]

21 hours ago, Mareblu said:

Culloden battlefield site, where the courageous and hopelessly outnumbered Jacobites were  defeated, is a haunting and sobering visit experience.  Close to Inverness and easily accessible.  My ancestor John Fletcher of Inveroran fought there, but survived.  His father, my sixth g. grandfather,  was Fletcher Clan Chief.  I have visited their gravesites at the Fletcher castle cemetery by Loch Tulla, near the Pass of Glencoe.  

We were there on a grey overcast day and the place was incredibly sad. To see the grave mounds for the clans including the Mackenzies was very sobering and emotional. It is a place I will remember for ever.

Edited April 20 by Aussieflyer