Sitting here watching the washing go round and round! Oh dear..... exciting NOT! But on the positive side I can finish a post or two.
With a name like Heather Gibson (née) you won’t be surprised to know that I have Scottish heritage. In fact I’m a descendant of the Buchanan Clan, och aye. The origin of the ‘lands’ of the Clan date to a grant of land on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond back in the early 1200s. So of course we diverted a little from our route to drive beside the Loch, just for a wee look-see.
There was once a Buchanan Castle, but it is now a ruin. I wasn’t really that interested to visit it because it was built by the Graham clan. The real Buchanan Auld House, the original, was destroyed by fire a few hundred years ago. Sadly there is no longer a clan chief. The direct Buchanan chiefly line ‘failed’ in the C17 and the land was progressively sold off to pay debt. Wouldn’t you know it? The more things change the more they stay the same! As a result the land eventually ‘passed’ to the Graham Clan. But we Buchanans have a lovely tartan and our motto is heroic - Clarior hinc honos or ‘Henceforth forward the honour shall grow ever brighter’. I am very happy with that and I will do my best to uphold that ideal!
The Loch is huge like an elongated inland sea. Yesterday it was raining and the loch was enveloped in mist, the oily surface broken only by plopping rain and large drops from overhanging trees along the edge. But still it loomed rather special to me.
As well as driving passed my so-called ‘ancestral lands’ at the Loch, we did a quick drive through Paisley (Glasgow) from where both the Gibsons and Cochrans (both part of the Buchanan clan) emigrated to Australia a ong time ago.
Where are we now? A couple of miles from Stranraer at the head of Loch Ryan, a ferry port connecting south-west Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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| Loch Lomond in the rain |
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| The Buchanan tartan |
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