We headed off for a two day break to Perth, Scotland which is just south of the area area where the Mowatt Clan lived for a period according to Fred's research. Our drive was mostly highway driving as it was close to five hours to the hotel. Our first big stop was Braur House a small upscale shopping centre that Fred's cousins had told us about. The nav chick took us, what we thought, was the wrong way but as a result I was able to get a great picture of Highland cattle as pictured on the left. We headed back to the main road and drove another couple of miles further along to see if we could find the centre and did come upon it. As it turns out the nav chick was taking us in by the back way.
The picture on the right is of a war memorial for Highland Regimental
soldiers who where lost in WWI & WWII. Surprisingly, there were no kilts for sale in the various stores but a great deal of cashmere at prices well above our pocket book. After the brief stop we now headed off to our hotel which in located in Perth's town centre. It is a converted mill that was originally built in 1875. Water still runs through the lobby and is glassed in around the wheel which is not operational any longer.After checking in we took a short walk around town in the area near us and it seemed as though they roll the sidewalks up at 5:00 pm. We did find a Sainsbury Local that was open and purchased some wine and snack for our room. We enjoyed dinner at the hotel, as the special rate we got include money towards dinner, a free drink and breakfast both mornings.
Now a bit of interesting information about the Gaelic language. The greeting above is Scottish Gaelic for good day. Modern Scottish Gaelic is made up of an 18 letter alphabet as follows,
ABCDEFGHILMNOPRSTU. We have not heard it spoken on this trip and until breakfast we had not even heard a strong Scottish accent or brogue when speaking to any of the hotel's staff.
The next day we were out early after breakfast heading to Dunnottar Castle - Dun Fhoithear which means fort on a shelving slope. It is a ruined medieval fortress.
The surviving buildings that we explored were from the 15th and 16th centuries. It was one of the best ruins we have explored to date. I loved the location a rugged landscape on the northeast coast of Scotland. It was quite a hike down and then up to the castle but an even harder one back. Dunnottar played a prominent role in the history of Scotland with the rising of the Jacobite Rebellion. The Honours of Scotland or Scottish crown jewels were hidden here from Cromwell's invading armies in the 17th century. Once we finished exploring the castle we took a leisurely drive along the coastal route to Montrose. We took a number of back roads or roads less traveled as I like to say. We came across more highland cattle this
time there were some calves. They are very wooly even as babes as you can see from the picture on the right. We also saw some pheasants in fields that we pass by. It was nice to see some live ones as we had passed a lot of road kill on our travels. We continued along stopping in the village of Catterline looking for a church and cemetery where Fred thought some of the Mowatt's might be buried. We found one church and cemetery but there were no Mowatts buried there. There was another shell of a church with a graveyard but it was behind someones back yard and we couldn't find a way to get into it so we didn't enter.We continue along and came to Kinneff Old Church. The church we visited was not the original building which was superseded in 1738 by the present building. The church played a very important role in Scottish history. As Cromwell's army advanced into Scotland in 1652 Parliament ordered the Honours of Scotland be removed from Dunnottar castle for safety. The Honours were snuck out of the castle by the garrisons wife and Mrs Grainger the reverends wife. They were then hidden in the church in the ground before the pulpit. They remained hidden with the Graingers digging them up every three months to preserve them from damp and injury. At the Restoration in 1660 the Honours where returned to Charles II and placed in Edinburgh Castle.
We continued along and saw some amazing scenery. The picture on the left is one of the sites we saw on our less traveled roads. We visited some lovely little villages on the coast and more sites of the Mowatt Clan. In one fishing village, Gourdon, we came across a lane that was named after the Mowatt's who are in the family tree. We have had a full day of exploring and ended it off with a visit to Pitlochry. We strolled around the town and purchased a bottle of Scotch that was distilled in the area. Edradour is a single malt whisky and the one we bought was aged in a super tuscan cask. The scotch is very smooth and yummy as we found out on our return home.
We had dinner out at the local Pizza Express and were amazed by some people who have kids. The couple behind us have a fairly newborn baby and both are busy texting on their phones ignoring the crying child. The mother finally picks up the kid then puts it down giving it a bottle but supports the bottle with a blanket and continues to text. Unbelievable some people should be neutered. I felt for the poor child.
We have had a amazing short break and will return to this area as there are other things to do in the area that we didn't have time for. Also with booking this trip last minute we were not able to purchase tickets to some of the annual events that were going on as they were sold out. For our trip home we took a longer route revisiting some of the roads we did back in 2006 with Fred's mom, aunt and uncle. We stopped at the Westmorland Farm Shop to pick up some venison sausage, wild boar sausage and game pie mix.
We hope you have enjoyed this posting. Next trip London to visit Tower of London and the see the ceramic poppies in dedication to the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI.
Sian leibh,
Sandy & Fred
