Scotland

I am going on a little trip. This coming Saturday I will be off on the first leg – to North Carolina. I depart from New York on Sunday.

It has been some time since I last visited Scotland; 1971, in fact. I lucked out and left the States the day after Nixon allowed the Dollar to float. No one had any idea how much it was worth relative to any other currency. It was a time ripe for ripoffs.

I exchanged some pocket money at Kennedy Airport prior to departure – a ripoff. Luckily, the Royal Bank of Scotland had a branch in the airport at Prestwick. It turned out to be about the best rate available anywhere. Later, we learned that the biggest gougers were the American hotels in London.

With both Crawford and Harris being Scottish names, it should be no surprise that my genealogy points in that direction. Other family names include Fraser (from around Loch Ness), McJunkin (Scot-Irish) and Morgan (Welsh, but also Gaelic).

The most success in tracing our genealogy has come with the Frasers. In that part of our family was a U.S. Representative, his father, a Governor and Senator. Further back, Simon Fraser, chief adjutant to William Wallace, he of Braveheart fame was found to be in our family.

I will be visiting Sterling, site of the famous Wallace victory of Sterling Bridge. Braveheart was a wonderful movie but atrocious history. Its Battle of Sterling Bridge was filmed in Ireland, with no bridges anywhere in the vicinity. I will also visit Culloden Battlefield, site of a horrific defeat for the forces of the Jacobite Rising of 1745. It was the last battle fought on British soil.

It is also where we got the phrase ‘beyond the pale.’ Pale means white or light-colored. It came to be used as referring to a paling fence. Then such a fence became a pale, meaning a safe enclosed area. Being ‘beyond the pale’ was to be in a bad situation. There was a pale at Culloden.

Our Harris family is a sept, or sub-clan, under the Clan McLeod. There is an Isle of Harris. You may have heard of Harris Tweed, sometimes called iron cloth. The name is protected by the British Crown.

The lead picture is of the rear of the Castle Dunvegan, home of the head of the clan. It has been the home of that family for over 800 years. That makes it the residence continuously occupied for the longest period of any in the world. Immediately above is a picture of its entrance.

While the interiors for the recent movie, Maid of Honor, were filmed at Dunvegan, the exteriors were of a nearby castle, Eilean Donan. It is the most photographed castle in Scotland.

Much of the staff of the Castle Dunvegan was used as extras in the movie.

I will be taking a netbook, a laptop, a video camera and a still camera. If I have a few down moments, I may try to post a few pictures and a minimal travelogue. Don’t count on it though. I hope to spend my time enjoying what likely will be my last visit there.

My hope is that it won’t be the last. While there I will be contacting literary agents and booking agents. It would be great if I am able to put together a book tour. That might pay for a return and a 2-3 month tour of Europe. Wouldn’t that be nice?

My wife refuses to fly. But, she says, she is concerned that I might enjoy myself so much that I would decide to remain over there. No, it wouldn’t be for the universal healthcare. After all, I am on Medicare.

More likely it would be due to the beauty of the country, the sense of history, and the chance to get away from the birthers, the deathers and the teabaggers.

Don’t begin celebrating prematurely. I’ll be back.

Tagged as: beyond the pale, birthers, braveheart, castle, culloden, deathers, dollar, dunvegan, eilean donan, fraser, gaelic, harris, harris tweed, jacobite, kennedy airport, loch ness, london, maid of honor, mcjunkin, mcleod, medicare, morgan, nixon, north carolina, prestwick, scotland, sterling bridge, teabaggers, universal healthcare, welsh