Field School - Part 1 of 2 (18-24 September, 2018)

Time is flying! The 1st of October already. Two weeks ago our class climbed into a minivan and went on a Field School expedition across northern Scotland, and out to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. We spent an extraordinary week seeing many well-known, and not so well-known places.

Where our travels took us 18-24 September, 2018

If I had to say what the overall thread of our travels was, it would be something quite vague like "different facets of Scottish history, culture, and tradition throughout time." What we saw ranged from 5000-year-old passage graves, cairns, and brochs (prehistoric stone towers), 9th-century Pictish carved stones, medieval churches and fortresses, an 18th-century manor house, 19th-century fisher towns and thatched houses (called blackhouses), to contemporary holy wells and musical groups playing for ceilidhs. We participated in a Gaelic church service in Stornoway on Sunday morning.

I won't go into too much detail about all of it, or you'd be here longer than you want to be. I'll just put in some pictures and captions that might capture some of the highlights. This will be part 1 of 2 about this trip--part 2 will follow in a few days. I don't want to lose my audience because they think I'm writing a book!

To begin with, we had "butteries" for breakfast in the van that first morning. These were new to me, but they're quite addictive. If I ate these every morning, I'd need the next size up in clothing. A little like a flattened croissant, they are indeed buttery and rich, and likely contain all the fat you'd need for the day. Quite good, actually...

Easter Aquhorthies (think something like "ak-khor-tees" for that second word) might mean "field of prayer." Ancient standing stones, with a recumbent stone that looks like an altar, have kept watch over this place for 5000 years. We were joined by another student from the Elphinstone Institute, who sang a beautiful old ballad as we stood silently listening, the only other sound being the patter of rain on our jackets.

Anne Greig singing "Andrew Lammie"

Closeup of one of the stones

Portsoy - an old seaport town near Banff - home of the Old Salmon Bothy, a lovely stone icehouse, and a new boat shed, where the old traditional ways of building boats are still being passed on to those who want to learn. You can build your own coracle (a tiny round boat whose design dates from at least the 9th century), or a skaffie boat, or just about anything--they have all the hand tools you'll ever need!

1834 ice house with boat in foreground

Closeup of carved date on ice house--a lovely fish!

                                                                               Right: Inside the ice house, looking up at the window (where the ice would be dumped into one of the three rooms like this--the window is actually at ground level). Note coracles stored on shelf under the window...there are more of these in the boat shed.

Left: view of a very peaceful harbor, and looking back toward the old town. Some of the stones in the harbor wall (which dates to late 1600s) are absolutely massive.

Right and below: Inside the new boat shed. The community passes along the boat-building techniques to school children, who can come and build their own projects here. 

Left: I don't think I'd want to be sailing out on the ocean in this coracle, but it was done...

Right: A wide array of tools hangs on the walls of the boat shed. Here is a very nice selection of new Japanese hand saws.

Below: Out in the harbor, a lovely dolphin sculpted of metal cables, overlooking the sea. 
He looks like he's about to jump back in.  

View from the top of the hill above Portsoy harbor

We visited a number of interesting towns and historic sites--Nairn, where the Nairn Fishertown was a busy fishing and boat-building port for centuries, until the industry faded out in the mid-20th century.
Something I thought was intriguing was that in the past, Fishertown was a close-knit community, with two family names dominating the list of residents: Main and Ralph. To distinguish one John Main from another (there were a lot), they used bye-names or tee-names--a nickname that got attached to the full name.

Sueno's Stone (at right) is an enormous (20 feet high) 9th-century Pictish stone that stays safely caged in a large glass box. I confess, though, that I enjoy the free-range stones somewhat more. This famous stone is actually in a small field surrounded by housing developments and traffic, just outside the town of Forres. It has many intricate carvings on both the front and back of it, and is sandstone, unlike the granite in most of the ring cairns and standing stones.

The carvings are of a Christian cross on one side, and a battle scene on the other. No one is quite sure what they signify, but some theorize that it might be the conquest of the Picts by Gaelic kings.







Balnuaran of Clava is a remarkably peaceful place, another sacred spot.

One of the passage cairns
(as if you are looking down the passage)

It is set in a wooded area on the fringe of several pastures, and it is obvious that a few of the standing stones must have been in the way of the road that was put in some 200 years ago, because they are conspicuously missing from the pattern of the circle! Three cairns with passage graves stand in a sort of triangle, with the central one surrounded by standing stones. The picture below shows an interesting set of twin stones that are part of a stone circle around a cairn.

Stones on the inside of one of the cairns

Castle Urquhart (above)- a large fortress with 1500 years of history keeping watch over Loch Ness. No, we did not get a glimpse of Nessie--but we did find out a great deal about what she might or might not be. So many theories...

Wait! I just remembered. We did get a glimpse of Nessie!

Okay, so...maybe she was just there to entertain the sheep.  Onward...

Balavil Estate - the home of the 18th-century Scottish poet James MacPherson, now being renovated anew. If you have ever watched the BBC series, Monarch of the Glen, you might recognize this place. There is some amazing woodwork and architecture here. The original house was built by MacPherson, who died in 1796; it was renovated in the late 19th century, and is now under new ownership. There is a ghost, named Sarah, although we did not get to meet her that evening. (Some of us were hoping to.)




Right: An elaborately carved wood arch surrounds some of the main floor windows. Below: Looking down the dizzying staircase from the third floor.

There's something poignant
about this photograph...

Strathfeffer - the home of a charming and very genuine-feeling museum of children's toys, books, games, customs, photographs, and clothing. The museum collects and displays only items from the Highlands. This is a wonderful place to find out about Highland customs and traditions around family life and children.

The Children's Museum is housed in the old train depot, which lends a charm of its own to the museum. As you walk into the building, be sure to look carefully at the pillar in front of you--it's a work of art carved by a local woodcarver, Allister Brebner. The carving, called The Ascent of the Scots, represents the history of the people of this region from its earliest times.

The Highland Folk Museum, in Newtonmore, is a living museum, and here you can see houses as they have been built in this region for the past 500 years or so. The blackhouses are typical stone, thatched-roof cottages--early ones had no chimney, only a peat fire in the center of the main room. No windows. It must have been smoky. They also had a dirt floor, often sloping down to a byre, where several animals might be kept.

A box-bed, commonly used in blackhouses for sleeping

Later houses, sometimes called whitehouses (perhaps because they used mortar when building them) had windows, one or two chimneys, and a leveled, flagstone floor. The animals more often stayed outside.









We made our way from Strathfeffer up to Ullapool to take the ferry across The Minch to the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides. Surprise is an integral part of this Field School trip--we never knew where we were going to be next, and often that was a wonderful thing, because there were some great surprises. More to come!

 Part 2 -  On the ferry to the Isle of Lewis - to follow soon!

The MLitt class, plus a few friends--well-prepared for Field School!