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!

Settling in and getting to know Aberdeen

It seems difficult to believe that two weeks have passed already. Classes have started, assignments are due, the weather is getting just a little chillier (but still quite pleasant). The leaves are just beginning to change, but the roses are still blooming!

I've explored more of Aberdeen, and feel better about how to get from one place to another without resorting to the tiny, well-worn paper map in my pocket, or (last resort) using mobile data to get there with Google Maps! The downtown area of Aberdeen has city-wide wifi, which is great. This is a perfectly walkable city--15 minutes from my flat to downtown, or to school.

Last Saturday was Doors Open day in Aberdeen, when the public is invited to tour many of the public buildings that are normally off limits. I thought I'd see a half-dozen or so of the many interesting places listed. I made it to exactly one, and had a wonderful time doing it. The Kirk of St. Nicholas (the "Mither Kirk" of Aberdeen) was where I spent several delightful hours.

I arrived at the church door just in time--a carillon concert was starting in a moment. I ran up the steps of the bell tower, and slightly winded but more amazed, watched the quietly energetic carillonneur, Ronald Leith, as he played a variety of pieces, including some well-known Scottish airs. He's done this for 40 years, and it's a joy to watch him, and even more, to listen. 

I thought that was all, but no...people were climbing yet another set of stairs to somewhere else--the bell tower above. So I followed the bells...the bells...

I climbed still higher, keeping a good handhold on the stone wall and whatever else was at hand. The stairs became steeper and more narrow.  Definitely one-way traffic here--people coming down had the right of way. I wasn't quite sure where these stairs were going, but I soon realized that I was behind the face of the clocks at the top of the bell tower. (You can continue on up a ladder--I elected not to--but it's windowless and dark up there, according to a few who braved it.) The clock room was beautiful, though.

The hard part was coming back down through the trap door in the floor, placing each foot carefully on each narrow wooden stair as I descended. But I made it without any trouble, and went on to see other wonders in the church. 

A significant portion of the church is being excavated, as a thousand years of history revealed themselves below the floors of the East Kirk during renovations. We were allowed to walk through the excavations, which were pretty amazing. As I picked my way down the catwalks into the site, I felt like I was traveling back in time 400, 500, 1000 years, to 1700, 1500, 1100, and perhaps earlier. The archaeological team continues to uncover ancient walls and artifacts.

Here are a few pictures of the excavation site, showing the old walls that were uncovered as the team dug out 12-15 feet of soil. Hundreds of burials were carefully removed and preserved for future re-interment in the church when everything is analyzed.

Overall view of the archaeological site:

Exposed medieval wall under current foundation

Right: View looking into St. Mary's Chapel, from the excavation site below

Left: Don't drink that coffee. (It's incredibly dusty at the site!)

 Left: Medieval (?) wall--work in progress.














 Right: Everything is carefully tagged and catalogued.

There's much more, but that's probably plenty for the purpose of this blog. Email me if you have more questions or want to see more pictures.



St. Mary's Chapel is also being renovated, with some lovely stained-glass windows, as well as some ancient creatures at the base of each arch in the ceilings.

On my way home, I glimpsed an interesting person waiting to cross the street, perhaps a visitor from past centuries?

More later...I believe I've been "blatherin' awa'," as they say around here. Enough for now.

Next episode: a typical walk from my flat to the campus; a short walk to the North Sea coast; a few pictures from in and around Aberdeen.

Our class is on a Field School expedition next week, so I will have lots of tales to tell after we get back from that trip!

Cheers,
Mara

P.S. Let me know if you have trouble with the short videos, or if they work correctly? (I'm new to this.)