Wednesday we got to delve into some of my ancient family history! Since I'm a MacDougal (yes, Kelly MacDougal Wade), I was so excited about visiting the land of my ancestors. I'm proud to be a MacDougal, but I'm not sure I should be. They were in opposition to that great Scottish hero, Robert the Bruce. Apparently he killed one of the MacDougal's nephews by marriage, and well, they didn't like that. The McDougall motto is "Conquer or Die!" I think you need to say it with a deep rough voice with your hand held in a fist!
Anyway, while we were in Oban, I saw several hints to my heritage:
Okay, hardware stores and gift shops weren't exactly what I was thinking! But
Dunollie house and castle are in Oban, so we made plans to visit there. The morning before we went though, we found out that they weren't officially open to the public until next week. Bummer, but we decided to at least go take some pictures of the house and castle ruins. What a treasure we found! When we got to the house, there were a few people working there, and we asked if we could look around. We introduced ourselves, and yes, I introduced myself with my full name, and we met Elaine, the curator. She was so hospitable and generous. She basically gave us our own private tour of the house, and she told us all kinds of interesting tidbits of history about the MacDougals (or McDougalls, there's all sorts of spellings!).
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| If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can better read words. |
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| Our host, Elaine, in front of the 1745 house at Dunollie |
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| the 1745 house |
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| The kids got to be the first ones to try out a scavenger hunt at the house. |
After spending time with Elaine, we thanked her and left to walk over to see the Dunollie castle ruins. Like all the castles we've seen so far, it was so neat just to imagine what kinds of battles and experiences had happened there centuries before! And we were the only people there. Well, okay, not the only people. When we climbed up into part of the castle ruins to the second level, there were three guys hanging out having a cigarette break. I guess an 800 year old castle seems the right place to do that??
Anyway, here's few pictures of the castle.
One last note about our time at Dunolllie. While I was happy to learn about the history, part of me felt sad too, just thinking about my dad (as most of you know, he passed away last July). He would have loved to talk about what I learned. He loved history, and he also had done a lot of family genealogical research. I wish I could have talked to him after visiting Scotland. But I am thankful that he knew we were planning this trip, and he was the one who suggested we go to Oban. I have a sweet memory of him drawing a map of Scotland on a napkin at Chick fil a, showing me the way there.
2 comments:
You guys are writing this journal (blog) exactly the way I love to read it! Thank you for this beautiful journey! And Kelly, I was very touched by your memory of your Dad. Thank you for sharing.
Kelly, I didn't know MacDougals and Bruces could fight each other!! I thought about your dad too as I was reading this.
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