Invergordon, Scotland, UK
So my full day in Invergordon was on September 22nd. Invergordon is a small town in the Scottish Highlands near where my ancestors are from.
Gavin, my tour guide, the owner of Invergordon Tours, had picked me up from the train station the night before and given my inability to cook or wash dishes, offered to come over in the morning and make me breakfast. He was of course wearing his kilt and he made me toast and two poached eggs, I also had OJ and a banana.
We took off around 930 and went to the Heritage Center in Alness, a town nearby. Joan Ross was the name of a woman working there and she called up her friend, another Ross, and we chatted on the phone. They were all very nice there!
Next we went to the Logie Easter burial ground, where my fourth great grandfather, Donald Ross, his wife, and one of their sons are buried. I have seen the headstone online but it is more magnificent in person. To my surprise, there were remnants of fake flowers there. Gav offered to laminate a note I wrote and leave it there against the grave in case anyone comes to visit. Next we visited the parish church, just for fun, but it was locked. I’ll have to track down where the cemetery records went to.
Next Gav took me to Tain to try some real Scottish Whisky at the one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, originally founded in 1790, BalBlair distillery. It was definitely better than whisky in the states but still not my cup of tea. A bunch of Ross’s run the place and they have a “Wall of Ross’s” which is very cool. Julie Ross was the one that walked me around and let me try the whisky, she was super nice!
We went to the ocean and I put my hand in :) There were sea shells everywhere!
For lunch we ate at a chain called Harry Gow, they have sandwiches and pastries. It was great! Across the street is the Dornoch Cathedral, where Madonna’s son was baptized. We wentinside and looked around, it’s beautiful!
The farm where my ancestors worked and lived is called Meddat (“Med-it”) and the land is still being farmed today. We drove around it and spoke to the people who moved in around Nov of 2013. They’re very nice but they didn’t know anything about the farm or the people that used to live there. Still very nice and let me take photos.
It rained for a little bit but we headed to the Falls of Shin waterfall and ended up seeing salmon swimming upstream trying to jump up the falls. Ive never seen anything like it!!! After that Gav stopped near a herd of sheep so I could take photos and try to pet one (it didn’t work).
Later we met up with Samantha (Sam) Ross whose family lived and worked very near to mine. We may be related but i guess we won’t know unless we doing a DNA test! Either way she was totally into all of the history and the stuff I dug up. She was super nice and now we are facebook friends! We talked for over an hour and I got to meet her dog Alvin, her husband Lee, and one of her kids, Mason. I loved it!
A double rainbow was a perfect way to end the day and Gavin dropped me back at the house. I walked to a place called Tucker’s Inn for dinner and a point and then went to bed!