Baden-Powell Council BSA
at the
2006 Blair Atholl Patrol Jamborette
After the Jamborette
Once the Jamborette was over, the Scouts each went home with a Scottish Scout for four days of home visitation. Two of the leaders, Pete and Joe, also chose home visitation, while Jerry and I rented a car and drove north from Blair Atholl into the Cairngorms, then northeast to the Black Isle and Aberdeenshire, and back to meet the group in Edinburgh for the flight home.
 Urquhart Castle, overlooking Loch Ness |
 Fortrose Cathedral on the Black Isle, northeast of Inverness |
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 Loch an Eilean on the Rothiemurchus Estate in the Cairngorms. The name means "Lake of the Island" |
 This is the Island - the castle filling the island once belonged to the "Wolf of Badenoch" in the 14th century, and it featured in one episode of Monarch of the Glen, when Archie and Katrina rowed a boat out to meet "H" in the castle. |
 The Bridge of Carr was built in Carrbridge in 1717 to carry pack trains over the River Dulnain. |
 The ruins of Elgin Cathedral, which dates back to the thirteenth century. It was burned by the "Wolf of Badenoch" (remember him?) in the fourteenth century, rebuilt, and used until Henry VIII took it from the Church in 1567. The deterioration of the Cathedral began when the lead roofing was stripped away. In 1711 the central tower collapsed, taking most of the structure with it. What remains is still beautiful, a mere hint of what once was. |
 Woodston Fishing Station, a B&B in St. Cyrus, south of Aberdeen. Our room was in a garret overlooking the sea, complete with brass telescope in the window. It was straight out of the "Ghost & Mrs. Muir" - I kept waiting for the ghost to walk through the wall. |
 This is St. Cyrus Beach, now a nature preserve. It was used for many years for netting salmon to be iced and sent to London by train - our B&B was originally a fishing station with underground icehouse. The big rock in this picture supports what little remains of the castle in which the Cannibal Laird of St. Cyrus spent his years of exile. It seems that the Laird had an argument with the local Sherriff, about which he complained to the King, who told him that for all he cared, the Laird could make soup of the Sherriff -which the Laird did. Unfortunately, the King didn't remember his suggestion (moral: always get it in writing), and the Laird had to go into exile in the castle on the rock. |
 Duffus Castle is north of Elgin, near Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth. How could we pass up a castle named "duffus"? In any case, it's a good example of a "motte and bailey" castle - an enclosure built on a steep man-made hill, surrounded by a wall. Unfortunately, while the hill was sufficient for the original wooden castle, it wouldn't support the stone replacement, and subsided, bringing down the castle walls. |
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 Dunnottar Castle at Stonehaven, south of Aberdeen |
 The Gaelic Chapel, Cromarty, on the Black Isle northeast of Inverness |
 St. Giles Church and square, Elgin |
 Kirriemuir - home of J.S. Barrie The statue is Barrie's best known creation, Peter Pan |
 The village of Cromarty is on the Eastern end of the Black Isle, a compact "planned community" of the 18th century. The "Sutors" (an old Gaelic word meaning "shoemakers") frame the inlet at Cromarty Harbor. |
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