On Monday morning we picked up the rental car in Edinburgh and (thanks to M&K's loaned nav system) made it first to Rosslyn chapel of Da vinci Code fame, and then to Wilsontown, the home of some Nimmo ancestors which is out in the wilds about halfway beween Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Rosslyn chapel was intriguiing with very detailed stone carving, including an angel playing the bagpipes. However, quite a few of the Da Vinci code bits were of course not there in reality!
There is now a newly built residential subdivision near the original site of Wilsontown which is now commonly known as Wilsontown. The old site is now just a grassy, scrubby, area with scarcely a sign of the bustling iron works and village that briefly existed there in the mid 19th century. The old town area is being developed as walking tracks with historical interpretations by the Scottish Forestry Commission (a bit surprisingly).
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| Rosslyn chapel - more popular these days than pre Dan Brown. |
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| Where old Wilsontown once was. |
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| Nimmo's were here. |
Cleugh Farm, once in the Nimmo family, is just down the road. We were rudely taking pictures of the farm when the current farmer noticed, came over for a chat, and then kindly showed us the old farm house (from outside, as his wife was not quite so keen on visitors). It's still an operating farm but also offers B&B accommodation. We were not the first "Nimmo" visitors, and probably won't be the last as Janet's brother is planning a root finding trip later this year. We think the next Nimmo visitor should do the decent thing and stay at the farm B&B!
We staying the night in Ayr where we were very generously looked after by Kathleen and Robbie.
Tuesday we visited the local sites with K&R kindly acting as guides. Robbie Burns, Scotland's most famous poet) was born nearby in Ayrshire. He still has a strong following today with Burns clubs all over the place. We saw the cottage where he was born, the Burns monument, the farm he worked before turning to poetry, and the "Bachelors Club" he founded. Everyone should read his poem Tam'o'shanter - it is hilarious. We saw the auld Kirk where the witches were dancing, and the brig-a-doon (bridge over the Doon) over which Tam escaped from his pursuers, places that actually featured in the poem.
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| Auld Kirk. |
Later we went to see Castle Culzean, for centuries the seat of the Kennedy clan although now under the National Trust of Scotland. Interestingly Culzean has a silent "z" in the local lingo, just like Dalziell!
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| Robbie, Kathleen, and Janet at Culzean Castle. |
We finished off the day with coffee and eats at the Trump Turnberry golf club (owned now by Donald Trump hence the self effacing new name), then had to sadly farewell our hosts and head off to Glasgow ready for the next leg.
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