Trip to Scotland 1983: Four and half months in the Highlands and Islands

**DCampbell16B** · 5th January 24, 05:49 AM

Church morning. Sermon 1 hour in Gaelic. Took bath. Went walk with D, strained? Met Dandaidh, Donald Maclean at shore. Also other boys 17-20? all Gaelic. Donald very Ness accent. Too late for church evening. Broke Sabbath by watching beginning of My Fair Lady. Evening in kitchen w/ An, C, F and D, so on. [I think I meant F's girls].

A walk on a Sunday afternoon was the only acceptable pastime.

**Jock Scot** · 8th January 24, 06:24 AM

Do I detect a hint of boredom within the story setting in? I am not surprised, a couple of weeks out there fishing is enough for me!

**DCampbell16B** · 9th January 24, 08:42 AM

Well, sort of! But also, no. Part of the reason I wanted to stay out there was to see what living in Scotland was like in reality. Not the "Tartan Twilight Tourist Tat" world. Real living isn't necessarily excitement every day. Unless you're Tom Cruise. Which I am not.

So in effect, I was putting less in the journal because I found I was living normally each day. Not that really interesting things didn't continue to happen, which I did write down.

**DCampbell16B** · 10th January 24, 05:05 AM

And I do need to get back to making entries. I started when I had time on my hands due to a serious health issue. "I got better." (How long will it take to identify that simple quote?). So I find myself busier, and also easily distracted.

**PassingW** · 10th January 24, 07:26 AM

Monthy Python - "She turned me into a newt!"

**DCampbell16B** · 10th January 24, 10:50 AM

PassingW wins...

bragging points.

**Jock Scot** · 11th January 24, 05:49 AM

Originally Posted by DCampbell16B

Well, sort of! But also, no. Part of the reason I wanted to stay out there was to see what living in Scotland was like in reality. Not the "Tartan Twilight Tourist Tat" world.---------------------

In my long experience of the Scottish Highlands and admittedly shorter but fairly extensive visits to the Hebrides the two places do not compare in almost every way. In my experience there are great, marked and profound differences of every day life -----------particularly on Sundays-------between the mainland of Highland Scotland and the Hebrides. In passing, Orkney and Shetland have their differences (in human outlook) too but, nowhere near as much as the Hebrides.

**DCampbell16B** · 14th January 24, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by Jock Scot

In my long experience of the Scottish Highlands and admittedly shorter but fairly extensive visits to the Hebrides the two places do not compare in almost every way. In my experience there are great, marked and profound differences of every day life -----------particularly on Sundays-------between the mainland of Highland Scotland and the Hebrides. In passing, Orkney and Shetland have their differences (in human outlook) too but, nowhere near as much as the Hebrides.

I have been thinking about what you have said here. Without a doubt my experience would have been very different if I had had the opportunity to stay in a community on the mainland. It was mere serendipity that I got to know the nephew of the folks I ended up staying with. And that was in a fairly large, but largely physically isolated, Gaelic speaking community (Lewis and Bernera Lewis, but the Islands in general). Many things were still happening out there that hadn't changed much, and I was extremely lucky to have been there, seen it, and sometimes even been a part of it.

**DCampbell16B** · 15th January 24, 05:09 AM

£1.75 map

Morning to Stornoway. Didn't feel well all day. Checked skirts [for my sisters]. Perhaps Erisort w/ skirts £40. No maps available [for the ] Uists. Perhaps go to Uists 6 days? Also K in town [their daughter and family in Stornoway]. Did not go to Ness football (darn!). Anna very busy again. Oh well, see Teacher morning with bank [I don't know what I meant here]. Will probably just have to walk in anyway, busy or no. Nice storm this evening. Watched "The Outlaw Josie Wales" on TV, "explained" some things in it to Gibb and An. C got me out of bed to chase An, she thought he was in garage. He wasn't around. Rainy night.

**DCampbell16B** · 16th January 24, 07:28 AM

Missed bank today [the bank came around in a van just like the grocery van]. Went to shore to beachcomb but need NW or N wind to blow on shore [probably Traigh Shandaidhor Traigh Crois]. Drained rings, also found three more. C wants them. An doesn't. [The mooring rings described earlier. Drained because they were cracked and no good.] Finally getting to Anna a'Mhurdaigh's tonight. Mairead from Ireland there. Anna drove us around Ness. Two very nice thatched houses between Europie and Eurodale. They've been picking on the new teacher Marion since she came, too. [The new teacher at the primary school]. Her boyfriend from Glasgow here. His family from Ness and Shabost, but chan eil Gaidhlig aig. Saw some small haystacks. Several piles twisted together [somewhat unclear, but with a poor drawing of hay twisted into a rope and around the top of the stack to hold it together]