The Glens - Our Travel Stories.

We invite you to share your travel story about your pilgrimage to where our ancestors departed in 1853 and 1856.  This could also include useful hints for finding heritage sites,  the outdoor activites you enjoyed and accommodation you would recommend.  Please supply your best photo with your article of around 500 words or less.

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Subject:  The Glens. Our Travels

GLENSHEE FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE 
  
Clan Chief Hugh Francis 1-13-3 visited the Glenshee area in 2012.   Here are some excerpts from his story:  
  
“What a surreal feeling to be standing in perhaps the very bedroom in which my great great grandmother Douglas Lamond was born over 201 years ago on February 12 1811.  This is a small cottage named Bingzeon (pronounced Bingham!). The cottage probably typical of the design in those early days has three small bedrooms upstairs and living areas downstairs.”  “The house has obviously been renovated/improved over the years, is in excellent condition; and, has been owned four to five years as a holiday place by a couple who live in Yorkshire.” 
   
 Hugh continued on his driving tour and into the Glenshee Valley.  He describes this part of the trip:  “Glenshee’s landscape at the head of the glen is quite spectacular – some of the highest peaks in Perthshire crowd in to form a rugged landscape.  The steep rocky mountainous terrain is much like regions in NZ giving way to rolling hills with fertile green farmland, fast-flowing streams, and sheep…..” 
 
“The first night was spent in the Spittal Hotel (Spittal can mean shelter) which is basic accommodation akin to an upmarket ski lodge which obviously caters for the ski field clientele a few miles north.  Although first chronicled in 961 AD, it is thought that the Spittal has been in existence on the same site for centuries prior to this date……”   “It is here that Douglas as a young lady worked before her marriage, so there is indeed a family connection with the Spittal.”  
 
Hugh drove through Cray.  “This is about 5kms from Corrydon and is where Peter Ayson was born in 1807.  There are only a few houses here…”  “Interesting to note the old Cray church (now boarded up) is rumoured to become a brewery; and, the church memorial with names has been relocated to the Spittal church.”