This page is being built to asist family who intend travelling back to Scotland to find their roots or to continue with their research.  It is a page for you to contribute with an article recording your travels stories with hints, accommodation suggestions, walking trails, people etc.  Contact:  Lindy Daniell - National Secretary.
  
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.”    (Editors Note: Sadly the Spittal burnt down in August 2014.  Photo looking towards Spittal Hotel supplied by Hugh Francis)
 
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.” 

 

 

Jeanne Ayson, daughter of Late Chief Peter Ayson, visited Scotland in 2019.

“The weather isn’t usually like this” we were told, when we spent an interesting weekend in Glenshee in late June.  The sunshine brought out the hikers on the trails,  and the speeding motorcyclists on the Glenshee -Braemar highway.  The Spittal has been a place of refuge since at least 961AD but for us, Emma, George and me, it was a quiet family pilgrimage destination.  

The plan had been to stay in Glenshee and walk the old Cateran trails.  These paths had been used by the cattle thieves from the 13-17^th centuries as they slipped into Glenshee and neighbouring glens from the north and west to steal cattle and horses.  One of the last raids in the Glenshee area involved 500 thieves, and over 2700 head of cattle. The local clansmen ambushed the raiding party winning the day but losing 400 men.

The Cateran tracks were easily accessible on foot from Dalmunzie Castle Hotel, a ramshackle place with a great chef, tired rooms but enough charm to entice a visitor back.  This castle in its present form was built as a private home for Sir Archibald Birkmyre, who had received a Baronetcy for services in WW1.

The Dalmunzie estates were established in 1510 when land was granted to John Fergusson of Dunfallandy.  I couldn’t help dwelling on the fact that in 1768, 40 families paid rent on the Dalmunzie and Invereddrie lands but by 1880 there were only 2 tenants and 5 families left.  I have read that many of the houses were burnt down in what is known as the “Sutherland” fashion and walking through the area where the houses had been, it was clear any sign of that once traditional highland community was completely erased.  I wondered how the Ayson and Lamond families were affected when the laird turned on his own people.

We had the very good fortune to meet Jean Lindsay, a local farmer who has met and corresponded with Aysons through the years.  We enjoyed a lunch with her in nearby Kirkmichael, and she was able to point out places of interest and talk farming.  We saw both the Ayson and Lamond houses from the road, and Jean was able to tell us the Ayson house had been let and that the current tenant wasn’t particularly approachable.

Running short on time we decided to walk from the hotel and up the glen to a high ridge which gave us a commanding view back down the glen and the opportunity to peer over into the next. Stone walls stretched across the valley and as far as one could see up the mountain slope on the far side.  I hoped our family weren’t the ones lugging all those stones around.

It was soggy under foot with long tussocky grasses, mosses and large black slugs. Highland cattle and a large deer herd grazed on the slopes.  According to Jean there had been a rapid increase in wild deer in the area and from a distance we were unsure whether the herd was farmed or wild, it didn’t really matter as we kept well out of the way.

 

Jean also met us at the Glenshee church, showing us inside and pointing out the standing stone known as the Parliament Stone on a small hillock behind the church.  It is believed the King of Scotland would hold council there when he was on hunting trips in the then Royal Forests. In the walled graveyard, we saw Lamond graves and the Ayson plaque along with others that have been put up since the Ayson one.

Our 30 hours in Glenshee passed to quickly, always a sign of a good trip.  Next time I would like to go back in winter, stay again at the Dalmunzie, and walk further along those trails.