It seems fitting, in some way, that although I left without any need to find myself, I am here in the land of my ancestors finding shit out about myself. Well, not really about me, just about where I came from; my roots, if you will. I'm glad I saved this part for last (or close enough to last). It seems to wrap things up well. This post will be about Inverness and Grantown, but mostly about the Clan Grant, so if you don't care about cool shit this will bore you.
First, Inverness (pro
nounced in.ver.ness). Inverness is located at the north end of Loch Ness, the famous lake with the monster, Nessie, which I'll talk about my experience with later. It's fairly small, but then so are most cities in Scotland. It has a castle that they rebuilt after destruction, but you can't go inside unless you are going to court. The town also is along the sea, though there aren't many great places to hangout along it.
The historical importance for the Grants is that this is where the public record of the surname pops up. The first Grant of record was Sir Lawrence le Grant, sheriff of Inverness in 1260. As time went on the clan took as much advantage of feudalism as possible. The system makes those who own land powerful. Over time, the Grants main territory was that of the northwest Loch Ness and that of Strathspey (this is where more than half of the scotch whisky distillers are) and Rothiemurchas in the highlands. Some of my favorite legends are that the Grants decended from Odin and that the name was given for their grand feats of valour, and another was that they were descendants of the first king of Scotland along with the MacGregors.
Anyhow, the part that lived on the west of Loch Ness at one time were given a castle by the king of England. We weren't the first, but we were the last. The story goes that the king Alexander in the 1200's established the early design of the castle (though there was likely a stronghold there before that was owned by local picts) when he defeated an uprising and used it to put some loyalists there to control further uprisings. Later, during the time of Scotland's war for independence, think William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, the castle switched hands a bunch. Then, the MacDonalds came and started fucking shit up trying to gain power. They held it for a time till the Crown seized it back and gave it to the Grants. The Grants had it mostly, every now and again the MacDonalds would come and raid it or briefly take it, for two hundred years till they were ordered by the king to blow it up in 1692. Then a big storm and local inhabitants taking materials finished the job a few decades later and you get what you see today.
I decided I would ride a bike there as the weather had been decent recently. This proved to be wet and cold. It was 16 miles, mostly uphill, to the castle from Inverness and the rain came intermittently while the headwind was constant. It was enough of a pain in the add that I took a bus back. I did stop at the Nessie museum, but didn't feel like paying to go in. Mostly, it was to get out of the rain and dry off a little. The castle is obviously in ruins, but it is really worth seeing because it sits on a corner of land right on Loch Ness and still has enough structure left to be interesting from that perspective.
Back in Inverness, I had a great time with the guys and gals working for the hostel, as well as some people just visiting. We went out 2 of the nights I was there. Nothing hard, just cause we didn't want to sit around. The first night there was a bar with an authentic "band" playing. I put quotes because its not a band in the traditional sense; the musicians don't really know each other, or at least don't practice together. They just show up and jam out traditional Scottish folk music. It was neat to see, and really amazing how good they were without practicing with each other. I was told that it is rare to still find this today. After returning to the hostel, each female staff member tried to have a 3 some with another female staff member and her boyfriend. The boyfriend wasn't super thrilled (nor would I have been if you follow me) scared one away, who was a lesbian, by chasing her around the kitchen with his dick out. Good times...
Anyway, the next stop was Grantown-On-Spey, or just Grantown (pronounced Gran.ton) for short. As the name implies, it was a town that was built by the clan in the latter part of the 1700's. It was an effort to keep the Clan strong during a time when all the wealthy land owners were clearing their lands (including the Grants) by bringing in industry and jobs to keep the Clan from moving away. It turns out the Grants did a pretty good job, esp compared to other clan's wealthy members that just told their the poorer farming members to fuck off. Sure, its not a city, just a small town, but it has everything you need. Plus, its surrounded by awesome forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, and the ocean is only about 30 min away. I was welcomed to the town with the weather alternating between snow and sun, my favorite things. I spent that day walking around the streets and if I felt like it, could've walked the whole town in a few hours. But, instead I went the museum, which was funny it a way only a small town could do.
The whole area is full of Grant things. The clan center, which is in an old church and graveyard is in Duthil (pronounced doof.il). I went there on my second day but was thwarted because it was closed. I asked a the only villager I could find (it was the only house with smoke) and apparently it is never open, though they say so on their website. Bummer. So, I came back to Grantown and walked to the Castle Grant. It's a mile through some country roads from town. Unfortunately, the Grants hadn't been keeping the castle up and it began to go into ruin. Also, coming on hard times, the Lord of the Clan decided to sell it. So, now its outside the family and we aren't allowed visits. The roads do provide some nice views though, and I probably freaked out the family when I was staring at it trying to imagine what it was like awhile back. I didn't mind so much that its outside the Clan now, esp considering that it wasn't built for us. We seiged it cause the last owner was pissing everyone in the area off, and cut off his head. Then, we took over the castle and the Clan hung his skull in the castle and no one tried to take that castle back (I wonder why? Oh yeah, I wouldn't want to fuck with a bunch of violent wackos either)
There were two other places I wanted to visit of clan importance before leaving. One, is another castle, Ballindalloch, which was built and has stayed its entire life under Grant ownership. However, right before I was going to attempt to make an enormous effort getting there, I received an email from the Lady of the castle, telling me it'd be closed till Easter. Side note - An interesting thing I learned about it, is that apparently one wing is haunted - end. Instead, I wandered the woods nearby having a one sided dialogue with my ancestors. Oh, and the effort I mentioned to see the other castle would have most likely consisted of the easier part being hitching a ride back, which I did the day before from the clan center; my first hitch hike! The guy was some sort of ski instructor to ski instructors worldwide.
The other place, which I will try to visit tomorrow on my way to Edinburgh is a mountain next to Aviemore. The story behind it, is that it is the mountain on our clan crest. On the crest, there is a hill/mountain, called Craig Elachie, on fire. To call the Clan together for war, they'd set the mountain on fire. Our motto is "Stand Fast Craig Elachie". The stand fast part came from a legend of our supposed real name barer, a Norse king Haakon Magnus, that when ambushed with no weapon at hand, he ripped a tree from the earth to defeat the enemy and protect his men.
There are many more cool stories of treachery, legendary acts, and feuds if you go look us up on Wikipedia or our clan website. Some interesting facts are, the "black watch" tartan was our hunting tartan. We have 4 scotch whisky distilleries - Grants, Glenfiddich (voted best scotch whisky in the world), Glen Grant (only scotch whisky with owners name), and Glenfarcas. We were the last clan to use the fiery cross - clans used to light a cross on fire and go village to village to gather men for an emergency. The last time it was used was in the late 1800's when a Grant was running for governor and his opposition surrounded his house and was threatening the family. The Lady of the house (I'm assuming its a giant house, almost a castle), sent a messenger to a nearby Clan village and they lit the fiery cross. 800 pissed off Grants showed up and the threat quickly disbanded. The mayor of the town had to beg the Grants to not destroy the city for allowing the thing to happen.
It has been so awesome being here, I'm almost giddy. Growing up, I haven't really gotten a great outlook on my heritage. I was told that we were thieves and pirates and are almost cursed to fuck shit up. After being here, I see that while that may be true for some Grants, it hasn't been our heritage. What an amazing time, so glad I came. Tattoo. That's all I got for now.
D
PS I tried haggas. It wasn't awful, but I definitely couldn't set more than several bites.
First, Inverness (pro
nounced in.ver.ness). Inverness is located at the north end of Loch Ness, the famous lake with the monster, Nessie, which I'll talk about my experience with later. It's fairly small, but then so are most cities in Scotland. It has a castle that they rebuilt after destruction, but you can't go inside unless you are going to court. The town also is along the sea, though there aren't many great places to hangout along it.
The historical importance for the Grants is that this is where the public record of the surname pops up. The first Grant of record was Sir Lawrence le Grant, sheriff of Inverness in 1260. As time went on the clan took as much advantage of feudalism as possible. The system makes those who own land powerful. Over time, the Grants main territory was that of the northwest Loch Ness and that of Strathspey (this is where more than half of the scotch whisky distillers are) and Rothiemurchas in the highlands. Some of my favorite legends are that the Grants decended from Odin and that the name was given for their grand feats of valour, and another was that they were descendants of the first king of Scotland along with the MacGregors.
Anyhow, the part that lived on the west of Loch Ness at one time were given a castle by the king of England. We weren't the first, but we were the last. The story goes that the king Alexander in the 1200's established the early design of the castle (though there was likely a stronghold there before that was owned by local picts) when he defeated an uprising and used it to put some loyalists there to control further uprisings. Later, during the time of Scotland's war for independence, think William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, the castle switched hands a bunch. Then, the MacDonalds came and started fucking shit up trying to gain power. They held it for a time till the Crown seized it back and gave it to the Grants. The Grants had it mostly, every now and again the MacDonalds would come and raid it or briefly take it, for two hundred years till they were ordered by the king to blow it up in 1692. Then a big storm and local inhabitants taking materials finished the job a few decades later and you get what you see today.
I decided I would ride a bike there as the weather had been decent recently. This proved to be wet and cold. It was 16 miles, mostly uphill, to the castle from Inverness and the rain came intermittently while the headwind was constant. It was enough of a pain in the add that I took a bus back. I did stop at the Nessie museum, but didn't feel like paying to go in. Mostly, it was to get out of the rain and dry off a little. The castle is obviously in ruins, but it is really worth seeing because it sits on a corner of land right on Loch Ness and still has enough structure left to be interesting from that perspective.
Back in Inverness, I had a great time with the guys and gals working for the hostel, as well as some people just visiting. We went out 2 of the nights I was there. Nothing hard, just cause we didn't want to sit around. The first night there was a bar with an authentic "band" playing. I put quotes because its not a band in the traditional sense; the musicians don't really know each other, or at least don't practice together. They just show up and jam out traditional Scottish folk music. It was neat to see, and really amazing how good they were without practicing with each other. I was told that it is rare to still find this today. After returning to the hostel, each female staff member tried to have a 3 some with another female staff member and her boyfriend. The boyfriend wasn't super thrilled (nor would I have been if you follow me) scared one away, who was a lesbian, by chasing her around the kitchen with his dick out. Good times...
Anyway, the next stop was Grantown-On-Spey, or just Grantown (pronounced Gran.ton) for short. As the name implies, it was a town that was built by the clan in the latter part of the 1700's. It was an effort to keep the Clan strong during a time when all the wealthy land owners were clearing their lands (including the Grants) by bringing in industry and jobs to keep the Clan from moving away. It turns out the Grants did a pretty good job, esp compared to other clan's wealthy members that just told their the poorer farming members to fuck off. Sure, its not a city, just a small town, but it has everything you need. Plus, its surrounded by awesome forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, and the ocean is only about 30 min away. I was welcomed to the town with the weather alternating between snow and sun, my favorite things. I spent that day walking around the streets and if I felt like it, could've walked the whole town in a few hours. But, instead I went the museum, which was funny it a way only a small town could do.
The whole area is full of Grant things. The clan center, which is in an old church and graveyard is in Duthil (pronounced doof.il). I went there on my second day but was thwarted because it was closed. I asked a the only villager I could find (it was the only house with smoke) and apparently it is never open, though they say so on their website. Bummer. So, I came back to Grantown and walked to the Castle Grant. It's a mile through some country roads from town. Unfortunately, the Grants hadn't been keeping the castle up and it began to go into ruin. Also, coming on hard times, the Lord of the Clan decided to sell it. So, now its outside the family and we aren't allowed visits. The roads do provide some nice views though, and I probably freaked out the family when I was staring at it trying to imagine what it was like awhile back. I didn't mind so much that its outside the Clan now, esp considering that it wasn't built for us. We seiged it cause the last owner was pissing everyone in the area off, and cut off his head. Then, we took over the castle and the Clan hung his skull in the castle and no one tried to take that castle back (I wonder why? Oh yeah, I wouldn't want to fuck with a bunch of violent wackos either)
There were two other places I wanted to visit of clan importance before leaving. One, is another castle, Ballindalloch, which was built and has stayed its entire life under Grant ownership. However, right before I was going to attempt to make an enormous effort getting there, I received an email from the Lady of the castle, telling me it'd be closed till Easter. Side note - An interesting thing I learned about it, is that apparently one wing is haunted - end. Instead, I wandered the woods nearby having a one sided dialogue with my ancestors. Oh, and the effort I mentioned to see the other castle would have most likely consisted of the easier part being hitching a ride back, which I did the day before from the clan center; my first hitch hike! The guy was some sort of ski instructor to ski instructors worldwide.
The other place, which I will try to visit tomorrow on my way to Edinburgh is a mountain next to Aviemore. The story behind it, is that it is the mountain on our clan crest. On the crest, there is a hill/mountain, called Craig Elachie, on fire. To call the Clan together for war, they'd set the mountain on fire. Our motto is "Stand Fast Craig Elachie". The stand fast part came from a legend of our supposed real name barer, a Norse king Haakon Magnus, that when ambushed with no weapon at hand, he ripped a tree from the earth to defeat the enemy and protect his men.
There are many more cool stories of treachery, legendary acts, and feuds if you go look us up on Wikipedia or our clan website. Some interesting facts are, the "black watch" tartan was our hunting tartan. We have 4 scotch whisky distilleries - Grants, Glenfiddich (voted best scotch whisky in the world), Glen Grant (only scotch whisky with owners name), and Glenfarcas. We were the last clan to use the fiery cross - clans used to light a cross on fire and go village to village to gather men for an emergency. The last time it was used was in the late 1800's when a Grant was running for governor and his opposition surrounded his house and was threatening the family. The Lady of the house (I'm assuming its a giant house, almost a castle), sent a messenger to a nearby Clan village and they lit the fiery cross. 800 pissed off Grants showed up and the threat quickly disbanded. The mayor of the town had to beg the Grants to not destroy the city for allowing the thing to happen.
It has been so awesome being here, I'm almost giddy. Growing up, I haven't really gotten a great outlook on my heritage. I was told that we were thieves and pirates and are almost cursed to fuck shit up. After being here, I see that while that may be true for some Grants, it hasn't been our heritage. What an amazing time, so glad I came. Tattoo. That's all I got for now.
D
PS I tried haggas. It wasn't awful, but I definitely couldn't set more than several bites.
It's remarkable that you found out so much about your history. I have no idea where the Lee name comes from. Probably just some really awesome korean bbq cooks.
ReplyDeleteAlso, is Grantime anything like Hammertime?
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was pretty sweet. I think its more like beer 30 than hammertime...
ReplyDelete