The Gathering

I have a particular fondness for Scotland, as those of you who know me will be well aware. It's a beautiful country, both soft and hard, rolling and jagged. It's a Romantic country, with hidden edges that aren't as romantic when you're there. And, for me, it's a part of family history and identity, and a personal link to and with people I love. In 2013 I visited Ullapool and the surrounding area, including Little Loch Broom where my great grandfather was born. Now I have visited Strathpeffer, more MacKenzie country and seat of Castle Leod, and it was quite nice to do so with my grandmother.


Every 5 years the MacKenzie Society of Scotland & the UK have an international Gathering - though they wouldn't kick an international out in another year, it's just a good excuse to try and round people up from across the globe. The Scots were a good bunch for immigration, both from an entrepreneurial spirit and, all too often, need. This year it means MacKenzies from the Netherlands, from Germany, from Australia; Canadian MacKenzie, French MacKenzies (who speak very little English), and 13 MacKenzies from New Zealand (or Aotearoa, if you're trying to beat the Australians in the MacKenzie Clan March around the field). I may have missed out a country or two though I hope not - forgive me if I did.

So on Friday 7 August I caught a train to Inverness from London. I left around midday and got in at 8.30. It was a long journey but there was some fantastic scenery, and it was all new - last time I came South to Inverness, not North. It was beautiful, as I expected. I would like to visit Aviemore and Pitlochry some time. I was also kept entertained (at times) by a small child who played peed-a-boo and then met some other children who had been constructing some animals from cardboard, and who gave him the gift of a blue fish.

This way to the village of Strathpeffer.

The Highland Games had been going all week, based in the castle grounds just shy of the small village of Strathpeffer, and there were a range of events organised. My grandmother and her friend were over in the UK, and attended many of these, from whiskey tasting to trips out and about. There were forts and castles and hills to see, and plenty of lunches and dinners. On Friday night there was a caileidh I was very sorry to miss - apparently Grandma impressed many with her dancing skills. She has always loved dancing.

I was met off the train by some of Grandma's friends, who stayed in her house recently while she was in Tasmania. They were wonderful. I bumbled off the train with my green backpack and wandered down - they were waiting at the end with a sign and a hug from each of them. They drove me to their house and a delicious pasta dinner they'd prepared for my late arrival, gave me whiskey and ginger ale, told me stories, offered me a bed. An old friend of my grandparents' who I had met before on occasions when he's visited NZ - think a stereotype Scot, no-nonsense, real Highland brogue all but impenetrable, passion for the languages of land - popped round. Then I went to a warm bed and slept, and in the morning was filled with sausages and bacon and toast and eggs and (oh yes!) black pudding. I am still so often taken by surprise by how hospitable and kind people can be. It's a marvelous thing. (So is a good black pudding.)

The tree planted for Grandpa in the MacKenzie castle grounds.

Grandma and her friend picked me up in their hired car (after joining breakfast for a wee kipper or two) and we drove the half hour or so to Strathpeffer, managing not to get too lost. We drove through Dingwall (lolz! What a name) and turned down a small straight road with trees planted either side - and there, then, was the entrance to the castle, being guarded by a handful of men in kilts on their way to the games. We were allowed through the gates - we were staying in the Castle.

In the grounds there is a field full of trees, some very old and large, and some new. One was planted for my grandfather - Poet, Lieutenant to the Caberfeidh, and Commissioner - in 2004. It seems odd that it's been so long. The tree is small but growing well.

Then the Games - with a fantastic pipe band playing at intervals throughout the day, walking around the feild surrounded by spectators MacKenzie and otherwise, and by stalls selling tartan and soaps and trinkets and various kinds of fast food. There were individual pipers playing in the corners all afternoon, dancers on the stage kicking their legs, competing for the best. A pit was set up for throwing things, the track prepared for runners and cyclists. I believe there was caber tossing, although I managed to miss it - I was walking up the hills, covering my shoes with mud and admiring the shapes and colours of the land. There were wild flowers in fantastic shades - those purples and yellows - grass in the paddocks heading up the hill, then ferns, suddenly, abruptly, on the other side of a stone fence.

Oh I do love a good piping band!

Colours I missed

Looks across farmland

There was a banquet. It was formal. I helped with the flower arrangements by running down to the stream and bringing back brown-tinged water, I ate food (it was good, and some of it involved salmon) and talked, I encouraged further creation of hats from the large red napkins we were given (it was a formal event after all). We retired back to the castle - and I must thank the Caberfeidh and his family again for letting me stay there - where I slept on an incredibly comfortable mattress on the floor and drank whiskey with Grandma and compainion while uselessly attempting to help with the crossword. I was never that good at crosswords. Or Scrabble. Too much pressure.

Did we down all the whisky? Did we ever finish the crossword? Find out in the next installment!

A gorgeous wee spider I found beneath a tree hundreds of years old.