Where in Scotland do you feel most at home?

[joette]

My sister&I were chatting on about where in the World we would live if we had endless money.
I plumped for a place in Pinner middlesex-in the centre of London in 35 mins tube permittting.A house in Logan Utah-just as you come out of Brigham Canyon it is such a beautiful,peaceful place.My Scottish pad was the hardest to decide on but would probably be Dunblane so that I could get to Glasgow with ease but still enjoy beautiful surroundings.
Margeret asked where our Ancestral Home would be which part of Scotland?
Well as I so far found Ancestors in every part of Scotland excepting so far any of the Western Isles then pretty much anywhere.
My heart sings out I am home when I drive into about Yoker then I know Mum & home are a few minutes away.I get the same feeling when heading for East Calder in West Lothian & my wee sister awaits.
The place that has disturbed me most was Glencoe-I didn't know that's where we were & I felt very overwhelmed & discomfited.
The place that sang home the first time I visited was Penicuik & I felt all my rellies that had lived there around me.I can remember touching the bricks of where i thought my Grandfather may have lived & crying my eyes out.
The place that I felt very at home in was always Partick & now I know that so many of my Mother's folk lived there.We always thought of Govan Parish as Govan proper
Funnily enough the country that made me think of home in so many ways was Egypt -the people there are so like us!
So where in Scotland have you felt most at home,where was the most suprising place to you & I suppose where did you least feel at home?
As an almost Glaswegian I should say edinburgh but that would be a lie.

[AnnetteR]

Hi Joette

Funnily enough I have thought about this subject quite a lot in the years since I started researching my family. Although born and bred in Glasgow my heart lies in Pittenweem in the beautiful East Neuk of Fife and yes, the land of my forefathers. I feel it embracing me each time I visit and like you I walk around the shore, look out at the sea that gave them their living and sadly and tragically took some of their lives away, I look at probably the same view they would have looked at each morning going out in their fishing boats and I hover around the harbour where my Great Grandmother would have gutted and cleaned the fish in all weathers. I marvel at the fact I am, without a doubt, walking exactly where they have walked all those many years ago. I feel I could almost reach out and touch them.

Thank you for bringing up this subject and let's hope we get our wishes

Cheers

Annette R

[Bertha]

hi
I know what you mean about being drawn to a place.
Every Saturday for the past 15 yrs, my sister and I have taken our mum out to lunch and a bit of shopping, we shun the big stores in Edinburgh and usually head for Musselburgh and lunch at Lucas. Can't say what actually drew us down there at first but it might be the wonderful Lucas Ice Cream, .the local shop keepers have got to know us and treat us like locals. However, a reason came to light for us feeling so much at home in the town, I found my maternal grandfather's family living round the corner from Lucas in Newbiggin in the 1901 census!
Then I found all his family came from the East Lothian area, an area my husband and I spent summer Saturdays at the beach and even felt so comfortable there that we toyed with the idea of setting up home until we took commuter traffic into consideration but its something on the back burner for when we retire along wih a little winter home in Florida! ( I love Scottish summers with the heather on the hills but I don't like the cold!).
Bertha

[WilmaM]

I'm born Glesga keelie - now transplanted to Bairnsland.

However, when I cross the water to Fermanagh it's like going home. My grand father came from Enniskillen and my Dad spent most summers there and until 'the Troubles' we did too.

In Scotland we enjoyed some good times at Sandend, on the Moray Firth between Portsoy and Cullen, my husband went there each summer too [ though we never met there - first encounter was in France before he started school ]. We love the place and the people so try to go every couple of years.

It was a wonderful surprise to me when I discovered that my Mother's side wends it's way back to that very parish So now I have an added purpose to any visits north.

I have to confess that much as I love my native city, I wouldn't want to live there - it's too noisy $

[Liz Turner]

I would have to agree with Annette about Pittenweem and the East Neuk of Fife. It is a beautiful area and it would be one of the places I would choose to live if I could. It's nice to dream from time to time about living elsewhere (like somewhere warm and sunny!) but I don't think I'd like to leave "home" permanently!

Like Annette my own forebears come from Pittenweem and the fishing villages round about Fife on one side, and from further up on the northeast round Aberdeen and Banchory, and I would recommend a visit to the area if you get the chance.

[Russell]

Although originally an East Coaster from East Lothian I realise that it is the memories, not the place, that keep in my head. This post started me thinking about my favourite spot and I realised I am in it right now !
Kilbarchan is rural but only 20 minutes from Glasgow (If I must go there ) The village is full of history and character(s). The countryside is just 2 minutes walk up the road. The Trossachs are half an hours drive away and every other part of Scotland is reachable with ease.
I quite enjoy the winter when the trees are bare and give tremendous silhouettes. Summer is never too hot and the gorgeous evening sunsets seem to last for ages.
Better still my wife agrees completely !
Contentment !!

Russell
PS I don't have a passport and the 1851 census is on line. Roll on the 1841.

[rye470]

28 years ago, as an 18 year old travel agent, I went on an educational trip to Co. Donegal. We had to travel around the county and take in various hotels and local tourist site's. I fell in love with the county immediately. It was so GREEN and peaceful. I vowed that someday I would go back and tour it properly.

Three years later I began the search which brings me here today. It took 22 years to find a lead on my fathers Alexander side, and that hit a brick wall when my Gt, Gt Grandfathers place of birth was shown as Ireland on the 1871 census. Most of us know what fun researching Ireland can be, don't we. Where do you begin?

Three months ago I was contacted by someone who said his Gt Gt Grandfather and my Gt Gt Gt Grandfather were brothers. Sure enough they were and guess where they originated. Got it in one - Donegal.



Christine.

[AnneM]

Hi

The spooky thing that I find is that if I look at the telly and without prior knowledge of where it is, a picture of near home which is Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde comes on I feel the recognition emotionally before my conscious process says "Look that's home". It's a very hard feeling to describe but is definitely visceral rather than cerebral.

Though that is home I would not really want to stay there. Ever since I was a child I've felt very at home in Edinburgh and even my youngest son describes it as my spiritual home. I remember one day on a trip there as a very young person looking from the Mound onto Princes Street and for no particular reason feeling strongly that that was where I should be. A few of my ancestors lived there for a while so that can't be the reason.

I also love the Border country where my mother's mother's father's people did live back to the C17. They were the most settled of my ancestors and were there for at least 3 centuries.

My Mum is very drawn to mid Argyll and particularly Kilmartin where her father's mother's people came from. It is great and atmospheric and so interesting with all the ancient history. If you've never been it is well worth a visit. I've felt a story about then and there coming on for a while.......

Anne

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

For me it would be the wee village of Boghead in Lanarkshire , for this sassanach who lived it the Scottish borders from the age of six and hated it, I walked into the village and felt as though loving arms were around me and they were glad I had come home. Silly I know.

Audrey

ps Glencoe did give me a very weird feeling

[Russell]

Audrey what's silly about it ?

These days everybody is in too much of a rush to get somewhere/anywhere to actually stop and take note of what they are feeling inside. If it feels good and warm and enveloping to you that's good enough.

Youre among fiends here. We all are looking back and to some extent trying to re-capture something that is gone, whether it is places or people doesn't matter.
Enjoy the feeling too many other folk have lost it.

Russell