Living in Greenlaw, I thought I was living in the country but The Braes of Glenlivet, well that was the country. Glenlivet is in the Grampian Mountain range, near the Cairngorms. Right in the middle of the Highlands. About 70 miles west of Aberdeen and 50 miles SE of Inverness. There was 1 road in and that ended at the bottom of our house. Beyond there where the Ladder Hills, the other side of those was the Lecht which is now a Ski centre. The Lecht road is better known as the Cockbridge Tomintoul road, notoriously the first road closed in Scotland by snow. We moved to the Braes in the summer of '65, things were not as sophisticated as they are now. Everything was basic from shops to road clearing, to facilities.
Not only was the Braes remote but they also spoke a foreign language. Remember I had spent almost 3 years in the Scottish Borders but this language was very different. People living outside Scotland think that there is only one or maybe 2 dialects, The Glaswegian and the Western Isles dialects. They are wrong, there are lots and one of most distinctive is the Doric tongue from NE Scotland. I could get by until the likes of Robbie Lamb started. I am sure he used to put it on for us 'incomers'. Robbie was a genuine highland character, that are getting harder to find. A scruffy, dirty old man living in a caravan outside of his sisters house, why not inside I think had been lost in time. Appearances where very deceptive. Robbie was a well read and much travelled man. He wrote poetry and had several books published so we were told but I have not found any.
Duncan, much to his disgust, came with us even though he had started work back in Greenlaw. His comment was 'what am I going to do up there, run up and down hills all day?' Well I never saw him run up and down hills but I did see him love the life there and he never left, got married and bought up a family in Tomintoul, 7 miles away. He is now watching his grandkids growing up in the village. Duncan got a job as an apprentice butcher in Tomintoul. His only means of transport was a Honda 50 bike. How he managed to ride it to and from Tomintoul, up and down the hills and over open moors I will never understand but he did. That is Duncan though, the amazing things seem to come naturally to him, ask him to pass an exam, that was difficult.
It was here that I started to recovery my education. I think they put me back a year so that I was in my right age group. It was a very small secondary school and the longer I stayed, the got smaller and smaller. You were there until you were 15 and then moved to usually Keith school. When you went to Keith you had to board somewhere during the week, no official dorms. The first year in Tomintoul, the class consisted of about 5 and my last year 2. The secondary school eventually closed as you can imagine. I did not make the earth catch alight when I was there but gradually I started to learn.
Socially things picked up too. At school while it was not great, I was not really a outcast, did not really make friends though. Back at home there were a few others of Duncan's and my ages. The MacKinnon's, one boy my age and 2 girls a little younger and a boy whose dad worked a farm, he was Duncan's age. There was also Margaret whose parents owned the Bochel farm but more of them later.
Also during the summer the glen got invaded by 2 families, one from Dundee & the other from Edinburgh. Both families originated from the glen. The Dundee family, the Cameron's had 2 boy's, a toddler boy and 3 girls. They owned a cottage and spent the whole summer and most other holidays there. The Edinburgh family, the Turners were 6 girls whose mother had died. They stayed with their gran, Gran Milbank, as everyone called her, young and old. The eldest 3 were grown up and so did not stay that often, but the other 3 were like the other family and stayed whenever they could.
Whether the visiting families were there or not Gran Milbank's cottage became mine and Duncan's second home. Goodness how old she was, maybe 80's. No electric or hot water. Most things cooked on the open fire. her bed was a box bed in the living room. Tilley lamps was the only light at night. Again a different world to what I had been used to.
We also got the key to the local village hall and we had some great nights in there. They had badminton gear and played that most nights. Might not sound exciting these days but you had to learn how to make your fun then. We would take a record player. Duncan was starting up another band, this one would go far for the Highlands. he would be happy to play and practice in the hall. During the summer there would be over a dozen of us in there. Nothing nasty happened there and we did not take advantage. There were romances but not including me. I was still very immature and shy. I later learnt from one of the girls they thought I was one of the youngest instead of being older than a lot of them. Yes, I wanted a girlfriend and fancied them but did not know how to start or behave towards them properly. I was not upset though. Glad to be accepted and liked.
We would also use a variety of cars to go places like Dufftown or Grantown for chips or what ever. These places were 10-15 miles away on narrow highland roads. Almost like those 60's competitions of how many can you get in a car. It was also here that the 'with it' crowd from the big cities introduced me to the likes of Led Zepplin. I also remember Ross MacKinnon getting Sgt Pepper. He and I played it on his new Danset Stereo record player. I had never heard stereo before. I thought HiFi was the best quality sound you could get. 90% of you won't really understand what I am talking about unless you are my age.
The house that we lived in was the Chapel House attached to the catholic church. It was a big house, 4 bedrooms and 3 downstairs rooms with a scullery. My bedroom looked partly over the graveyard. It had fairly large grounds, mostly overgrown with bracken. Duncan & I were the alter boys until eventually Duncan refused. My Dad looked after the church and the vestments. Got them ready for the priest, etc. Dad had this great idea, there was a bell tower with a working bell in it but no one had been up there in years. Yes, his great idea was I was to ring it 30 mins before mass on a Sunday. Yes often you could see me in this mouldy, cobweb strewn room, rising off the floor when I forgot to let go of the rope. I bet the locals loved being woken by the bell. Mind most were catholic's in the glen. A mile or so further into the hills was a priest seminar from the 18th century. One of only 2 in the highlands in those days. They had to be kept secret or else the Redcoats would come and burn them down, as often happened to Scalan, www.scalan.co.uk
As you can tell after Greenlaw this was a great life. I was learning to like myself again. Learning about freedom and how to be me. Without wanting to be too dramatic, my life always seems to have the unexpected waiting for me. Never seems to fail me and why should my life here fail me on that point. That is for next time.
http://gerrymcgregor.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-story-part-7-life-in-highlands.html
Not only was the Braes remote but they also spoke a foreign language. Remember I had spent almost 3 years in the Scottish Borders but this language was very different. People living outside Scotland think that there is only one or maybe 2 dialects, The Glaswegian and the Western Isles dialects. They are wrong, there are lots and one of most distinctive is the Doric tongue from NE Scotland. I could get by until the likes of Robbie Lamb started. I am sure he used to put it on for us 'incomers'. Robbie was a genuine highland character, that are getting harder to find. A scruffy, dirty old man living in a caravan outside of his sisters house, why not inside I think had been lost in time. Appearances where very deceptive. Robbie was a well read and much travelled man. He wrote poetry and had several books published so we were told but I have not found any.
Duncan, much to his disgust, came with us even though he had started work back in Greenlaw. His comment was 'what am I going to do up there, run up and down hills all day?' Well I never saw him run up and down hills but I did see him love the life there and he never left, got married and bought up a family in Tomintoul, 7 miles away. He is now watching his grandkids growing up in the village. Duncan got a job as an apprentice butcher in Tomintoul. His only means of transport was a Honda 50 bike. How he managed to ride it to and from Tomintoul, up and down the hills and over open moors I will never understand but he did. That is Duncan though, the amazing things seem to come naturally to him, ask him to pass an exam, that was difficult.
It was here that I started to recovery my education. I think they put me back a year so that I was in my right age group. It was a very small secondary school and the longer I stayed, the got smaller and smaller. You were there until you were 15 and then moved to usually Keith school. When you went to Keith you had to board somewhere during the week, no official dorms. The first year in Tomintoul, the class consisted of about 5 and my last year 2. The secondary school eventually closed as you can imagine. I did not make the earth catch alight when I was there but gradually I started to learn.
Socially things picked up too. At school while it was not great, I was not really a outcast, did not really make friends though. Back at home there were a few others of Duncan's and my ages. The MacKinnon's, one boy my age and 2 girls a little younger and a boy whose dad worked a farm, he was Duncan's age. There was also Margaret whose parents owned the Bochel farm but more of them later.
Also during the summer the glen got invaded by 2 families, one from Dundee & the other from Edinburgh. Both families originated from the glen. The Dundee family, the Cameron's had 2 boy's, a toddler boy and 3 girls. They owned a cottage and spent the whole summer and most other holidays there. The Edinburgh family, the Turners were 6 girls whose mother had died. They stayed with their gran, Gran Milbank, as everyone called her, young and old. The eldest 3 were grown up and so did not stay that often, but the other 3 were like the other family and stayed whenever they could.
Whether the visiting families were there or not Gran Milbank's cottage became mine and Duncan's second home. Goodness how old she was, maybe 80's. No electric or hot water. Most things cooked on the open fire. her bed was a box bed in the living room. Tilley lamps was the only light at night. Again a different world to what I had been used to.
We also got the key to the local village hall and we had some great nights in there. They had badminton gear and played that most nights. Might not sound exciting these days but you had to learn how to make your fun then. We would take a record player. Duncan was starting up another band, this one would go far for the Highlands. he would be happy to play and practice in the hall. During the summer there would be over a dozen of us in there. Nothing nasty happened there and we did not take advantage. There were romances but not including me. I was still very immature and shy. I later learnt from one of the girls they thought I was one of the youngest instead of being older than a lot of them. Yes, I wanted a girlfriend and fancied them but did not know how to start or behave towards them properly. I was not upset though. Glad to be accepted and liked.
We would also use a variety of cars to go places like Dufftown or Grantown for chips or what ever. These places were 10-15 miles away on narrow highland roads. Almost like those 60's competitions of how many can you get in a car. It was also here that the 'with it' crowd from the big cities introduced me to the likes of Led Zepplin. I also remember Ross MacKinnon getting Sgt Pepper. He and I played it on his new Danset Stereo record player. I had never heard stereo before. I thought HiFi was the best quality sound you could get. 90% of you won't really understand what I am talking about unless you are my age.
The house that we lived in was the Chapel House attached to the catholic church. It was a big house, 4 bedrooms and 3 downstairs rooms with a scullery. My bedroom looked partly over the graveyard. It had fairly large grounds, mostly overgrown with bracken. Duncan & I were the alter boys until eventually Duncan refused. My Dad looked after the church and the vestments. Got them ready for the priest, etc. Dad had this great idea, there was a bell tower with a working bell in it but no one had been up there in years. Yes, his great idea was I was to ring it 30 mins before mass on a Sunday. Yes often you could see me in this mouldy, cobweb strewn room, rising off the floor when I forgot to let go of the rope. I bet the locals loved being woken by the bell. Mind most were catholic's in the glen. A mile or so further into the hills was a priest seminar from the 18th century. One of only 2 in the highlands in those days. They had to be kept secret or else the Redcoats would come and burn them down, as often happened to Scalan, www.scalan.co.uk
As you can tell after Greenlaw this was a great life. I was learning to like myself again. Learning about freedom and how to be me. Without wanting to be too dramatic, my life always seems to have the unexpected waiting for me. Never seems to fail me and why should my life here fail me on that point. That is for next time.
http://gerrymcgregor.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-story-part-7-life-in-highlands.html
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