Raasay

I had a great day yesterday, me and mum went to this island of raasay where my great great great grandfather lived. Its about a 15 minute ferry ride from skye which is a bigger island. we got off the ferry and we were bagpiped from the pier to the mainland! not just me and mum there was a group of us mcleod descendants going too.

I cant explain why really, but me and mum were both moved and mum was in tears as it was our first time there. It was kind of a special feeling that i cant explain. it was funny cause we have been to all these other islands where we had descendants too but for some reason this one seemed to have an effect on us!!!

Anyway we went to this outdoor centre and the group of us had a tug of war contest, we lost to the winners but beat another team. We went for a walk like a hike and funnily enough had to come back a bit early cause mum left her bag there at the centre. and guess what Jeremy had stayed behind talking to this lady from the island and it turned out she was our cousin, same ggg grandfather.

She told us some stories about them and how they had been moved from place to place before they refused and had their house burnt and baby left outside in the cold by the local powers that be!! really sad. Then she sang us this beautiful song in gaelic (native language of this place) about how they had to leave, very powerful .

At night we had fireworks at the castle and a scottish dance ceileh, where everyone gets up and does an item. our group did a play which i and another guy wrote and narrated in a funny Scottish accent like one of the guys here. The play was about some of the mcleod myths which I can explain later.