In Search Of My Ancestry
by Ro Jackson
29 November 2023
This year my partner Alan and I went on a 7-week trip to the United Kingdom. The main reason for the visit was to attend the Centenary of my old school St Georges in Ascot, Berkshire. We managed to combine this event with the class of 1975 reunion, most of whom I hadn’t seen for over 50 years! It was an amazing experience – just picking up where we had left off at boarding school really – giggling about teachers, boys and midnight feasts!!
More interestingly for you, our readers, was the trip that we made around Scotland. My aim was to try to visit as many places as possible where our forebears lived. I thought you may like to see some of the places we visited.
| Stirling Castle | Stirling Castle - Blacksmith’s Workshop and Stables |
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| If Robert the Bruce hadn’t assassinated Comyn the Red, Comyn may have been King of Scotland and resided here. | James Cuming spent many happy days here as a farrier prior to marrying his wife Elizabeth and returning to Canada, and later emigrating to Australia. Now a gift and ticket outlet. |
| Ruthven Barracks | Castle Roy, or the Red Castle |
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Situated on the site of the medieval castle of the Comyns near Kingussie. |
Near Grantown-on-Spey. Built by the Comyn clan during the Norman colonisation period. One of the oldest castles of its type! |
| Lochindorb Castle | Balvenie Castle |
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Lochindorb Castle is near Grantown-on-Spey and was held by the Comyns. It was visited by Edward I of England in 1303. |
Home of the Black Comyn Earls, near Dufftown, and just next to the Glenfiddich Distillery! |
| Inverallochy Castle |
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Near Peterhead on the East Coast. Built by William Cumming! |
| Rora | Cuminestown |
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Rora is a small village South East of MacDuff in Scotland. This is where James’ Grandmother Thom lived. She used to walk 34 miles in one day in the summer to Myrus, MacDuff where Marianus and James Cuming lived, whilst knitting a man’s long stocking on the way!! What a woman! |
West of the village of Rora. |
| Myrus | |
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We searched for Myrus, the old house where Marianus, Elizabeth and James lived, one mile from MacDuff, but it looked as though it had long disappeared. |
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| Inverlochy Castle | |
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Inverlochy Castle is near Fort Williams in the West of Scotland. It was built in about 1280 by the 'Red' Comyns, lords of Badenoch and Lochaber, to command the southern end of the Great Glen. As we know, the Comyns were one of the most powerful families in Scotland in the 1200s, with estates ranging across the country. |
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| Kirkwall Port, Orkney Islands | Tower at Dalswinton House |
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James’ boat was dismasted in a storm travelling from Canada to Scotland. The boat ended up limping into Kirkwall Port, in at Orkney Islands. From here, James sailed on another boat back home! |
This is Comyn the Red’s Tower on the lands at Dalswinton house, near Dumfries. The land belongs to a friend of mine’s relatives: Patch and Kirsty Landale. |
| Church of the Grey Friars, Dumfries | |
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The Church of Grey Friars where Comyn the Red was murdered by Robert the Bruce in 1306. |
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