The Tummell River, Scotland


Of Laptops and Kings
I got a new laptop this week, and as I was cleaning out the old one to sell it, I got looking through some of the images on it. The picture this week is one from two years ago that has a lot more meaning now then when it was taken, although even at the time I liked what I was shooting.
When Norma and I went to Scotland 2 years ago, we visited an area of the country just to the North of Edinburgh, Perth and the Perthshire region. After we visited there, and saw some very pretty countryside, we visited Stirling Castle before touring Edinburgh itself and then coming home. At Stirling Castle, I met a fellow genealogist, and he told me of how my ancestry could be traced to William of Scotland, who had lived in Sterling Castle, and from thence back to the very first King of Scotland – Kenneth MacAlpine, known as Kenneth 1. From Kenneth back, and in fact for Kenneth himself, there is much debate as to where historical accuracy has turned to myth, but it seems you can trace from Kenneth back to an original Scot – one Fergus Mór mac Eirc (in English: 'Fergus the Great'), who was a legendary king of Dál Riata. While his historicity may be debatable, "his posthumous importance is as the founder of Scotland in the national myth of Medieval and Renaissance..." according to the National Museum of Scotland. This would make him my oldest traced relative, by far (having lived in the 400’s), and interestingly, he is said to have lived in the Pitlochry region of Scotland, just to the north of Perth along the Tay River – almost exactly where I took this image of the Tummell River, a tributary of the Tay, at this point some 4 miles upstream of the confluence.
I look at the image now and love the scenery, with the salmon anglers in the river (we saw some large salmon just below a fish ladder!), but now I also feel the connection of an ancient tie to family long ago. Fun to think of, and Norma and I both are intending to go back.
And all because I had to clean off my MacBook Pro to sell in the process of buying a new one.
Housecleaning has its rewards.