My ancestors lived here. They gloried in Nature – lived close to Nature – worshipped Nature.
I feel their spirit in the stones they gathered, in the marks they carved into the rock – in the whorls and lines.
I feel their presence in the tombs and circles.
This is where they laughed and loved – where they spoke solemn words, planned, hoped and pitted their wits.
This was where they fought and made their stand.
This land has their blood and bones, and the bones of the beasts they hunted.
I feel their presence around me when I stand in the structures they left behind.
I feel the things they loved. I feel the landscape on which they depended. I feel the pleasure and the pain – the good times and hard.
They passed it down to me to cherish. They passed it down with great hope for betterment.
I feel their spirits in the land. I feel the obligation to Nature.
I hope to pass it down to mine.
This is so special, Opher. I can sense your deep love for Nature and the connection to your ancestors. Scotland looks amazing. I know there are some deeply significant sites there.
Raili – I really loved the feel of Scotland. Some of my ancestors come from there. The land is beautiful and full of Neolithic sites. You can feel the presence.
I don’t get that sense here in Canada – white settlement is brand new compared to Europe. Old historic sites here are just 300-400 years old.
Yes – that must have a different feel to it.
I’m not so sure if I’m entirely happy with English mongrel people like yourself, who are as English as bloody cricket, to be able to make any such claims to kinship with neolithic Scotland. An hours visit taking a few snaps does not give one the right to speculate any such ownership to such an exalted ancestry.
Well as my Grandfather was Scottish and a member of the Frasers I think I can confidently claim Scottish ancestry. Plus, I would add, in Neolithic times there was a great deal of common ground between the sites in the Orkneys and elsewhere in England (and Europe) so I would have connections through other relatives too.
I would take much more of a universal view than you. No blood line is pure, Scottish or English, and I am very proud of my mongrel status. My ancestry includes Irish, Scottish and English and hopefully extends even further afield than that.
All the best to you.
The Frasers? I see, and I should advise you that your assumptions are perhaps misguided.
For your information there are two completely separate Clan Frasers.
The first, Clan Fraser is based in Fraserborough in the Scottish Lowlands and originated in Anjou in France in the 10th century – some time after the neolithic period. The name Fraser is believed to be Angenin. Fraserborough is not in close proximity to the Orkneys.
The second and more recent addition, the Clan Fraser of Lovat are also strictly mainland and although thought to originate around the 10th century, did not become established until the 12th, when they moved into Stirling, Angus, Inverness and Aberdeen, again sometime after the neolithic period.
This particular Clan Fraser was involved in many clan conflicts with Clan MacDonald during the 15th and 16th centuries.
You obviously have little knowledge of the origins and blood lines of our Clan heritage, which is obvious as expressed above by your claims regarding ancestry.
Do you actually know which clan you believe to have a blood line to?
To make claim to any ancestry from the Neolithic period is somewhat far fetched if not a trifle deluded.
Well I haven’t actually followed my family tree back too far yet. My Grandfather was Scottish and a Fraser Forsythe. I’ll get round to it.
Firstly I wasn’t suggesting that we originated in the Orkneys. Secondly I have no way of following back to the Neolithic and neither does anybody else.
All I can say is that our distant ancestors probably walked those hills. Certainly, coming from Britain, I think it is safe to assume that those distant misty characters from prehistory were people that have shared this land with me and my kin and I can associate with them.
Strangely I get the same feeling of associating with North American Native Indians when standing on the side of Grand Canyon and with my long distant ancestors when standing on the African plains.
Perhaps I don’t take it as literally as you or see myself in such a restricted tribe?
Initially, I had hoped that perhaps the power of suggestion would enable the deduction of conclusion of the impossibility of following one’s genetic code back to the Neolithic era, which was indeed my point in the first place.
Given the further uncertainty of your Scottish heritage provenance with the addition of the Forsythe family, this obviously deducts claims to credible membership of the Fraser clan by fifty per cent. Why engage in this haphazard manner? In fact, the Forsythe family strengthens any claims to Scottish heritage because it is believed they originated from the Picts. Following the Cromwell era many Forsythe’s moved to Ireland, hence why this dispersion prevented any development of family clanmanship or of any significance of family historical import. Further points of issue with claims to family names are whether your ancestor/s were captives of war and renamed as such and worked in slavery by Forsythe captors etc. There are many factors to be investigated and it would be prudent to not be quite so certain of your claim until you first of all do a dna test to ascertain your own heritage. As previously indicated you could be French and many French originated from Russia, Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Etc.
This is all rather pedantic isn’t it? To delve so literally into the lineage of anybody with Sottish ancestry is a little too much for me. Having a Scottish grandfather I believe is sufficient for me. I am not hung up on the tribal nature of the various clans. It does not alter how I feel. I felt an affinity with the beauty of Scotland and its people.
If we followed the logic of your post every person in Scotland would have to go through intricate assessments of their family tree before calling themselves Scottish.
As for me – I feel a connection to the Neolithic men and women who settled in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany. That’s good enough for me whether there is a spurious genetic basis or not.
You are a most ignorant fellow who seemingly cannot be informed of any shortcomings in terms of knowledge or in this case, lack of knowledge.
You completely fail to understand the significance of what has been put in front of you. You have no knowledge of what the process of Clanmanship provenance entails. One cannot simply make such claims without family lineage proof. In your case, you don’t even seem to know which Fraser clan you hail from!
You English with your glib and flown-in cheap claims to Scottish heritage do not sit well with us.
It is not pedantic when details of lineage are a basic requirement to claim any such clan membership. You have to understand this, otherwise put up or shut up.
Your’re only making a bigger fool of yourself, or at best an annoying dreamer.
As a matter of fact, just about every person born in Scotland and of a certain educational standard does in fact go through such assessments of their family tree as this is an entity that is very much part of Scottish family culture. You as a mere English mongrel, would not have the remotest knowledge of this process and it is instances of such integral social import that separates the two cultures.
You will find that many young men awaiting their marriage ceremony will endeavour to find out their clan provenance, if unknown or uncertain, for the purposes of arranging a suitable Kilt to wear at the ceremony. This is a process of maturity that would be completely alien to an English mongrel.
Here endeth the lesson.
Well as a Lord, if that is indeed who you are or purport to be, you are an exceedingly rude person, unlike most of the pleasant Scottish people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. This tribal Scottish business is not only archaic but verging on racism. As a proud English mongrel I would point out to you that the Scottish tribe is also a mongrel tribe. Where did the Picts and Celts originate from? India wasn’t it? So don’t come this arrogant superior tone with me.
I don’t really give a shit for all your rather stupid archaic silliness of tartans and tribal associations. Who cares? This is the 21st Century. We’ve grown into a big world and are not hung up about pedigree as if we’re some dogs to be shown at Crufts. The hybrid vigour of a mongrel is of far greater potency that the inbred restrictions of a pure-bred.
I remain proud of my Scottish and Irish roots as well as my English ones and hope that further down the line there may have been genes from further abroad. I would hate to have missed out on that.
One day I will dispel my ignorance of my family tree and follow it back. No doubt it will lead me back to William Bruce or Bonnie Prince Charlie. Who knows? And who really cares?
Listen laddie, of course I am superior if your inferior knowledge level is anything to go by. This is not a case of rudeness, but your inability to allow yourself to be informed and educated on matters that are seemingly well distant from your current given learned remit. Therefore, I am forced to have to repeat myself in response to your gross stupidity as expressed within your willfully ignorant commentary. What would you expect of me? To simply let it slide, when you as a mongrel are making highly incredible statements – I don’t think so. How many times do you need to be told.
You’re talking to an expert on this subject matter, so perhaps do yourself a favour, if not on behalf of the questionable provenance of this grandfather of yours, who would probably not be quite so proud of your behavioral comments as expressed here.
Your pride cannot surely have anything to do with your education here. Therefore, it is not pride as such, but smugness. Your are smug in the belief of your Scottish heritage as you know absolutely nothing about it. I once met an Englishman who was smugly certain that his Burberry cap was a Tartan. I told him that it suited him. He was oblivious to what that meant.
I will refrain from calling you a liar or such but you are no less of a complete peasant on the subject and only an idiot would consider to misuse the term “racism”. What a fool of a man you are to be making any corresponding correlations to dogs!
You are also seemingly ignorant of the financial attributes with Clansmanship identity and the ancient and highly skillful and worshipful art of weaving Tartan. Incidentally, a craft level of expertise that your English mongrels never came close to being able to manufacture. All the expertise that England needed had to be imported from France, Belgium and Holland as your mongrel peasantry weren’t allowed to own any personal tools.
You must have visited Edinburgh, and did you fail to note that Tartan is just about all there is for sale. Or am I corresponding with a blind man?
You are trying to make a mockery of a very ancient culture and the customs and practices of some 30 million people throughout the world, from Canada to New Zealand.
You have displayed exactly that type of hideously ignorant and objectionable English retarded attitude and knowledge level that we laugh at and mock. Were you to display this same ignorant dog commentary in some parts of Scotland, they would run you out black and blue. You’d be begging for your mother and wishing you hadn’t been born.
Don’t be fooled by Scottish charm. They’re not remotely interested in you, just the contents of your wallet. You could only imagine what is said behind your back or in Gael straight to your smug English puss.
I hate to be the first to inform you, but your chances of stemming from Bruce or Charlie (?) are below zero. Goodness me, you are a complete dreamboat-Annie, aren’t you?
India? Who knows. But you certainly don’t know anymore than the next mongrel.
LOL – thanks for the good laugh. I care not for all your knowledge on something of such little importance. We are all mongrels, thank heavens, and only those with huge vanity would claim otherwise.
People are people and of equal importance – whether a Lord or a peasant, a Scot or an Englishman.
The vagaries of Scottish clans is of no importance to me. All that matters is that I have Scottish ancestry and feel a connection, rightly or wrongly, maybe romantically, with Neolithic ancestors who walked these lands. That’s enough for me.
My Grandfather was Scottish. Who knows where he descended from? Maybe one day, if I can be bothered, I’ll check it out.
So from one mongrel to another I wish you a good day.