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Well today I decided to take in Newtonmore
which is a village some 45 minutes drive from the Dunalastair Hotel.
You take the high road out of Kinloch Rannoch onto the A9 towards
Inverness and the town is well signposted along the road.
I wanted to remind myself about Newtonmore as
when I was aged 6 my folks rented a small holding there for a 3 week
holiday. I remember our daily task was to find the eggs that the
hens had laid. Anyway.. it is still a very attractive village and I spent
some 3 hours going around the Folk museum there. You really need a
full 3 hours to appreciate all there is to see and here is my wee
collection of photographs...
This is me driving into the village and then
the map of the Highland Folk Museum
This is the road I walked down towards the
croft and one of a number of signs telling you what you should be seeing
as you walk along
Another example of sign about a Drystone Dyke
Showing you a field growing potatoes, turnips
and other vegetables and the other view showing some sheep grazing.
You then go past the croft with a kitchen
garden growing amongst other things are plants used for medicinal use.
Then a picture of the croft steading.
Then a closer look at the Steading and the
Croft Duck Pond
I then headed toward the Highland Village
passing the school House on the way
I noted a fellow MacIntyre owned this building
so couldn't resist the chance of a photo.
Inside of the sewing shop and if you can't
walk too far you can always catch one of the two buses that are available.
Of course after my Edinburgh adventure I was far too fit to need one! :-)
This was the path that took you to the village
and the sign as you enter it
You walk past a timber mill up to the village
There are no lights in the buildings so it
really is very dark. One had a peat fire going so you got the chance to
smell the peat fire and experience the smoke. Wonderful experience and
they have folk dresses in period costume giving you a guided tour.
This was a wee loch designed to be a curling
ring in winter and part of the joiners shop
Overall I had a most enjoyable visit to this
Folk Museum and would highly recommend it to anyone going in that
direction. Do however leave yourself 2 - 3 hours as there is a lot to see
and experience with audio visual displays at various points. You
really did get a sense of how the Highlanders may have lived many years
ago. I might add the school house was truly excellent and I would
have liked to have shown more photos of it but any teachers out there
should definitely look at the teaching aids on exhibit!
On my way out of Newtonmore on the way back to
the hotel I just happened to notice the Clan MacPherson Museum so couldn't
resist having a wee look.
I was made very welcome by the Museum Curator
and she showed me around and also played a 10 minute video of the Clan.
Quite a substantial museum with several rooms full of great artefacts of
the clan and lots of pictures as well as a wall with all the clan shields
of which the above picture is only a selection.
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