Saturday: Of School Outings

Even though classes don’t start until the 25th for me, the institute arranged for an outing event called the “Ballad Bus”. It’s main role is to go around and sing various ballads regarding the areas on the south Deeside of Aberdeenshire (the Dee is one of the two rivers that demarcate the borders of Aberdeenshire). The songs were interspersed with information of the songs, the locations that surround them, and music – we were accompanied by famed fiddler Paul Anderson, his wife, and a few other fiddlers, a flutist, and a tin whistler. We met at the uni at 9:45, and went to places like the Learney Arms in Torphins, The Peel Bog o Lumphanan (where MacBeth was beheaded – we saw the rock it happened on and were in spitting distance from MacBeth’s Well – where they washed his decapitated head before presenting it to Malcolm), Tarland, Migvie (where can be found Migvie Kirk – one of those old, pre-Christian churches, the only with with a Pict gravestone). We went back to Tarland and had lunch at the Commercial Hotel, and then left Tarland to head to Glen Tanar Kirk (where we saw another old graveyard but no actual Kirk remained, maybe a wall of one); after that, we stopped in Finzean and had more tea. Then off to Aberdeen uni again and it was 6PM. It was a pleasant day, though I didn’t really enjoy it as much as those who are musically inclined did. It was impossible to follow along with the songs, as there were no lyric sheets, and most of us didn’t know the songs at all. The two that were interesting were Jeannie Jenkins and the Ballad of the ship the Diamond (or something along those lines).

Here are some photos taken from the tour (Courtesy of my classmate, Natalie Brown):

Lumphanan (where Macbeth was defeated by Malcolm III in 1057)

The Peel Bog o Lumphanan

"Queen's View" of a section of Aberdeenshire

Migvie Kirk with a Pictish stone

Stained glass window at the Magvie Kirk

Lunch at the Commercial Hotel, Tarland (Yes, that's my fat head in there)

Tarland fiddler Paul Anderson speaks about the "Tarland Minstrel" Peter Milne

Glenn Tanar Kirk


Some of the people I met on the bus were really nice and we made plans to meet up again on Monday at a pub for a jam session (don’t worry, I’m going to enjoy them playing while I sit back and watch).

I am deeply indebted to Wibke (pronounced “Vibka”) who loaned me the money to go on the bus while I wait for my bank account here to be opened and able to hold funds.