Sunday, November 9, 2014

'Muchty

It was a quiet Saturday afternoon when I was visiting my Scottish cousin who I hadn't spent much time with over the years.  She suggested we take a slight detour on the way to her place to see the old family stomping grounds. It's actually more her family stomping grounds - our mothers were cousins and hers grew up in this Fife village while mine grew up in Glasgow. I don't think I'd been here since I was a teenager, but as soon as we got out of the car and walked towards her grandmother's house, it came flooding back to me.

Above is one end of the village, with Aunt Belle's house at the top on the far right. They later moved across the road into one of the end-of-terrace houses on the left, just around the bend. The outdoor privy is still there though is probably used for storage now.  
Yes, we wandered into the open yard to check it out!
A view from the other end looking in the same direction, showing how the burn cuts through of the village. A burn is a stream.
This pub looked like it might be a popular spot, and indeed all the reviews I've since found online gave it top marks (it is #1 of 3 eating establishments in Auchtermuchty), then again, do we really believe those reviews?
a not very straight picture of one of the signs on the pub
everybody sing together now, 
But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles 
to fall down at your door
Da lat da (Da lat da), da lat da (Da lat da)
Da-da-da dun-diddle un-diddle un-diddle uh da-da
Da lat da (Da lat da), da lat da (Da lat da)
and on and on.....
but, what we really needed to see was this plaque, unveiled last spring for my cousin L's great grandfather, the famous Potato Man, Archie Findlay. the old store house is now a private house

photo from the newspaper at the unveiling which some of Archie's descendants attended
 and a portrait of Archibald Findlay 
(artist unknown)












a short walk with a long family history for Restless Jo's Monday Walk

6 comments:

  1. What a fascinating family! A monument to a potato breeder isn't something you see every day :) I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully Scottish wander and I was singing along with the Proclaimers. It was worth it just for the translation of Auchtermuchty :) Many thanks, Violet.

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    1. since it's always shortened to 'Muchty I wonder how people feel about saying they live in a pig or boar land?! Auchter means upland or highland. what fascinates me, is that until L's mother was married after the war and moved to Perth, the whole lot of them lived in this small village within a few metres their whole lives.

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  2. What a pity we never met up! Next time, maybe.

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  3. Very cool family history. Sounds like a great visit.

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    1. all my family history is over there, so it was neat to be reacquainted with it.

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