On Monday, May 1st we left our beautiful home in Moira and went to Dublin Airport for our short flight to Scotland. We flew Easy Jet Airlines and it went quite smoothly. It was just a short flight of 50 minutes and then we were there.
After getting our cars we drove straight to Kilwinning to meet up with one of Darla's friends who lives in Scotland. We met up with Jean for a nice lunch at a place called The Corner House.
We all had good food and at the end since it was Ruth' birthday the staff brought out a flaming cake.
When I say flaming you can see that the candle on that thing was clearly some type of firework!
It was kinda scary actually! We sang happy birthday and got to celebrate her just a little bit.🎂
From there we drove over to the Kilwinning Abbey Church to meet up with some nice people who agreed to give us a tour and teach us a little about the place.
One interesting thing we learned is that Baby William (George and Elizabeth's first born son who died at the tender age of 1 rom whooping cough) was buried in the cemetery. Well, we had known that he was buried there because of the death record but we had never found a headstone. We were told that it is most likely that since George and Elizabeth were poor that little William probably was buried at the foot of someone (even a stranger) who had died around the same time. That's how it was done in those days.
These are the people who so generously gave of their time to help us.
Jennifer,
Our group at the Kilwinning Abbey Church.
The runs of the old Abbey.
That night we ate at a nice restaurant called Maggie's Bar and Grill in Kilmarnock where we were staying for the night.
I had steak pie. The pastry on top was so delicious and crispy!
The next morning we got up early to meet Hugh, a distant relative that lives there close to Kilmarnock.
He said his nickname was Shug and that only his mother called him Hugh. Haha!
He is related to us through George and Elizabeth's daughter, Mary, who had married an Andrew McCann after her first husband had died. Hugh's great grandfather, who did not make it to America, was a brother to Andrew. Anyhow...that's the relation. We were so grateful that he took the time to spend the day with us. And he was very happy to do it!
He took us out to a couple of places where George and Elizabeth had lived. Two spots in Fegushill and one place in the Five Roads area.
After our stop there it was time for lunch so we stopped at Dumfries House.
We were able to have a nice luncheon in the little restaurant there and then take a walk around the beautiful grounds.
I had a scone with the infamous clotted cream (which is very much like cream cheese, who knew?)
with jam and butter. It was tasty!
Here are som pictures from the grounds there at Dumfries House.
Our next stop was in the beautiful old town of Lugar.
This is where George and Elizabeth lived for a number of years before they moved to the US.
He was a coal miner here.
This is the little church that they would have gone to. The church's clerk, Darren, met us there and let us look at some old records he had found. We found an old baptism record of Mary and James in this old book. It was kind of neat to see.
Darren was very generous with his time and showed us all around the church and it's grounds.
Just before we were ready to leave I was sitting on a bench talking with Larry. Ruth came to sit by me when as soon as she did the whole bench gave way and we fell over backwards...in slow motion.
HaHa! Luckily neither of us wa short but I can't say as much for the bench. It had completely rusted out and was in no way a bench that was safe to sit on. Especially with two large ladies on it.
We gave Darren some money to replace the bench.
He texted later and said he wanted to put an inscription on the new bench. That was super nice of him!
We talked with the group and decided on
"In memory of the George and Elizabeth Trusdale Family"
"Lugar 1867"
I think that will be nice.
We then walked down the street to the little river and the bridge that crosses it.
It is a really cute area.
We ended up in Culross town that evening.
Rick and I and Trent and Kathy stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Dundonald House.
Rick and I had a front window that faced the ocean. Here is the view from our room.
The hard part is that we were on the third floor and there was no elevator.
Rick was a champ lugging up all of our bags up three stories!
But again...the view!
That evening we drove into Dunfermline for dinner.
Luca's had some great Italian food!
The next morning we explored the little town of Culross. We love this town so much! It looks like it popped right out of the17th century.
Rick giving me a wave from our room:)
Here are som sights of Culross....
After leaving we found this beautiful Rapeseed field!
These fields are all over and are just breathtaking!
We drove into Edinburgh for an afternoon of shopping. Kathy was in her element and found a lot of souvenirs to take back home to her family. It was cute how she could not pass up a gift shop on our trip. Every time she went in one she always came out with a something.
Sights of Edinburgh...
Trent's coworker suggested that we eat at World's End Restaurant.
Kathybwas disappointed because she thought it was going to be a nice place. It was a small pub but served up some delicious grub!
We checked out of Dundonald House the next morning.
This is where we ate breakfast both mornings.
The food was really filling and yummy and Adele took good care of us.
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