26 September 2019

THE Castle

Who doesn't love a good castle?  They are recipes that include history, romance, drama, action/bloody battles, and of course the occasional ghost story.  There's something in castles for almost everyone and I thought little of all of it - until I saw THE castle on a calendar.  This one:


I looked at the caption - Castle Urquart.  I found myself pausing to stare at the picture.  There was just that something special about it and the pieces began to fall into place for a visit.

After a few years' break from traveling, I thought perhaps it was time to 'go' again.  I'd loved the coast of Ireland and wanted to see that lush green and wild rocky coastline again, but didn't want to go to the same place twice, so looked into traveling to England and signed up for a newsletter with a daily report for discounted flight deals.  A flight deal came up for Scotland and castles popped back into radar - specifically Urquart Castle.  Nice.  So I bagged a flight that included insurance for around $500.00 and began researching.  I'm not a fan of structure and despise schedules, but Urquart made my Must-Do-List.

Apparently the largest part of the remaining castle ruin included a tower called Grant Tower that had been built and inhabited by the Grant family.
 


Grants...Grants...wait.  Our family has Grants.  My grandmother had once described her grandmother (a Grant) as having waist-long, red hair that had later turned into waist-long, white hair.  She and her Grandmother Grant were close - much like the two of us.  Would that make her my Great, Great Grandma Grant?  As far as I knew, we were English as far as the family tree would go - but I ran with it.  I decided to explore Scotland with that loose, Grant tie.

History has it that the Grants did in fact hold Castle Urquart.  It was gifted by the crown and wasn't uncommon for castles to change hands as powers shifted and Urquart was a classic example of this.  Each family/clan/caretaker makes modifications as funds allow and as powers shift.  It seems this clifftop was a prime location way before the castle existed and was home to many attacks across the ages - from northern invaders...aka Vikings, and also faced clans, civil war, religious disputes.

Clan MacDonald decided to expand their territory/power from the isles and Urquart was on their radar.  They invaded and tried to capture from Clan Grant regularly - every spring for a while.  In their last invasion, they cleaned house and took every item of value from the castle, to include curtains & candlesticks.

I guess the candlesticks were a proverbial last straw for Clan Grant and they blew up their own castle and got the heck out of Dodge...er...Loch Ness anyway.  A large storm did more damage to the structure later.

I picked up the Grant family name in Inverness & in Speyside - whiskey country.  They have a town,  museum, hotel, a few distilleries, and a nice settlement on River Spey - more on that later.


The Grant name was pretty big in Scotland and admittedly, my research into them and into the family tree connection is far from complete, but the search took me to cemeteries, war memorials, and even a town called Grantown-on-Spey.  My 'spoils' include a crest, battle cry, motto, and a lovely red family tartan.

Hope you enjoy and are inspired to look into your own family history.  If I learn more about mine, I'll let you know...but for now, I'll claim the Grants as my clan.


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