Let's go out of Sneck

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

A good stop fear a dram ?

[Sneckboy]

The Craigdarroch Hotel, Foyers.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Good spot

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

From Chanonry Point - and to another of my childhood haunts

[IBM]

Glen Affric beautiful at this time of year!

[Scarlet Pimple]

Well you are right about that,. But--er --where exactly is Chanonry Point again?

[IBM]

Well you are right about that,. But--er --where exactly is Chanonry Point again?

It is over at Fortrose on the Black Isle where the Brahan Seer was burnt in a barrel of tar! Across the firth from Fort George.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Well there you go IBM.     And here was I always thinking that he was burned on this side by the vicious Countess of Seaforth  who had a castle along the coast closer to Aberdeeen than Inverness. Then she must have had her abode on the North side.

[JockWatt]

Now this really is getting out of Sneck !!

 

Thank you, IHE for posting that video.  It was grand for me to see WILLIE GODSMAN among those on the trip.  Willie was an officer in the Famous fourth when I was in it in the 40s an' I mind him scooting all the way down from Balmorag (spelling?) with three other boys all on the one bike !  And we discovered later on that Willie was epileptic !!  I think he worked in the front office of the Courier.  Anyone else have memories of him ???

[Charles Bannerman]

1959 was a bit before my time in the Boys' Brigade since I didn't even join the Lifeboys until 1960, but there's still a lot I can relate to in that video. Bell tents, fatigues, grey interlock jumpers with BB badges on them, the haircuts, marching etc.

Towards the beginning I think the crowd seeing off the bus includes Eric MacKay, the boss of Fraser and MacColl in Eastgate who was also Inverness Battalion president around that time and for a few years after. It's the man with the moustache and the trilby hat.

Can anyone tell me... was Eric MacKay the father of Size MacKay?

[IBM]

Well there you go IBM.     And here was I always thinking that he was burned on this side by the vicious Countess of Seaforth  who had a castle along the coast closer to Aberdeeen than Inverness. Then she must have had her abode on the North side.

It was Brahan Castle, Maryburgh near Dingwall where her residence was although she may have had another nearer Aberdeen.......I am not so good at history Scarlet.

[Charles Bannerman]

Well there you go IBM.     And here was I always thinking that he was burned on this side by the vicious Countess of Seaforth  who had a castle along the coast closer to Aberdeeen than Inverness. Then she must have had her abode on the North side.

No, I think IBM is quite right. It was at Chanonry Point near Fortrose.

[dougiedanger]

That's an amazing film of the BB trip, really a gem. Must have been some experience for those boys, from the Ferry Church too!

Hard to imagine they will all likely be pensioners now. To go there so soon after the war must have been quite poignant.

[Charles Bannerman]

Must have been some experience for those boys, from the Ferry Church too!

To go there so soon after the war must have been quite poignant.

If they'd only gone there during the war, it probably wouldn't have lasted as long.

[dougiedanger]

Some slops they were fed though--see those fried eggs??

See the joy on the faces of the crowd when the bus arrived back in Sneck? Like they had been to the moon and back.

That is really a brilliant slice of history. 

[dougiedanger]

At 18.00 it looks like they slept overnight in the hay field!!

Everyone looks so healthy and well turned out--what a contrast to walking aboot the toon today!!

[Charles Bannerman]

Some slops they were fed though--see those fried eggs??

See the joy on the faces of the crowd when the bus arrived back in Sneck? Like they had been to the moon and back.

That is really a brilliant slice of history. 

Compared with the opportunities youngsters had in these days, I think they effectively HAD been to the moon and back! That indeed was an incredibly ambitious enterprise for a single BB company in the late 1950s, but at least they wouldn't have been encumbered by any of today's Jobsworth Elfin Safety red tape and cr*p. And indeed they do look very well turned out, despite many of their families possibly not being particularly affluent.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Sometimes you do speaketh the truth Charles and so my eyebrows will continue to rise up in awe ..."Jobsworth Elfin Safety?"  Is that a new Womens' movement?  Or Peter Pan has gone all "Mod."

[een]

On 8 November 2015 at 19:55:44, Charles Bannerman said:

1959 was a bit before my time in the Boys' Brigade since I didn't even join the Lifeboys until 1960, but there's still a lot I can relate to in that video. Bell tents, fatigues, grey interlock jumpers with BB badges on them, the haircuts, marching etc.

Towards the beginning I think the crowd seeing off the bus includes Eric MacKay, the boss of Fraser and MacColl in Eastgate who was also Inverness Battalion president around that time and for a few years after. It's the man with the moustache and the trilby hat.

Can anyone tell me... was Eric MacKay the father of Size MacKay?

No, I don't think so Charlie,

Size (Ian) was in my my class in Dalneigh. He lived with his folks in St Valery, about no. 150ish.

His father Wattie ran a driving school for many years and his mother, I think was german. They later moved across town, Burn Road I seem to remember.

 

However, that was some footage from 1959 !!!

 

 

[tm4tj]

"That's an amazing film of the BB trip, really a gem. Must have been some experience for those boys, from the Ferry Church too!

Hard to imagine they will all likely be pensioners now."

 Oops, I read that as Hard to imagine they will all likely be prisoners now............. My bad.

 

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Close by actually

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

From Nairn to ?

[IBM]

Corpach looking across the water to Caol in the foreground and the smelter pipes heading up Ben Nevis.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

P

Edited January 2, 2016 by IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER
Wrong photo