[Up]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
[Date Index]
[Thread Index]
Re: Dalmally
Hi Juli
Its awesome to read your description
of Dalmally and area. I closed my eyes, and I could smell and feel the
air.
My Sinclair`s came from Perthshire, which I know
nothing about yet.
Ken W Sinclair
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 1999 7:39 AM
Subject: Dalmally
>
>Hi Donald and Friends -
>
>Dalmally
Church is beautiful. The square shaped clock tower with
the
>attached octagonal church is very unusual but beautifully positioned
on its
>small rise of land.
>
>My gran and I parked in the
parking lot of the church and had a wonderful
>lunch of Scotch broth and
soft rolls in the car as we watched the sheep in
>the adjourning
field. After lunch I scrambled up the hill and through the
>gate in
the stone wall to enter the cemetery. I only walked through the
old
>section - closest to the church.
>
>My first impression
of the church and cemetery is difficult to describe.
>Immediately I felt
overwhelming excitement and yet even more pronounced was
>the deep sense
of peace or balance that washed over me. Somehow I knew I
>had "come
home."
>
>The air in Dalmally, to quote my gran, "is sweet" and
combined with the soft
>Scottish mist that was falling created an almost
theatrical atmosphere.
>February is a wonderful time to visit the
Highlands if you are interested in
>capturing a feeling of what it might
have been like years past. The stark
>form of the bare trees against
the low hanging gray sky, the intense green
>of the grass, the mounds of
rust colored dead bracken and everything around
>you water logged all
combine with the beautiful clear air. Time stops.
>Your senses are
overcome with the rugged beauty of the land. I wanted to
>taste the
rain, listen to the "squish" of my shoes in the soft ground, touch
>the
moss covered stones, fill my lungs to capacity with the fresh cool
air
>and photograph all that I saw and do this all
simultaneously.
>
>Dalmally Church and cemetery is beautifully
kept. Dunoon cemetery struggles
>with an outrageous level of
vandalism (and an apparent apathy to it.) There
>was no evidence of
such a problem in Dalmally.
>
>The high gloss red double door is
very welcoming.
>
>Donald, all the stones in the old section face
East - do you know why? I
>have heard tales of "The Gates of Heaven
always being open in the East."
>Some stones would be easier to view if
they were inscribed on the other
>side. It is difficult to squeeze
between the stone and the side of the
>church when the stone is 6 inches
from the building to read the inscription.
>So there must be a very
important reason for this.
>
>For anyone visiting Scotland - Argyll
is worth the visit. I thoroughly
>enjoyed the Loch Awe area.
Kilchurn Castle, at times described as gloomy,
>has become my favorite
piece of real estate. It is currently up for sale -
>asking price -
bids over 150,000 pounds. Worth every penny as far as I
am
>concerned. A group of Germans were looking at it while I was
there.
>Wordsworth was also impress with Kilchurn and wrote the
following:
>
> "Child of a loud-throated war, the mountain
stream
> Roars in thy hearing; but thy hour of rest
> Is come, and
thou art silent in thy age,
> Save when the winds sweep
by...
>
>Personally I think Kilchurn and Loch Awe deserve a little
more exciting
>poetry - but hey I'm not Wordsworth.
>
>Time to
get on.
>
>Have a great day.
>
>Juli
>
>[
This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@jump.net.
>[ To get off or on
the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html