#nigg old church

[horizon5adventure]

[thesilicontribesman]

'Bishop's Walk' Ancient Routeway, Nigg Old Church, Nigg, Scotland

[whatevergreen]

Nigg Old Church, Tain, Scotland

Scott Mackenzie, September 2020

Barry Pickard, October 2020

[skull-designs]

Happy Hogmanay - from the North East (1).

Nigg Old Church, Nigg, Easter Ross, Scotland

[paulinecordiner]

Nae lang now! I'm off tomorrow evening to Balintore for the Fisherfolk Festival at the Seaboard Centre :D

At 10.30 on Friday I'm telling fisherfolk tales (dressed as one of my fishwife ancestors) at the Seaboard Centre for bairns and their grown ups

Then I'll be part of the Friday evening concert at 7.30pm in the Seaboard Centre with Ewan McVicar, Aileen Carr and Carrie Afrin.

On Saturday from 11am - 4pm The Rhynie Wifies will be demonstrating Pictish Living History and Bob Pegg and I will be telling Pictish Stories at the old St Mary's Chapel site (next to the Hilton of Cadboll Stone).

And finally on Sunday evening I'm looking forward to the stories at Nigg Old Church with Ewan, Bob and Ian Stephen.

Plenty of other things for my Wee Imp and I to do in between though! I'm hoping to see all three Pictish stones (Nigg, Shandwick and HIlton) and maybe pop up to Portmahomak to visit the Tarbat Discovery Centre and see the site of the old Celtic Scriptorium I've been learning so much about for the Book of Deer Project.

... as well as all the other concerts and things we have planned. It's going to be grand!

[architectnews]

St.Clements Aberdeen urban village

St.Clements Aberdeen urban village News, RGU Aberdeen Student Work Proposal

St.Clements Aberdeen urban village design

24 August 2021

Location: area between Castlegate and Footdee, central Aberdeen, North East Scotland

A new urban village of St.Clements for Aberdeen

A new urban village called ‘St.Clements’ could be created in the historic heart of Aberdeen under plans being proposed by final year architect students at The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment at Robert Gordon University.

The new village would be named after the 15th century church of St.Clements, which was origionally built to serve the small fishing community of Footdee and would be created between the harbour and esplanade, in the area between Castlegate and Footdee.

The proposals are the work of final year architecture students from The Scott School of Architecture, who have carried out a two-year project, to explore issues concerning urban living, with a particular eye on generating ideas for the future City of Aberdeen.

The project builds on the work of last year’s final year students who envisaged a new beachfront for the city of Aberdeen and an opening up of the harbourfront to people on the North edge of the harbour. The new proposals aim to make links from Castlegate to the beachfront and harbour more feasible and pleasurable.

One final year student involved in the St.Clement’s project, is David Reid from Prestwick. David explains how his experience living through the coronavirus pandemic led him to question his way of living:

“During the pandemic I think a lot of people really reassessed their priorities when it comes to how they spend their time, especially those commuting, and where they spend it, parks and the countryside have never felt so valuable. These are key considerations we took with us during our design work on the project and feel this approach would be applicable across the city and country. In the end I think it’s about putting people back at the heart of our cities.

“Our aim is to create a new urban village that is sustainable, affordable and accessible for everyone. We want to create a village that combines private living, flexible working spaces, easy to access amenities, and shared community areas. A place where people can enjoy a social lifestyle and be part of a vibrant community. We want to bring amenities to the residents rather than forcing them to travel in search of them.”

Course leader, Professor Neil Lamb, said: “At a time when we have seen unprecedented change in city living, with some questioning the validity of living in cities in the post pandemic environment, the students set out to see what type of place could be made, learning from best national and international examples that people would want to live, work and play in.

“As humans, we long for meaningful relationships with those around us yet all too often infrastructure and the way we use our cities seems secondary in large re-developments. The new urban village of St.Clements, would re-establish village life at the heart of the city and create a model way of city living for years to come. It would be a place for all demographics; old and young, rich and poor to live in a new settlement that encourages citizenship and a real sense of community.”

The proposals are based on a new site becoming available due to the relocation of the new harbour in Nigg bay. The existing old church of St Clements would become the focus for a new live, work and play community. A place that is based upon new principles of design that suggest the majority of the things that you need including, housing, work, shops, medical support and schools are integrated as part of that community. The concept is based on the idea of a ‘15 minute city’, meaning that everything you should need should be available within 15 minutes of walking.

The urban village would take a lead role in a developing a sustainable future and would encourage people to walk, cycle or use electric powered vehicles or, to use a public transport system, that would be electrically powered from renewable sources.

A shared community heating system would be created to power the new village, tapping into the hot rocks under the city and using local expertise to create this natural, inexpensive geothermal energy. Combined with solar, small scale wind and cutting edge piezoelectric generators, used to capture energy from moving vehicles on roads, this would create a renewable approach that is interlinked and not solely dependent on any one source.

Greenery would be at the heart of the village and people of all ages would be encouraged to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Security would also be built into the way each housing block overlooks each other in order to encourage a social living space.

The project is being led by visiting professor Bill Black, director of Richard Murphy Architects, Edinburgh and Neil lamb Subject Leader in Architecture and Part 2 Architecture Course Leader at RGU.

Location: Garthdee Road, Aberdeen, Scotland

Scott Sutherland School of Architecture: RGU

Robert Gordon University Garthdee Campus Combined Gray’s Art School / Scott Sutherland School of Architecture: image from architect Scott Sutherland School of Architecture: RGU

Robert Gordon University Garthdee Campus

Scott Sutherland School of Architecture Show 2016

21st Century City: Scott Sutherland Aberdeen

Scott Sutherland School of Architecture Show 2011 Scott Sutherland School RGU : Glasgow Group Degree Show 2008 Images

Architecture students design affordable housing for Grampian residents image courtesy of designers Robert Gordon University Aberdeen

Robert Gordon University Aberdeen

Comments / photos for the St.Clements Aberdeen urban village design by students at Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen page welcome

Website: Aberdeen

The post St.Clements Aberdeen urban village appeared first on e-architect.

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The Italian highlanders who may have Scottish roots BBC News

Thousands of Italians emigrated to Scotland in the 20th Century, but it seems that 400 years earlier a group of Scots may have settled in a village in the Italian Alps. So local legend has it And there are plenty of signs to suggest that maybe, just maybe, it's true.

High up in the mountains of northern Italy, just a few kilometres from the Swiss border, the people of the tiny village of Gurro speak a strange dialect, incomprehensible even to the other villages in the same valley.

They have peculiar surnames, and the women's traditional costume features a patterned underskirt that looks suspiciously like tartan.

One possible explanation is that their forefathers include a unit of Scottish soldiers the Garde Ecossaise who served the French King, Francis I, and were defeated with him at the Battle of Pavia, near Milan, in February 1525.

The story goes that while trying to make their way home the Scots stopped in Gurro, where they got snowed in for the winter. Many locals believe they never left.

I've heard talk about this story since I was a child, says Alma Dresti, who was born and bred in Gurro.

I know it's probably at least part legend but I like to believe in it and I do think there could be some truth in it.

I like to imagine those strapping young soldiers trying to return home, stopping here, and liking it so much they stayed even once spring had come.

One tale describes how the Scottish visitors stole girls from the next village, celebrating their trophy brides with big parties before waking the village priest at dawn to legalise their unions.

Alma says this could explain a custom peculiar to Gurro, in which receptions were traditionally held before the marriage ceremony and weddings took place early in the morning.

This tradition of having the wedding lunch one week before the actual marriage continued until the 1950s, she says. My parents, who got married in January 1951, did that they had a big party with all their relatives a week before the wedding, then returned to their family homes, and then a week later got married at 6am in church.

Now 95, Alma's mother could once be found on a sunny bench passing the time of day with other women, all wearing traditional dress, including the tartan underskirt. Some have the surname Patritti, which they believe is derived from Patrick.

As we walk along the steep cobbled streets, Alma's youngest daughter, Sabrina, points out to me an unusual architectural feature some of the buildings have wooden supports under the windows, positioned to form what looks like the St Andrew's cross. And she says some consider Celtic-derived words in their dialect to be a sign of Scottish origins.

Especially the way you say 'yes'. It's 'si' in Italian and usually, in other dialects, you just change it a bit, like 'shi', she says. Here it's 'aye'. They actually switch the accent so it's more 'ayee' than 'aye' but it sounds like the Scottish way.

There are plenty more fragments of apparent evidence that locals can list. One is a typical folk song with words indicating nostalgia for the sea, although 500 years ago the people of Gurro would never have travelled far enough to see it. And there is a fisherman's knot that must have been taught to the mountain folk by men who fished.

Image caption A traditional underskirt (centre) on display in the village museum

All this so impressed a Scottish amateur anthropologist, Lt Col Gayre of Gayre and Nigg, baron of Lochoreshyre, that he embarked on his own investigation.

His book, The Lost Clan which bears little trace of the disturbing racial views he became notorious for concluded that the people of Gurro most likely could claim Scottish descent, and in 1973 he symbolically adopted them into his own clan.

Silvano Dresti (no relation of Alma's it's a common name in Gurro) recalls an unforgettable party that was thrown to celebrate. There was a lot of excitement and the whole village was decorated with Scottish and Italian flags for the occasion. Being affiliated to a clan made us proud, he says.

Silvano remembers the kilted Scottish baron and bagpipers, and VIP guests including Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who would later become president of Italy. A BBC Scotland television crew captured it all on film.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionLt Col Gayre arrived with a piper and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion

Silvano was 18 at the time. I was a bell ringer, he says. I'd learned the Scottish anthem, Scotland the Brave, which I practised playing on our church bells up in the bell tower.

Alma Dresti remembers that the preparations began long in advance, with people cleaning, tidying, weeding and planting flowers.

Image caption Some parents dress their children in tartan on special occasions

Throughout the summer, groups of men and women gathered in the mountains above the village to practise old folk songs that they performed on the day, she says. She was 21 and her first daughter, just two months old, was the youngest villager in traditional costume that day.

It was such an emotion to watch the procession from the church square the baron, the mayor, all the guests and the bagpipe players. It was so different. I still get goosebumps when I think back to it.

Her husband, Adriano Dresti, who was a village councillor at the time, has equally fond though perhaps hazier memories.

We had a party in the municipal offices with the baron. There was an immediate feeling of kinship. He brought three or four crates of whisky! he laughs.

The bar in the village had always been called the Scotch Bar (it's now the circolo degli scozzesi the Scottish social club) but after the ceremony the bond with Scotland was consolidated.

Silvano Dresti took up the bagpipes, though he is keen to specify that he plays the easier Italian variety, the baghet bergamasco.

Image caption Sylvano Dresti learned to play an Italian version of the bagpipes

His brother, Giorgio, once dropped in on the Gayre family at their home, Minard Castle, near Inveraray. When he said he was from Gurro, they welcomed him in, Silvano says.

Silvano has not visited the castle but will never forget the moment he finally made it to Scotland. His eyes mist as he remembers getting off the coach before crossing over the border from England. The guide explained to us, 'Over there that's where Scotland begins'. It was then and there that I felt some emotions rise up inside me that I really can't explain Scotland I remember thinking, 'This is the land they say we come from.'

Stepping off the bus in Edinburgh, he heard the sound of bagpipes. I followed the sound through the streets until I reached the spot in front of a big store where there was a bagpiper in his kilt and finery. I already felt moved by the sound of bagpipes, but to be in the kingdom of Scottish bagpipes under the castle that was so powerful.

Image caption Gurro's Scottish social club (the bar) is situated opposite the church

A new Gaelic connection was made when Sabrina Dresti, Alma and Adriano's daughter, paid a visit to northern Scotland and fell in love with Sam MacDuff.

Could the story they so fondly embrace in Gurro convince a sceptical Scot?

Well, at first I thought it was a joke, Sam says. But when I read about it, I think it's possible, it's at least plausible that there might have been some roots.

Sam says his uncle, an academic at Edinburgh University and a genealogy and local history enthusiast, did some research of his own. He looked into some of the claims about the names and historical side and I think there is a reasonable amount of evidence that it might in fact be based on a certain element of truth, he says, cautiously.

His mother-in-law remembers the reaction in Gurro when news of the engagement was announced. There were jokes like, 'Your daughter's going back to her roots, so now we have a real Scot and it's not just a legend any more!' Alma says.

Visiting Scotland for the wedding was a moving experience for Alma and Adriano. It felt a bit like a return to our origins, says Alma. I think that all humans are happy to discover their origins and know they belong to a group. I felt at home there. I'd love to have confirmation that our story is true.

Adriano says they looked for evidence, but to no avail. We went to the baron's village. We even went to an old graveyard to see if we could find some names that resembled ours. We didn't find any that were similar but the emotion of that day was nice anyway.

Keen for her wedding to reflect what she regards as their shared Scottish heritage, Sabrina convinced Sam to wear a kilt. Yeah, for the first time in my life! says Sam. He did it mainly for me, laughs Sabrina, but also for this tradition.

All pictures of Gurro taken by Katia Bernardi

See also: The most Scottish town in Tuscany (2011)

Join the conversation find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40865981

[bradporter65-blog]

The Italian highlanders who may have Scottish roots BBC News

Thousands of Italians emigrated to Scotland in the 20th Century, but it seems that 400 years earlier a group of Scots may have settled in a village in the Italian Alps. So local legend has it And there are plenty of signs to suggest that maybe, just maybe, it's true.

High up in the mountains of northern Italy, just a few kilometres from the Swiss border, the people of the tiny village of Gurro speak a strange dialect, incomprehensible even to the other villages in the same valley.

They have peculiar surnames, and the women's traditional costume features a patterned underskirt that looks suspiciously like tartan.

One possible explanation is that their forefathers include a unit of Scottish soldiers the Garde Ecossaise who served the French King, Francis I, and were defeated with him at the Battle of Pavia, near Milan, in February 1525.

The story goes that while trying to make their way home the Scots stopped in Gurro, where they got snowed in for the winter. Many locals believe they never left.

I've heard talk about this story since I was a child, says Alma Dresti, who was born and bred in Gurro.

I know it's probably at least part legend but I like to believe in it and I do think there could be some truth in it.

I like to imagine those strapping young soldiers trying to return home, stopping here, and liking it so much they stayed even once spring had come.

One tale describes how the Scottish visitors stole girls from the next village, celebrating their trophy brides with big parties before waking the village priest at dawn to legalise their unions.

Alma says this could explain a custom peculiar to Gurro, in which receptions were traditionally held before the marriage ceremony and weddings took place early in the morning.

This tradition of having the wedding lunch one week before the actual marriage continued until the 1950s, she says. My parents, who got married in January 1951, did that they had a big party with all their relatives a week before the wedding, then returned to their family homes, and then a week later got married at 6am in church.

Now 95, Alma's mother could once be found on a sunny bench passing the time of day with other women, all wearing traditional dress, including the tartan underskirt. Some have the surname Patritti, which they believe is derived from Patrick.

As we walk along the steep cobbled streets, Alma's youngest daughter, Sabrina, points out to me an unusual architectural feature some of the buildings have wooden supports under the windows, positioned to form what looks like the St Andrew's cross. And she says some consider Celtic-derived words in their dialect to be a sign of Scottish origins.

Especially the way you say 'yes'. It's 'si' in Italian and usually, in other dialects, you just change it a bit, like 'shi', she says. Here it's 'aye'. They actually switch the accent so it's more 'ayee' than 'aye' but it sounds like the Scottish way.

There are plenty more fragments of apparent evidence that locals can list. One is a typical folk song with words indicating nostalgia for the sea, although 500 years ago the people of Gurro would never have travelled far enough to see it. And there is a fisherman's knot that must have been taught to the mountain folk by men who fished.

Image caption A traditional underskirt (centre) on display in the village museum

All this so impressed a Scottish amateur anthropologist, Lt Col Gayre of Gayre and Nigg, baron of Lochoreshyre, that he embarked on his own investigation.

His book, The Lost Clan which bears little trace of the disturbing racial views he became notorious for concluded that the people of Gurro most likely could claim Scottish descent, and in 1973 he symbolically adopted them into his own clan.

Silvano Dresti (no relation of Alma's it's a common name in Gurro) recalls an unforgettable party that was thrown to celebrate. There was a lot of excitement and the whole village was decorated with Scottish and Italian flags for the occasion. Being affiliated to a clan made us proud, he says.

Silvano remembers the kilted Scottish baron and bagpipers, and VIP guests including Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who would later become president of Italy. A BBC Scotland television crew captured it all on film.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionLt Col Gayre arrived with a piper and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion

Silvano was 18 at the time. I was a bell ringer, he says. I'd learned the Scottish anthem, Scotland the Brave, which I practised playing on our church bells up in the bell tower.

Alma Dresti remembers that the preparations began long in advance, with people cleaning, tidying, weeding and planting flowers.

Image caption Some parents dress their children in tartan on special occasions

Throughout the summer, groups of men and women gathered in the mountains above the village to practise old folk songs that they performed on the day, she says. She was 21 and her first daughter, just two months old, was the youngest villager in traditional costume that day.

It was such an emotion to watch the procession from the church square the baron, the mayor, all the guests and the bagpipe players. It was so different. I still get goosebumps when I think back to it.

Her husband, Adriano Dresti, who was a village councillor at the time, has equally fond though perhaps hazier memories.

We had a party in the municipal offices with the baron. There was an immediate feeling of kinship. He brought three or four crates of whisky! he laughs.

The bar in the village had always been called the Scotch Bar (it's now the circolo degli scozzesi the Scottish social club) but after the ceremony the bond with Scotland was consolidated.

Silvano Dresti took up the bagpipes, though he is keen to specify that he plays the easier Italian variety, the baghet bergamasco.

Image caption Sylvano Dresti learned to play an Italian version of the bagpipes

His brother, Giorgio, once dropped in on the Gayre family at their home, Minard Castle, near Inveraray. When he said he was from Gurro, they welcomed him in, Silvano says.

Silvano has not visited the castle but will never forget the moment he finally made it to Scotland. His eyes mist as he remembers getting off the coach before crossing over the border from England. The guide explained to us, 'Over there that's where Scotland begins'. It was then and there that I felt some emotions rise up inside me that I really can't explain Scotland I remember thinking, 'This is the land they say we come from.'

Stepping off the bus in Edinburgh, he heard the sound of bagpipes. I followed the sound through the streets until I reached the spot in front of a big store where there was a bagpiper in his kilt and finery. I already felt moved by the sound of bagpipes, but to be in the kingdom of Scottish bagpipes under the castle that was so powerful.

Image caption Gurro's Scottish social club (the bar) is situated opposite the church

A new Gaelic connection was made when Sabrina Dresti, Alma and Adriano's daughter, paid a visit to northern Scotland and fell in love with Sam MacDuff.

Could the story they so fondly embrace in Gurro convince a sceptical Scot?

Well, at first I thought it was a joke, Sam says. But when I read about it, I think it's possible, it's at least plausible that there might have been some roots.

Sam says his uncle, an academic at Edinburgh University and a genealogy and local history enthusiast, did some research of his own. He looked into some of the claims about the names and historical side and I think there is a reasonable amount of evidence that it might in fact be based on a certain element of truth, he says, cautiously.

His mother-in-law remembers the reaction in Gurro when news of the engagement was announced. There were jokes like, 'Your daughter's going back to her roots, so now we have a real Scot and it's not just a legend any more!' Alma says.

Visiting Scotland for the wedding was a moving experience for Alma and Adriano. It felt a bit like a return to our origins, says Alma. I think that all humans are happy to discover their origins and know they belong to a group. I felt at home there. I'd love to have confirmation that our story is true.

Adriano says they looked for evidence, but to no avail. We went to the baron's village. We even went to an old graveyard to see if we could find some names that resembled ours. We didn't find any that were similar but the emotion of that day was nice anyway.

Keen for her wedding to reflect what she regards as their shared Scottish heritage, Sabrina convinced Sam to wear a kilt. Yeah, for the first time in my life! says Sam. He did it mainly for me, laughs Sabrina, but also for this tradition.

All pictures of Gurro taken by Katia Bernardi

See also: The most Scottish town in Tuscany (2011)

Join the conversation find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40865981

[pedrowells24-blog]

The Italian highlanders who may have Scottish roots BBC News

Thousands of Italians emigrated to Scotland in the 20th Century, but it seems that 400 years earlier a group of Scots may have settled in a village in the Italian Alps. So local legend has it And there are plenty of signs to suggest that maybe, just maybe, it's true.

High up in the mountains of northern Italy, just a few kilometres from the Swiss border, the people of the tiny village of Gurro speak a strange dialect, incomprehensible even to the other villages in the same valley.

They have peculiar surnames, and the women's traditional costume features a patterned underskirt that looks suspiciously like tartan.

One possible explanation is that their forefathers include a unit of Scottish soldiers the Garde Ecossaise who served the French King, Francis I, and were defeated with him at the Battle of Pavia, near Milan, in February 1525.

The story goes that while trying to make their way home the Scots stopped in Gurro, where they got snowed in for the winter. Many locals believe they never left.

I've heard talk about this story since I was a child, says Alma Dresti, who was born and bred in Gurro.

I know it's probably at least part legend but I like to believe in it and I do think there could be some truth in it.

I like to imagine those strapping young soldiers trying to return home, stopping here, and liking it so much they stayed even once spring had come.

One tale describes how the Scottish visitors stole girls from the next village, celebrating their trophy brides with big parties before waking the village priest at dawn to legalise their unions.

Alma says this could explain a custom peculiar to Gurro, in which receptions were traditionally held before the marriage ceremony and weddings took place early in the morning.

This tradition of having the wedding lunch one week before the actual marriage continued until the 1950s, she says. My parents, who got married in January 1951, did that they had a big party with all their relatives a week before the wedding, then returned to their family homes, and then a week later got married at 6am in church.

Now 95, Alma's mother could once be found on a sunny bench passing the time of day with other women, all wearing traditional dress, including the tartan underskirt. Some have the surname Patritti, which they believe is derived from Patrick.

As we walk along the steep cobbled streets, Alma's youngest daughter, Sabrina, points out to me an unusual architectural feature some of the buildings have wooden supports under the windows, positioned to form what looks like the St Andrew's cross. And she says some consider Celtic-derived words in their dialect to be a sign of Scottish origins.

Especially the way you say 'yes'. It's 'si' in Italian and usually, in other dialects, you just change it a bit, like 'shi', she says. Here it's 'aye'. They actually switch the accent so it's more 'ayee' than 'aye' but it sounds like the Scottish way.

There are plenty more fragments of apparent evidence that locals can list. One is a typical folk song with words indicating nostalgia for the sea, although 500 years ago the people of Gurro would never have travelled far enough to see it. And there is a fisherman's knot that must have been taught to the mountain folk by men who fished.

Image caption A traditional underskirt (centre) on display in the village museum

All this so impressed a Scottish amateur anthropologist, Lt Col Gayre of Gayre and Nigg, baron of Lochoreshyre, that he embarked on his own investigation.

His book, The Lost Clan which bears little trace of the disturbing racial views he became notorious for concluded that the people of Gurro most likely could claim Scottish descent, and in 1973 he symbolically adopted them into his own clan.

Silvano Dresti (no relation of Alma's it's a common name in Gurro) recalls an unforgettable party that was thrown to celebrate. There was a lot of excitement and the whole village was decorated with Scottish and Italian flags for the occasion. Being affiliated to a clan made us proud, he says.

Silvano remembers the kilted Scottish baron and bagpipers, and VIP guests including Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who would later become president of Italy. A BBC Scotland television crew captured it all on film.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionLt Col Gayre arrived with a piper and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion

Silvano was 18 at the time. I was a bell ringer, he says. I'd learned the Scottish anthem, Scotland the Brave, which I practised playing on our church bells up in the bell tower.

Alma Dresti remembers that the preparations began long in advance, with people cleaning, tidying, weeding and planting flowers.

Image caption Some parents dress their children in tartan on special occasions

Throughout the summer, groups of men and women gathered in the mountains above the village to practise old folk songs that they performed on the day, she says. She was 21 and her first daughter, just two months old, was the youngest villager in traditional costume that day.

It was such an emotion to watch the procession from the church square the baron, the mayor, all the guests and the bagpipe players. It was so different. I still get goosebumps when I think back to it.

Her husband, Adriano Dresti, who was a village councillor at the time, has equally fond though perhaps hazier memories.

We had a party in the municipal offices with the baron. There was an immediate feeling of kinship. He brought three or four crates of whisky! he laughs.

The bar in the village had always been called the Scotch Bar (it's now the circolo degli scozzesi the Scottish social club) but after the ceremony the bond with Scotland was consolidated.

Silvano Dresti took up the bagpipes, though he is keen to specify that he plays the easier Italian variety, the baghet bergamasco.

Image caption Sylvano Dresti learned to play an Italian version of the bagpipes

His brother, Giorgio, once dropped in on the Gayre family at their home, Minard Castle, near Inveraray. When he said he was from Gurro, they welcomed him in, Silvano says.

Silvano has not visited the castle but will never forget the moment he finally made it to Scotland. His eyes mist as he remembers getting off the coach before crossing over the border from England. The guide explained to us, 'Over there that's where Scotland begins'. It was then and there that I felt some emotions rise up inside me that I really can't explain Scotland I remember thinking, 'This is the land they say we come from.'

Stepping off the bus in Edinburgh, he heard the sound of bagpipes. I followed the sound through the streets until I reached the spot in front of a big store where there was a bagpiper in his kilt and finery. I already felt moved by the sound of bagpipes, but to be in the kingdom of Scottish bagpipes under the castle that was so powerful.

Image caption Gurro's Scottish social club (the bar) is situated opposite the church

A new Gaelic connection was made when Sabrina Dresti, Alma and Adriano's daughter, paid a visit to northern Scotland and fell in love with Sam MacDuff.

Could the story they so fondly embrace in Gurro convince a sceptical Scot?

Well, at first I thought it was a joke, Sam says. But when I read about it, I think it's possible, it's at least plausible that there might have been some roots.

Sam says his uncle, an academic at Edinburgh University and a genealogy and local history enthusiast, did some research of his own. He looked into some of the claims about the names and historical side and I think there is a reasonable amount of evidence that it might in fact be based on a certain element of truth, he says, cautiously.

His mother-in-law remembers the reaction in Gurro when news of the engagement was announced. There were jokes like, 'Your daughter's going back to her roots, so now we have a real Scot and it's not just a legend any more!' Alma says.

Visiting Scotland for the wedding was a moving experience for Alma and Adriano. It felt a bit like a return to our origins, says Alma. I think that all humans are happy to discover their origins and know they belong to a group. I felt at home there. I'd love to have confirmation that our story is true.

Adriano says they looked for evidence, but to no avail. We went to the baron's village. We even went to an old graveyard to see if we could find some names that resembled ours. We didn't find any that were similar but the emotion of that day was nice anyway.

Keen for her wedding to reflect what she regards as their shared Scottish heritage, Sabrina convinced Sam to wear a kilt. Yeah, for the first time in my life! says Sam. He did it mainly for me, laughs Sabrina, but also for this tradition.

All pictures of Gurro taken by Katia Bernardi

See also: The most Scottish town in Tuscany (2011)

Join the conversation find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-40865981

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Thousands of Italians emigrated to Scotland in the 20th Century, but it seems that 400 years earlier a group of Scots may have settled in a village in the Italian Alps. So local legend has it And there are plenty of signs to suggest that maybe, just maybe, it’s true.

High up in the mountains of northern Italy, just a few kilometres from the Swiss border, the people of the tiny village of Gurro speak a strange dialect, incomprehensible even to the other villages in the same valley.

They have peculiar surnames, and the women’s traditional costume features a patterned underskirt that looks suspiciously like tartan.

One possible explanation is that their forefathers include a unit of Scottish soldiers – the Garde Ecossaise – who served the French King, Francis I, and were defeated with him at the Battle of Pavia, near Milan, in February 1525.

The story goes that while trying to make their way home the Scots stopped in Gurro, where they got snowed in for the winter. Many locals believe they never left.

“I’ve heard talk about this story since I was a child,” says Alma Dresti, who was born and bred in Gurro.

“I know it’s probably at least part legend but I like to believe in it and I do think there could be some truth in it.

“I like to imagine those strapping young soldiers trying to return home, stopping here, and liking it so much they stayed even once spring had come.”

One tale describes how the Scottish visitors stole girls from the next village, celebrating their trophy brides with big parties – before waking the village priest at dawn to legalise their unions.

Alma says this could explain a custom peculiar to Gurro, in which receptions were traditionally held before the marriage ceremony and weddings took place early in the morning.

“This tradition of having the wedding lunch one week before the actual marriage continued until the 1950s,” she says. “My parents, who got married in January 1951, did that – they had a big party with all their relatives a week before the wedding, then returned to their family homes, and then a week later got married at 6am in church.”

Now 95, Alma’s mother could once be found on a sunny bench passing the time of day with other women, all wearing traditional dress, including the tartan underskirt. Some have the surname Patritti, which they believe is derived from “Patrick”.

As we walk along the steep cobbled streets, Alma’s youngest daughter, Sabrina, points out to me an unusual architectural feature – some of the buildings have wooden supports under the windows, positioned to form what looks like the St Andrew’s cross. And she says some consider Celtic-derived words in their dialect to be a sign of Scottish origins.

“Especially the way you say ‘yes’. It’s ‘si’ in Italian and usually, in other dialects, you just change it a bit, like ‘shi’,” she says. “Here it’s ‘aye’. They actually switch the accent so it’s more ‘ayee’ than ‘aye’ but it sounds like the Scottish way.”

There are plenty more fragments of apparent evidence that locals can list. One is a typical folk song with words indicating nostalgia for the sea, although 500 years ago the people of Gurro would never have travelled far enough to see it. And there is a fisherman’s knot that must have been taught to the mountain folk by men who fished.

Image caption A traditional underskirt (centre) on display in the village museum

All this so impressed a Scottish amateur anthropologist, Lt Col Gayre of Gayre and Nigg, baron of Lochoreshyre, that he embarked on his own investigation.

His book, The Lost Clan – which bears little trace of the disturbing racial views he became notorious for – concluded that the people of Gurro most likely could claim Scottish descent, and in 1973 he symbolically adopted them into his own clan.

Silvano Dresti (no relation of Alma’s – it’s a common name in Gurro) recalls an unforgettable party that was thrown to celebrate. “There was a lot of excitement and the whole village was decorated with Scottish and Italian flags for the occasion. Being affiliated to a clan made us proud,” he says.

Silvano remembers the kilted Scottish baron and bagpipers, and VIP guests including Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who would later become president of Italy. A BBC Scotland television crew captured it all on film.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionLt Col Gayre arrived with a piper and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion

Silvano was 18 at the time. “I was a bell ringer,” he says. “I’d learned the Scottish anthem, Scotland the Brave, which I practised playing on our church bells up in the bell tower.”

Alma Dresti remembers that the preparations began long in advance, with people cleaning, tidying, weeding and planting flowers.

Image caption Some parents dress their children in tartan on special occasions

Throughout the summer, groups of men and women gathered in the mountains above the village to practise old folk songs that they performed on the day, she says. She was 21 and her first daughter, just two months old, was the youngest villager in traditional costume that day.

“It was such an emotion to watch the procession from the church square – the baron, the mayor, all the guests and the bagpipe players. It was so different. I still get goosebumps when I think back to it.”

Her husband, Adriano Dresti, who was a village councillor at the time, has equally fond – though perhaps hazier – memories.

“We had a party in the municipal offices with the baron. There was an immediate feeling of kinship. He brought three or four crates of whisky!” he laughs.

The bar in the village had always been called the Scotch Bar (it’s now the circolo degli scozzesi – the Scottish social club) but after the ceremony the bond with Scotland was consolidated.

Silvano Dresti took up the bagpipes, though he is keen to specify that he plays the easier Italian variety, the baghet bergamasco.

Image caption Sylvano Dresti learned to play an Italian version of the bagpipes

His brother, Giorgio, once dropped in on the Gayre family at their home, Minard Castle, near Inveraray. “When he said he was from Gurro, they welcomed him in,” Silvano says.

Silvano has not visited the castle but will never forget the moment he finally made it to Scotland. His eyes mist as he remembers getting off the coach before crossing over the border from England. “The guide explained to us, ‘Over there that’s where Scotland begins’. It was then and there that I felt some emotions rise up inside me that I really can’t explain… Scotland… I remember thinking, ‘This is the land they say we come from.'”

Stepping off the bus in Edinburgh, he heard the sound of bagpipes. “I followed the sound through the streets until I reached the spot in front of a big store where there was a bagpiper in his kilt and finery. I already felt moved by the sound of bagpipes, but to be in the kingdom of Scottish bagpipes under the castle… that was so powerful.”

Image caption Gurro’s “Scottish social club” (the bar) is situated opposite the church

A new Gaelic connection was made when Sabrina Dresti, Alma and Adriano’s daughter, paid a visit to northern Scotland and fell in love with Sam MacDuff.

Could the story they so fondly embrace in Gurro convince a sceptical Scot?

“Well, at first I thought it was a joke,” Sam says. “But when I read about it, I think it’s possible, it’s at least plausible that there might have been some roots.”

Sam says his uncle, an academic at Edinburgh University and a genealogy and local history enthusiast, did some research of his own. “He looked into some of the claims about the names and historical side and I think there is a reasonable amount of evidence that it might in fact be based on a certain element of truth,” he says, cautiously.

His mother-in-law remembers the reaction in Gurro when news of the engagement was announced. “There were jokes like, ‘Your daughter’s going back to her roots, so now we have a real Scot and it’s not just a legend any more!'” Alma says.

Visiting Scotland for the wedding was a moving experience for Alma and Adriano. “It felt a bit like a return to our origins,” says Alma. “I think that all humans are happy to discover their origins and know they belong to a group. I felt at home there. I’d love to have confirmation that our story is true.”

Adriano says they looked for evidence, but to no avail. “We went to the baron’s village. We even went to an old graveyard to see if we could find some names that resembled ours. We didn’t find any that were similar but the emotion of that day was nice anyway.”

Keen for her wedding to reflect what she regards as their shared Scottish heritage, Sabrina convinced Sam to wear a kilt. “Yeah, for the first time in my life!” says Sam. “He did it mainly for me,” laughs Sabrina,” but also for this tradition.”

All pictures of Gurro taken by Katia Bernardi

See also: The most Scottish town in Tuscany (2011)

Join the conversation – find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2utTR7y

The post The Italian highlanders who may have Scottish roots – BBC News appeared first on MavWrek Marketing by Jason

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[skull-designs]

Lush.

Nigg Old Church, Nigg, Easter Ross, Scotland

[skull-designs]

Community.

Nigg Old Church, Nigg, Easter Ross, Scotland

[skull-designs]

Green.

Nigg Old Church, Nigg, Easter Ross, Scotland

[skull-designs]

Remembrance Day - Nigg

Old Church, Nigg, Easter Ross, Scotland.

I found that Highland CWGC stones tend to be granite; more weather resistant than the traditional Portland stone I imagine and more readily available.

[paulinecordiner]

Here is the new updated poster for the Fisherfolk Festival at Ballintore/Hilton of Cadboll/Nigg at the end of the month!

On Friday 27th I'm going to be at the Seaboard Centre from 10.20 to 12.30pm telling stories for kids and their grown ups

And that evening I'll be part of the "Songs And Tales of the Sea" concert at the Seaboard Centre - 7.30 to 9.30pm (£5 for adults, £2 for children)

Then on Saturday 28th I will be in good company all day at the St Mary's Chapel site - telling Pictish tales with Bob Pegg and doing some living history with the Rhynie Wifies. (11am to 4pm)

And on Sunday 29th I'll be Nigg Old Church for the Story and Song Feast.

Of course there's so many other things going on, it's going to be a real treat and I'm looking forward to attending the other events and haen some song and story fun! :D