Scotland to the Island: And the Call of the Land

By Warwick j Nelson and Martin Brabon

How do you turn folders of family history information and statistics into something more worthwhile and just maybe something of interest to your family? That was the thought when distant cousins Warwick and Martin got together for the first time at an early settler re-enactment and decided to write a book about 3 x great grandfather Robert Miller.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Warwick (Rick) Nelson & Martin Brabon
• Release date: Oct 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9780645305111

Book preview

Scotland to the Island

Scotland to the Island

And the Call of the Land

Warwick Nelson & Martin Brabon

Ingram Spark

Scotland to the Island

Copyright © 2022 by Warwick Nelson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Printing, 2022, second 17/1/2023

Warwick Nelson

Email:[e-mail]

Catalogue publication details are available at the National Library of Australia

ISBN: 978-0-6453051-0-4

Cover photo - Kitty Miller Bay, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia.  Courtesy Martin Brabon.

Dedication

Dedicated to James (Jim) George Walker 2nd

(1928 - 2007)

Great Grandson (x2) of Robert Miller,

Your passion for family history was the catalyst for this book, I will always be grateful for the time you spent mentoring me and the moments we shared researching and discovering our ancestor's stories. 

co-author and nephew Warwick (Rick) Nelson.

Preface

These narratives attempt to tell something of the lives of Robert and Flora (nee McInnes) Miller, their children, part of their extended family, and some of their descendants.

Today, ‘the Millers’ are best remembered as early settlers of Phillip Island which sits at the entrance of Western Port Bay, Victoria. The principal memorial to the family name on the Island is Kitty Miller Bay. One half of this very pretty and popular location borders the original land selection made by Catherine (Kitty) Miller, the eldest child of Robert and Flora Miller. Robert Miller had selected land nearby and it would have been possible for Robert and Flora to look down the hill from their house and see Kitty’s land.

The initial quest for information about the Millers was rather simple – it was names, dates and places. In other words: who, when they were born, married and died, and where. The task became more complex and enriching when we started to ask why and how. That is, why did they do something and how might they have done it? For example, when Robert and Flora left Scotland, what was their reason for doing so? Would an understanding of broader historical facts of the time inform us as to some likely reasons for this decision?

For other aspects of this story, examining why and how, took us to another plateau. Could we test historical narratives for their completeness? For example, the early years of land settlement upon Phillip Island are characterised today by the failure of the first land-selectors and subsequent concentration of land ownership. However, Robert and Flora Miller, Catherine Miller and Duncan and Janet McGregor (the latter pair being an important aspect of the overall history) all gained full-title of their land on Phillip Island. They did not have to plead for someone to purchase their land as has been supposed for other selectors. Given their success, how might we re-appraise the period of the early parlous land selector?

In moving beyond who, when and where we also came to a point that we could originally only hoped to have reached. We learnt about the character of the individuals contained within this history. To succeed, our free settlers had to be practical and hardworking. Most importantly, as life-circumstances changed, they had to be prepared to recognise the need to ‘start again’. Adaptability and a sense of family are strong themes throughout the stories presented. Underpinning these qualities is the one theme that is the foundation of this collected narrative – the desire to own the land that they lived upon. It was the ‘Call of the Land’ that they heard and responded to most of all.

A note about our research

The history we present before you is not quite a history for historians. It does not sufficiently follow historical writing conventions to be considered as such, although accuracy has been considered a paramount concern in piecing together the disparate details of the lives that have been discovered. Where practical we have provided primary sources to allow the reader to immerse themselves into the same sources that we ourselves have found and used. Some items such as actual shipping lists we have omitted as they could not be satisfactorily modified for the demands of digital printing.

We hope that the informality of the dialogue makes the work more approachable. It is hoped that it will cause readers to ask questions for which answers have not been provided. It is further hoped that it will cause some of those readers to pick up the map (perhaps metaphorically speaking, a digital map) and torch to seek out more information to add to the details presented. If you do, please share your information – it is the only way you will preserve your finds.

Warwick (Rick) Nelson and Martin Brabon

(3rd great grandsons of Robert Miller)

Contents

Dedication

Preface

1 The journey starts - The Millers of Scotland

2 Robert Miller – To Canada

3 Colony of Victoria -The Arrival of the Millers

4 Robert Miller – Phillip Island Early Settler

5 To Lake Rowan – Early Settlement

6 Return to Phillip Island

7 The McGregors of Pyramid Rock

8 More about the Children of Robert and Flora Miller

9 The Justice Family of Thoona and Phillip Island

10 The Miller Legacy

Appendix A - Charles McInnes - Islay cultural database record

Appendix B - 'My Grandmother' - A short story on an early Islay emigrant

Appendix C - Extract of Early Lake Rowan Landowners

Appendix D - John Justice (ii), Robert & Sarah Justice

Appendix E - The Children of David and Isabella Justice

Appendix F - Family Tree Charts

Appendix G - Kitty Miller Descendants Re-union

Acknowledgements

1

The journey starts - The Millers of Scotland

Our journey starts in Crieff, Scotland where our ancestor Robert Miller is one of eight children born to John Millar (later spelt Miller) and Elizabeth (Betsy) Anderson. John Millar is a ‘smithy’, a blacksmith, in Crieff and successive generations of the family have been raised in the town from the early 1800’s.

Crieff today is a bustling country market town set amongst picturesque scenery where the Scottish lowlands meet the highlands. It is a popular tourist town, being both rich in history and part of the modern tourist ‘whiskey trail’.  The following description of Crieff written by John Woods in 1828 paints a picture of the town that John Miller’s children grew up in:

Crieff is a town situated in the county of Perth, and stuarty (sic) of Strathearn. It is about 17 miles west from Perth, and 22 north from Stirling.

Some have supposed that it derives its name from the Gaelic term ‘Crubba Cuoc’, which signifies the side of the hill; others from the word ‘Craobb’, a tree.

The town is a place of respectable antiquity – various notices of it occur in the Annals of Scottish History (published between 500 – 1286). Justice Courts in air sat at Crieff (sat in open air) at a period of very distant date. Crieff formed the headquarters of the army of Montrose more than once during the civil wars of the 17th Century, and in the last era of intestine commotion, it was traversed and occupied by the insurgent and royalist forces. In the year 1715, it was burned down by the Highlanders, and in all probability, it would have undergone the same fate in 1745, if the Duke of Perth had not interfered to preserve it from destruction.

Crieff stands on the slope of a hill, having a fine exposure to the south-east, south and south-west. It would be difficult indeed, to convey by mere description, any adequate idea of the almost incomparable prospect of woods, rivers and vallies (sic), and lofty mountains which the position of this town commands. The beauties of the surrounding scenery have justly become a theme of admiration to every intelligent traveller.

The town takes the rank of capital of Upper Strathearn, and constitutes the central point of communication between the north-west highlands and the lowland counties. The new line of road from Inverness to Edinburgh by Taybridge also passes through this town.

From the salubrity of its atmosphere, Crieff has long been styled on the Montpelier of Scotland. Lovers of sublime and beautiful in nature, and persons of delicate health, frequently make it a place of sojourn.

The ground is feued from the superiors at the rate of 16 pounds per acre. (Annual price that crofters – tenant farmers – paid to rent land.)

A large part of the inhabitants is employed in the manufacture of cotton goods. The operations of brewing and tanning are also carried on to a considerable extent. On the streams, in the vicinage (sic), distilleries, corn, lint, oil, wool, paper bark mills, meet the eye in rapid succession

There is a public library in the town, originally founded by a donation of books from the Honourable Sir Patrick Murray, Bart. of Ochtertyre, and since that time enlarged and supported by subscription. There is also a coffee-room for newspapers and reviews.

Mallet the poet, and Dow the historian of Hindostan (sic), according to popular tradition, were educated at the school in Crieff. The late Dr William Wright, an eminent physician and naturalist, and Dr. Thomas Thomson, one of the living ornaments of science who now occupies a chair at the University of Glasgow, were natives of Crieff. The late Dr. John Barclay, the celebrated anatomist, passed his youth in this vicinity.

A weekly market is held every Tuesday, and a number of general fairs take place during the course of the year.

The population of the whole parish (also covering nearby villages) in 1776 was 1977; in 1792 it was 2,640; in 1811 it was 3,300 and in 1821 it was 4,216; and in 1827 the inhabitants of Crieff itself might have been around 3,700. [1]

From John Woods 1828 notes, we can draw some important observations which have some resonance with the storyline of the children of John and Elizabeth Miller. Firstly, the town was one that was growing and it had industrialized, or began the process of it. The clue to that was the existence of factories sitting up the local river, especially the cotton mill. The working conditions in many cotton mills warrant some attention as an example of some factory and mill conditions generally.

Firstly, in order for the looms to process cotton efficiently, warm factory temperatures and humidity are needed to create a damp environment in order for cotton to be woven correctly on a loom.[2] Processing cotton created an immense amount of cotton dust which tended to cause chronic coughs and lung disease. After working a normal 12-hour shift, workers stepping out into the cold clear air caught numerous cases of pneumonia and chest cramping which caused a loss of breath.[3] Other negative factors associated with cotton mill and factory work included poor wages and cruel discipline. Whilst the strapping of children was somewhat normal, more extreme punishments included: hanging iron weights around children's necks, hanging them from the roof in baskets, nailing children's ears to the table, and dowsing them in water butts to keep them awake.[4] Fines were a regular punishment in mills. These were imposed for talking or whistling, leaving the room without permission, or having a little dirt on a machine. It was claimed that employers altered the time on the clocks to make their workers late so that they could fine them. Some employers demanded that their overseers raise a minimum amount each week from fines.[5]

It is not feasible in this short section to fully examine the generalised conditions of cotton mills and factories that pertained to the early 1800s. Some were much better than others and it is not possible to suggest what the conditions of the industrialized industries in and around Crieff were like. Suffice to say that there was a uniformity about poor and excessive working conditions in cotton mills and other factories throughout the UK in the early 1800s. In 1829 a gathering of about 60,000 people at St Peters Field in Manchester (England) to protest about factory working conditions and their lack of parliamentary representation were charged by cavalry, killing 18 persons and wounding or injuring as many as 500 in order to disperse the protestors. Occurring not that long after the Battle of Waterloo, the St Peters Field Massacre is known today as Peterloo.

Knowledge of these details is important, for as we will discover, that we know of, none of John and Elizabeth Millar’s children worked in a mill or a factory. The boys of the family appear to have acquired a trade, and likely as not, they all developed blacksmithing skills of some form. Perhaps we are being over generous is our assumption but this is suggestive of a cohesive family unit – as parents, the Millar’s kept their boys (at least) away from the worst effect of what was then ‘modern’ factory work.

So, the Millers (shifting spelling of the surname from Millar) lived in a smallish but bustling market town. Walking through Crieff today, it is not too difficult to imagine what life for the town’s smithy would have been like. A mix of people, horses and carts clambering for space in the High Street, the sound of the anvil being hit and the smell of smoke from the blacksmiths shop. It would have been a busy life. In fact, commerce was busy enough to support two smithies in the town.

The Miller family’s home was part of the business. Likely it was upstairs permitting no escape from the sound, smells and talk around the bellows. Perhaps it is only a little different to today’s small town mechanics shop with a line-up of cars waiting to be repaired. The day would start early when the forge fire had to be brought to life using a bellows and a fresh layer of coal. It is not an unreasonable thought that in winter, children may have slept in the vicinity of the forge for warmth.

Blacksmiths were integral and essential to village life in the era of the horse and cart and in the supply and repair of agricultural equipment and tools. Prior to the introduction of motorised vehicles, most people would have had a need to visit the local blacksmith, who would be highly regarded for his skills. ‘Smithies’ often commanded a high level of respect in the community. Excluding local landowners, a blacksmith could be said to be the third most important person in a village or small town – after the Priest and Miller. Millers were owners or workers at mills that ground wheat into flour. It may be a clue as to what an earlier person in John Millar’s family line once did. One thing we can be sure of, that being centrally located in the town the Millers will have been well known Crieff artisans.

According to census records Robert and his brothers followed in their father’s footsteps having trained as blacksmiths and wheelwrights. The 1841 & 1851 census indicate the business was located on the High Street and the Valuation Roll for 1855 show John (Robert’s father) was the proprietor and tenant of a house and smithy business at East High St, Crieff.  West High Street, High Street and East High Street connect, running west to east for about 500 meters through the centre of the town. It is difficult to know exactly where one becomes the other, although the maps suggest that East High Street starts at the intersection with Church St and ends at Strathearn Terrace, a length of approximately 260 metres. Street numbering does not appear to have been used at the time so precisely where in High or East High Street the Miller business was has been difficult to ascertain. 

As there was no Scottish census before 1841, we have not been able to confirm when the business commenced operation, however given John was 51 in 1841 the business would have been established some years earlier, possibly back to circa 1820.

Ordnance Survey Map 1822

We have tried to establish the location of the business in Crieff by looking at old maps.  A few existed for the timeframes relevant to our research, however two have provided clues. The above Ordnance map for 1822 shows the location of two Millers in Crieff township in 1822. Was John Miller Snr trading as a blacksmith in the town at that time? The top circle references a James Miller on what later became Millar Street. The lower circle references Miller & Roy on the corner of Mitchell and High Street (was this a joint proprietorship of blacksmiths?) and a J. Anderson two doors to the east on High Street. John Millar married Betty Anderson in Alloa, 1811, is there any ‘Anderson’ connection or is this just coincidental? This site at the corner of High Street and Mitchell Street may have been the first Miller blacksmith location.

Ordnance Survey Map, Crieff, 1863

The above map is later, being 1863, showing a ‘smithy’ specifically on East-High Street (circled), the street address given in the 1855 valuation rolls. This business is a further hundred metres east of the business shown on the previous map. John is thought to have passed away in 1863 so this map being printed in 1863 is relevant to the timeframe. As pretty well all the businesses on the High Street would have been tenants (a bit more about that later) it is conceivable that the Miller blacksmithing business changed locations.

If we look at a current day satellite image it would appear the 1863 location was somewhere near 52 East High Street. Further evidence is required to ascertain the exact location; however, we feel that we have identified the likely area of the Miller business and home assuming the location shown on the 1863 map is accurate.

Main Street Crieff

Google Maps satellite image 2020

We have no way of knowing which side of the road the business was located on, the current buildings at no.52 (East High St/A85) on the north side appear post 1860’s so offer no clue. The south side has a mix of old, new structures making it difficult to be precise about the building location. There are a number of older buildings 30 metres further east on the north side (see picture below) which more closely fit expectations, one with a courtyard that could have been used as stables. However, unless the ‘smithy’ location shown on the 1863 map is wrong and not accurate, we must presume these buildings were used for other purposes. It would be nice to be proven wrong as the opening under the upper story conjures up pictures of horses and carriages being led through to the blacksmith’s yard.

East High Street, Crieff 2021

Google Street View 2021

Old Market Square, Crieff, 2010

Image: Rick Nelson

High Street, Crieff, 2010

Inage: Rick Nelson

Note the street name Millar does it relate to our Millers?

Image: Rick Nelson

In 1811, the first child was born to John and Betsy Millar. This was George Miller. George was born in Alloa. This may suggest two things. That Betsy was spending the latter part of her pregnancy away from John, and was staying with friends or relatives who could support her. Or, John and Betsy were living in Alloa at that time, and a move to Crieff had not yet occurred. The couple would have 8 or 9 children who survived into adult life. Gaps between the births of known children are crudely approximated as 3 years, 2 years for all the other children perhaps suggest possible time-gaps for other children to have been born that did not survive. Robert was the sixth child born.

The complete list of John and Betty Millar's (sic) children are as follows:

GEORGE MILLER was born on 18 April in 1811 at Alloa, Clackmannan, Scotland. He married Jean Adie on 18 December 1836 in Muthill, Perth, Scotland. Jean was born 8 May 1815 in Muthill, Perthshire. George died on May 23 1870 in Bentinck, Ontario, Canada. Jean died on 31 May 1900 in Ontario, Canada.

HELEN SCOTT MILLER was born on 30 October 1814 in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland. She married William Simpson on 12 Jan 1849 in Crieff, Scotland. Helen died on 5 October 1875 in Stirling, Perthshire, Scotland.

ALEXANDER MILLER was born on 29 August 1816 in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland. He married Margery McDonald who was born on 30 March 1818 in Balquhidder, Stirling, Scotland. Alexander died in Flushing, Michigan, USA on 21 December 1887. Margery died on 5 February 1888, also in Flushing.

DAVID MALCOM MILLAR was born on 22 Jun 1818 in Crieff, Scotland. He married Ann Brown, daughter of John Brown and Grace McIntosh, on 18December 1851 in Crieff.  Ann was born on 22 July 1822 also in Crieff. David died on 3 October 1907 in Alloa, Clackmannanshire whilst Ann died on 13 February 1880 in Alloa. David may have continued to operate his father’s blacksmith business in Crieff for a period of time.

JOHN MILLAR was born on 21 May 1820 in Crieff. He married Mary Elizabeth Bayne on 1 November 1845 in Dunblane Perthshire. Mary Elizabeth had been born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1826. John died on 29 May 1902 in Hinsdale, Cattaragaus, New York, USA. Mary died in 1888 in Hinsdale.

ROBERT MILLER was born on 30 June 1822 in Crieff. He married Flora McInnes, a daughter of Charles McInnes-Smith and Catherine Currie on 26 May 1850 in Glasgow, Scotland. Flora was born on 23 February 1824 in Kilmeny, Islay, Scotland. Robert died on 31 March 1912 at Cowes, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia. Flora died at Karabumet, Lake Rowan (Victoria) on 13 October 1896.

JAMES MILLER was born on 4 July 1824 in Crieff.

THOMAS MILLER was born on 30 July 1826 in Crieff.

WILLIAM MILLER may also have been a child of John and Elizabeth Millar.

A note about some Scottish towns mentioned above.

Alloa remains a small village 13km east of Stirling.

Balquhidder is another small village that sits on the eastern end of Loch Voil and is north-east of Stirling.

Kilmeny is a parish in Islay and was home to Flora McInnes' family and the legendary Lords of the Isles. 

Muthill remains a small and largely unchanged village 3km south of Crieff.

Stuthise cannot be found on Google Maps.

As can be seen, by circa 1850, several of the Miller sons had travelled to Canada and the USA, a number with their new wives. The only daughter, Helen and son David appear to have remained in Scotland.  It is of interest that a modern business sign for a David Miller (Blacksmith) exists in Crieff today (2019). The sign is for an office, any smithy works being located elsewhere.

It is felt that, like his brothers, Robert, as a single man, has left the family home and business to start a new chapter in his life. We make this presumption on the basis that he married in Glasgow. Glasgow’s population in 1850, the year of his marriage, is estimated to have been at about 380,000 people.[6]  The town was a mecca to village-Scots looking for better work opportunities. At the time of his marriage, Robert’s occupation was a ‘wheelwright’, a qualification he may have acquired at his father’s business in Crieff or Robert may have ‘flown the coup’, so as to say, sometime earlier and travelled to Edinburgh, Glasgow or elsewhere in pursuit of further employment. John’s business, almost certainly, could not have supported the prospective adult wages of all his sons and so, from an early age, they are likely to have understood the need to find employment outside of the High Street smithy. Having married wife Flora in Glasgow may be evidence of Robert’s economic need to leave Crieff.

Flora McInnes

As stated, Flora McInnes was a native of Islay, being born at Kilmeny in 1824. Flora married Robert in a district known as ‘The Gorbals’ in Glasgow, May 1850. (Refer to the Duncan McGregor chapter for information on The Gorbals). Islay, is a semi-remote Hebridean island off the West Coast of Scotland, and Flora spent most of her pre-marriage years there. Flora’s father Charles McInnes (earlier versions of the name also appear as McInnish or McInnish Smith), like John Millar, was also a blacksmith, as well as a farmer, and elder at the local Kilmeny Church located almost opposite Keppolsmore farm where the family lived.

For well over half a century, the family were tenants (crofters) on a farm called Keppols/Keppolsmore (also Keppolls today), near Ballygrant. They likely also occupied the land from earlier times, however records don't appear to exist to confirm this. The McInnes family was large. Charles’ first wife Catherine McFadyen had seven children. After her death in 1817, Charles married Catherine Currie and had a further eight children. Seven daughters and one son. The Currie’s are a family that stretch back hundreds of years upon Islay. Originally the Currie clan was known as the MacVurich. Upon Islay, the McVurich can be reliably traced back to the 1500s. Political upheavals, in the 18th Century found the MacVurich clan aligned to the losing side and many of the clan chose to change their name to Currie as part of the process of the family re-aligning their allegiances.[7]

A view across Keppols farm (formerly Keppolsmore) 2010. Sheds and farmhouse in the background. Many of the bumps in the land are said to be the remains of buildings that have long since collapsed.

Image: Rick Nelson

The McInnes family lived on the farm as tenants with other families. With the other crofters, the farm was a small community made up mostly of farmers, labourers and perhaps artisans, the latter often with a mix of skills. Each crofter generally rented a portion of land, perhaps from as little as three to as much as 150 acres. An annual fee would have been paid per acre. This acreage allowed the crofters to produce the food they needed for daily living and with any excess income being for non-food necessities, the odd luxury, such as extra candles to burn light longer at night. What was also required of crofters was the contribution of their labour to the remainder of the landlord’s estate.

Those crofters lucky enough to be able to rent a large amount of acreage, often sublet a portion of their property to a crofting family of lesser means. Indeed, it was not uncommon for a well-off crofter to sublet a portion of their land to a crofter who sublet a portion of land to another crofter who in turn sublet, perhaps, a mere half acre to the poorest subsistence workers on the farm. If one was at the bottom of this subletting, then life would have been pretty miserable. We do not know how much land Charles McInnes was able to let. Being a blacksmith, it is reasonable to assume that he could charge or barter his labour on Keppols and perhaps even an adjoining farm(s).

Farmhouse still in use

Image: Rick Nelson

In terms of our ongoing discussion, it is useful to appreciate that, like the Millars of Crieff, the crofters of Islay did not own land. They had very little prospect of ever owning any land no matter how hard they worked.

Like the sons of John and Betty Millar, five of the daughters from Charles’ second marriage left Islay, circa 1850s, after marrying Scotsmen from the mainland. The girls appear to have migrated to Australia. We learn about one of these in a later chapter when she appears in court in Victoria. Others from the first and second marriage are believed to have migrated to Canada and the Scottish mainland. Some may have remained, but we have not been able to locate any of the direct ancestors on the Islay census after 1861. However, it is not unrealistic to think that distant cousins would still be living there today.

Rick feels that Flora and Robert travelled to Glasgow to be married and then she returned for a short while to Islay, living with her mother and children, whilst Robert travelled to the United States. It is possible to view the marriage as both a pact and part of a plan. Robert followed the footsteps of his older brothers on a reconnaissance trip to find a new land and future home for his family. We will expand upon this theory in the next chapter, but there is detail that supports some of this movement. Flora's father, Charles McInnes, died in 1850, aged 71. Flora may have returned home to support the care of her ailing father after her marriage.

In search of Flora Innes – a descendant visits

The pen is now in Rick’s hands … Having read about Islay’s history and learnt the essential details of my ancestors (who, when, where), I had been planning for several years to visit Islay and also Crieff to get a feel for where my Scottish ancestors came from. This is a very short account of my visit in the summer of 2010 when I was fortunate to travel from Melbourne to Islay as part of a European holiday.

I did not really know what to expect, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking that Islay may not live up to my expectations. Would I have language issues? I knew that Gaelic was spoken by some inhabitants. Would the locals be receptive to tourists? I had booked my accommodation at a local inn, what standard of amenities would they have or not have? Would there be enough to occupy my time over the three days?

I landed at Port Askaig disembarking off the ferry with the Renault hire car I had collected in Glasgow. It was a longer drive from Glasgow than I had anticipated with a two-hour ferry trip from Kennacraig on the mainland. The port village of Askaig was quaint and small.  

Port Askaig, Islay

Image: Rick Nelson

 I drove off the ferry without really exploring the village, anxious to see where I was staying and what the Island had to offer. My accommodation was at the ‘Ballygrant Inn’, just outside Ballygrant and a short drive away. The Inn was old, very clean and well maintained, just what I had hoped for. Downstairs was the local pub and eatery area. Accommodation was upstairs, only several small rooms and a communal bathroom/toilet. It was cosy and comfortable, though much smaller than what I had been used to in Australia. The owner was pleasant and to my surprise I could understand him. I explained why I had come and had hoped to find more about where my McInnes and Currie ancestors had come from. This wasn’t surprising to him; I suspect hundreds had passed through the hotel in the past with similar intentions. 

Walking and exploring is one of my favourite pastimes so the first thing to do was to wander around the property and follow the road into Ballygrant. I passed through some beautiful scenery which included an avenue of trees amongst the rolling green hills. The town of Ballygrant is very small. I recall there were only one or two shops and white painted terrace houses lining both sides of the road making a very quaint scene. Our ancestors had lived not far from here and would have visited frequently in their time.

View from the Road/Walking track towards Ballygrant

Images: Rick Nelson

The road from the Inn into Ballygrant is very picturesque

It was late in the day, so after an hour exploring, I headed back to the Inn for dinner and bed for a quick nap before heading back downstairs, hopefully to have a chat with anyone interested. Most annoyingly I woke late in the evening, the long day and walking had obviously taken its toll. I had slept through, and the Inn was in darkness. Next day I was keen to explore as much of the Island as possible in the short time I had, knowing I only had one more full day to follow. It was hard to know whether there would be much of interest, how much time should I spend at each stopping point?  Sadly, my trip felt a little rushed, I came to realise quickly, most of the island was sparsely populated with little traffic, yet it took a long time to go from one end of the island to the other if stopping to see the sights. A lot of the tourist spots were coastal so I needed to traverse from north to south and east to west, a lot of driving! I had not allocated enough time, at least 5-7 days would have been better to stop the mad rush from one place to the next.

Main road through Ballygrant

Images: Rick Nelson

I saw much on that day, covering as many areas I could fit in during daylight hours. Yet by day’s end, I was annoyed. I wished that I’d booked a few more days accommodation. If I had wanted bright lights, shops and lots of people I may have been disappointed. Fortunately, I love history, nature, scenery and the solitude that could easily be found on Islay. It was nirvana for me. There were several small villages where I stopped for meals, the Laphroaig distillery where I did a quick tour, the Museum of Islay Life where I read and observed all I could and given the good weather, I was fortunate to have viewed several beautiful beaches. I walked the shoreline of some for miles. I had expected rocky, or pebbly beaches like in much of the UK, yet many reminded me of beaches in Australia and those off Bass Coast where I lived. The next and last day was to be devoted to finding where my ancestor's lived.

When I arrived back at the Inn for my evening meal and the opportunity to try a couple of locally distilled whiskies, I was surprised to find that the publican, his son and I were the only ones in the hotel. The Inn was outside the village and the