July 10, 2018 — Newtonmore (Inverness)

Though the early morning weather was overcast and rainy, we stuck with our plan to visit the open-air Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore in the Cairngorms (a short drive from Inverness).  When we arrived there, the sky was still grey and the mountaintops were obscured by mist, but it was not raining.  Our stroll through the museum was a trip back in time; the thirty-some historical buildings show how Highland people lived from the 1700's up until the 1950's.  We could enter each building and browse through the rooms which were furnished with items appropriate to their time period, while interpreters in some locations, wearing traditional attire, were on hand to inform visitors and answer questions.  Buildings ranged from croft and blackhouse (home of a small tenant farmer), bothy (stone barn and labourers' housing), houses, school, church, store, weaver's shop, tailor, bicycle and clock repair shop, shinty club (Scottish game similar to field hockey and might be the origin of shinny) and more —even two typical camps of "travelling people" (Scottish gypsies, who also had clan affiliation).  The bothy in the museum appears to be the same style as the now-unused one on Tillybo Farm that we had stopped to visit.  Seeing this one, set up as it would have been long ago — animal stalls in one room, dairy processing gear in another (milk separator, butter churn, etc), communal kitchen in the corner, and so on was very interesting.

We then continued our museum tour by walking along a path through a pretty treed area, which led us to the highland township area of 1700.  This area consists of six crofting buildings loosely arranged in a semi-circle and constructed with timber chuck-frames, earth walls atop stone foundations, and thick thatched roofs made of heather (reaching low down, near the ground).  After stooping slightly to enter, our eyes had to take a few minutes to adjust to the dark interior; there were no windows.  In the very centre of the house, there was a small round shallow fireplace in the dirt floor with pieces of peat burning; the smoke could be smelled throughout the building, but most of it rose to an opening in the roof directly above.  There was simple wood furniture and a few household items, like dishes and blankets.  The cattle were kept, during winter, at one partitioned end; during spring and summer, they were taken to a communal meadow to graze and fatten up; in fall, a drover took them south, to market.  What a challenging physical life people had!

We also learned that this had been used as a set in filming of "Outlander."

Our day finished up with a late lunch in Kingussie, a scenic drive back to Inverness via Aviemore and Forres (saw the ruins of the Ruthven Barracks and five deer along the way) and finally, another tasty supper in the Scandinavian BBQ Lodge in the backyard