Well now....

Been googling the area we are hoping to move to. Quite amazing how sparse the information is. So - there's another task for moi.
One claim to fame is that Elvis's ancestors are supposed to have come from Lonmay and then emigrated to America.
Longside, where we live on the edge of now, has tons of information. It was a planned village following the Highland Clearances. Mainly weavers lived here. There is a book titled Longside. In our library, a limited edition, produced by the Longside Church of Scotland members. There is a book about one of the families that lived in Longside. Another book with photographs of Longside in the past.
All of the villages in this area also have tons of information.
But little info on our new abode.
The area we are moving to there isnt really a village. Scattering of houses, farms, but then there are three churches, virtually next door to each other, in the middle of nowhere, cemetery, church hall and school. One of the churches and the school are now residential homes. But who did they cater for?
There is also a huge stately home, owned by two young men now. We have visited there, Cairness House. Breathtaking. The amount of work that has been done there continues. It offers bed and breakfast, bit more upmarket than here! From our hopefully future home we can see the front of Cairness House.
Another stately home, Crimon Mogate is where our rotary joined with fellow rotary member, William, who owns it, and offers wedding packages nowadays. We had a lovely evening there, over a year ago, and you will have to go back through the blog to find the pictures. December 2009.
So, picture a lot of countryside, fields, ancient woodland, huge great piles of country homes and their estates, the odd cottage, churches, cemetery very gothic.
Really, really interesting.
But I am still wondering why these buildings came to be here.
So watch this space.
The nearest village is Inverallochy, on the North East coast. Did they have some connection inland? St Combs another coastal fishing village did have a connection with the churches in Lonmay I have been told. But why? Its a fair trek without a car, before there were cars, to get from St. Combs to Lonmay churches.
The best place to start any investigation in an area is to visit the churchyards and read the inscriptions on the grave stones. So I am planning on doing that.
As soon as I have sorted out packing up here.
Well now...