www.clanlivingstone.info

Hello All,

The event went extremely well we thought and, as you surmise Donald, Edinburgh was packed. I particularly took the photo of the crowds to try and give the impression of the numbers at The Gathering. On Sunday morning when we went down to breakfast at our hotel one of the waiters apologised for leaving us in the lurch (he hadn't), saying that they had done 500 hundred breakfasts that morning!

The problem seems to have been lack of publicity about The Gathering in Scotland itself, as many people here seem to have been completely unaware that it was happening. In spite of this it was a great occasion, and there were masses of people there. We enjoyed it all enormously.

I'm glad that you liked the photos. David put them the forum. I'm afraid I haven't a clue how to do this.

Regards,

Jill

Hi Jill,

Glad to hear about the wonderful time you had. I can see how photos could be included from another web page but I am not certain how ordinary jpegs can be transferred.
I know how include photos with e-mail and that is about the extent of my knowledge.

regards,

Donald

Hello Baron,

Thank-you for your commentary and the informative articles on the Gatthering of the Clans. Interestingly one of the writers points out that many Scots are not interested in Clan Societies while there seems to be greater enthusiasm across the pond and in Australia and New Zealand. If that is so then let us hope that the Clan gatherings such as this one will generate efforts in the future to develop a greater interest in clan history among the younger people of Scotland. We would certainly welcome more Scottish representation at the forum.

regards,

Donald

Hi Everyone,
I apologize for the delay in sharing my experience with our Chief at The Gathering. My brother, James and I, along with our recently introduced family from California - Mark, Cody and Jesse, had lunch at Bachuil on Lismore with Niall and his family to start off The Gathering festivities. Because it was part of a tour package, I thought it was going to be a "staged" type of event. Our tour director told us there would be taxis waiting for us as we got off the ferry. You can imagine the surprise to be greeted and driven around by Niall and Dorothy (John Livingstone's wife). I cannot say enough good things about how WONDERFUL everyone was on Lismore. We were welcomed like close family. The food everyone prepared was delicious. James was able to play his pipes. We climbed Cnoc Aingeil with Niall. (A tricky climb. I was shocked that James was able to play the pipes the whole way up!) And I hold a special place in my heart for Max, Niall's 6 yr old nephew (Sandy and Christine's son). He is an absolute joy! We even saw the Grass of Parnassus (the family flower). The generosity of spirit and fantastic sense of humor that Niall and his family shared is not something I will soon forget.

I go to a lot of Highland festivals on the east coast of the US, so The Gathering was pretty much what I envisioned it to be. The setting, though, Holyrood Park, is magnificent. It was exciting to see the top pipers, bands and athletes all competing at one event. My only disappointment was that they did not have the Clan Chiefs participate in the Opening or Closing ceremonies. I think the committee in charge missed an important opportunity. We met more family - Niall's sisters, daughters, brother-in-law, Tommy Livingstone and his family, family from South Africa and Australia.

The parade was AWESOME! I had heard that there were about 6000 passports sold, so I imagined about that many marching in the parade. I never anticipated the amount of people who came out to watch. Truly AMAZING! Thank you for the video clip, but it looks like it caught us at a subdued moment. We may have been a small clan, but we were a LOUD one!

If they do have another Gathering, I'd recommend making the effort to get there. It was well worth everything it took to get us there.

eileen wrote:Hi Everyone,
I apologize for the delay in sharing my experience with our Chief at The Gathering. My brother, James and I, along with our recently introduced family from California - Mark, Cody and Jesse, had lunch at Bachuil on Lismore with Niall and his family to start off The Gathering festivities. Because it was part of a tour package, I thought it was going to be a "staged" type of event. Our tour director told us there would be taxis waiting for us as we got off the ferry. You can imagine the surprise to be greeted and driven around by Niall and Dorothy (John Livingstone's wife).

Eileen! Thanks so much for sharing. We'd welcome you visiting the Forum from time to time! We'd love to keep in touch with your family. So glad you could go--I just wish we could have afforded the trip as well!

All best,
Kyle=

Thanks for that Eileen. I have put a photo of you and James up. Morag took a few photos which I have put on the site. Deirdre will have many more but she is off sailing.

N

I was directed to this site at http://scotland.stv.tv/the-gathering

Another link of interest is to the Clan Convention meeting in the parliament chamber?

http://www.holyrood.tv/popup.asp?stream ... orning.wmv