Monday-Tues – Edinburgh and home

After driving west from Burntisland to go over the Forth Bridge (they’re building a 3^rd one!), we arrived at our hotel at Edinburgh airport. We added one more mode of transport to our list today, taking the tram from Edinburgh airport into the city.

I don’t really know much about Edinburgh, and I didn’t have my bearings very well, so after finding some lunch we wandered in the obvious direction, up to Edinburgh Castle. Once again the weather was beautiful – so there were hordes of tourists at the castle! They’re already putting up grandstands for the Edinburgh Tattoo in August, so the castle didn’t make such an imposing sight for photos – but there are sure great views to be had over the city (and over to Burntisland) from up there. The castle has a variety of buildings and spaces showcasing different eras and communities; Levi was particularly interested in the military museum, and I like learning and imagining how people lived (both the royals and their staff).

Worst part of the day was walking up- and down-hill on cobbled streets in poorly-chosen shoes, on a warm day, in crowds… sore feet, tired and grumpy as a result. The city (or the tourist precinct, anyway) was buzzing though, with lots of street performers and music as well as the (us) tourists. I would definitely like to come back to Edinburgh with a bit more time to get to know it than was possible this time.

We caught a tram back to the hotel for a quiet evening, to get packed ready for our flight in the morning. My last activity of the day was to phone Margaret Storrie on Islay. We chatted for about an hour, and it was a perfect, very fitting way to round out the trip.

Sunday – Finishing at the beginning

I apologise for how long it has taken me to finish this blog. That’s because I got up to here, our day in Burntisland – the beginning, because Burntisland is where William Bald, the central figure of this journey, was born and spent his childhood. This blog entry in no way does justice to the richness of our Burntisland experience, but as it’s now the anniversary of the completion of our trip I decided I should post it regardless.

Iain Sommerville developed the website burntisland.net, dedicated to the people, history and goings-on of this town of some 6500 people on the northern shore of the Forth of Firth. When Dad first “found” William and discovered he’d been born in Burntisland, he also discovered Iain’s website, and made contact. Iain added a William Bald page to the “People” section of the website, and over the years has done a stellar job of collating information, even doing his own research on William and adding significantly to our knowledge of the Bald family.

I’ve been in touch with Iain quite a bit in the lead-up to this trip, and meeting him is a real highlight. He had obviously put a lot of effort into preparing for our visit – he’d printed out family trees and copies of records, planned the itinerary for the day, and he also had copies of his books about Burntisland for us. He picked us up from the Beach House B&B just after 10, and took us around several family sites. First and foremost was the site of the Bald house at the bottom of High Street – now unfortunately just a car park next to the railway overbridge. However, there is a plaque in William’s honour installed on the bridge, and it’s amazing to stand there under the plaque, looking across and up the road, and see other houses that were there during William’s childhood in the late 1700s.

We went to Somerville Square, named after mathematician and astronomer Mary Somerville, a daughter of Burntisland. (I had always assumed Iain Sommerville must be descended from Mary’s family, but it turns out that’s not the case. I’d never noticed the extra ‘m’ in Iain’s surname!) Somerville Square was formerly called ‘Quality Street’, presumably because it was where some well-off, “quality” families lived. These included at one time the McOmishes – in-laws of Christian McOmish nee Bald, William’s sister who married mason/builder William McOmish.

After that we spent some time looking around the churchyard of the Parish church, where we saw the headstone of William’s niece Margaret Conquergood (great name!) nee McOmish. Margaret would be cousin to William’s son Charles, so our cousin 3 or 4 times removed… close ties! Her mother, William’s sister Christian, according to her death certificate was also buried in the churchyard, and it’s fairly likely their father and mother were buried here too – but there are no headstones remaining and I don’t think any records, so unfortunately we don’t know exactly where either Christian or her and William’s parents’ graves are.

We also saw another large bronze plaque installed at the other end of High Street, by the entrance to The Links, honouring the sons and daughters of Burntisland – including William Bald – who have become renowned for their sporting, political, academic or business achievements. Burntisland really punches above its weight as the hometown of many people who have made big contributions to society one way and another.

Iain treated us to a lovely lunch at the Kingswood Hotel, then delivered us to Ian Archibald, convenor of the Burntisland Heritage Trust. Thank you Iain, I’m indebted to you for the care you took of us and for the full and fascinating day you arranged. It was an honour to meet you.

Ian Archibald started off by showing us around the Burgh building, which has a long history and contains some really interesting paintings and other artefacts.

Then we went back to the Parish church, this time for a look inside. Ian warned us as he opened the door that it wouldn’t be as we expected inside – and he was absolutely right! The design is most unusual; instead of entering at the back of a central aisle with pews either side, running up to the pulpit front and centre, this church is square, with pews on all four sides, including gallery pews upstairs, and the pulpit in the middle. (I didn’t think of it at the time, but it’s occurred to me since to wonder how they manage typical ceremonial processions, like a bride walking down the aisle or a coffin being carried out?)

The church was built in the late 1500s, and the design makes it feel quite intimate. Other unusual aspects were the designs/paintings on the front of the upper level pews, which have been beautifully restored, and the way the pews are closed in - they’re sort of like corrals rather than just rows of seats. (One especially amused me – it’s double-depth, apparently because the parishioner who occupied it was fond of bringing his dogs to church services!)

One last lovely thing about our wonderful hosts in Burntisland…It turns out Ian Archibald is a retired surveyor/cartographer who worked for the Crown Survey in Edinburgh and he came across William Bald some years ago, around the same time that Dad first made contact with Iain Sommerville via the Burntisland.net website. An 1805 map of the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides had apparently been attributed to John Ainslie; but a print of the map was found in 1988 and it has William Bald’s name on it… Through his work Ian managed to get a copy of that print, and I am thrilled to say that Ian has generously passed that copy on to us now!

In the evening Levi and I took a drive around, first over to the old ruined Kirk where I had a wander round the churchyard, and then to Broomhill where we walked up to the lookout which has a great view over the old town.

The day in Burntisland was wonderful; I came away loaded with interesting information, and with a strong sense of connection.

2nd Saturday - A Stirling morning, all our way to Burntisland

Stirling Castle, looking across to Wallace Monument

The weather was a bit gloomy this morning, misty and atmospheric although still dry and fairly mild; great conditions for our visit to Stirling Castle. The castle is sited at a strategic location between the Firths of Clyde and Forth – a relatively narrow landmass which people needed to traverse to move between southern and northern Scotland – and up high on a rocky hill with views for miles. (Though as Levi pointed out, it can’t have been all that great a position given that it changed hands 8 times in 50 years at one point!)

There were lots of people visiting the castle, but they seemed to all spread out so we didn’t feel cramped. One of the things that struck me here is that a castle isn’t a single building, but really a whole village within the castle walls. Stirling Castle has really informative and interesting displays of the history of the Scottish monarchy (history that we just don’t learn, growing up here in NZ). One really interesting part was that some years ago they found 9 skeletons buried within the castle walls, suggesting that they may have died during a period when the castle was under siege and the usual burial grounds couldn’t be reached. They’ve done forensic analysis on these skeletons, and pieced together stories about two of the people. The male was built “like a professional rugby player” based on his huge shoulder blades; he had a 2-inch forehead wound in his skull (though it had healed so it wouldn’t have been what killed him – that was likely the arrow-head found in his chest); and it’s thought he was a knight, due to his bowed legs! In a couple of rooms in the castle there were actors dressed in period costume and talking in character to visitors about royal life in the castle.

Leaving the Castle, we decided we didn’t have time to climb the Wallace Monument, also in Stirling – a real shame, I was looking forward to its 296 steps and views out through the mist…not!

View from roof of Alloa Tower

We left Stirling for Alloa, just 15 minutes or so down the road, and headed for Alloa Tower. Built in 1497, the tower was home of the Erskines, the family of the Earl of Mar. I was interested in going here because the superintendent of the Earl’s collieries was Alexander Bald, father to Robert Bald (the engineer who proposed our William for the Royal Society of Edinburgh) and his brother Alexander (poet and timber merchant). There’s no proof of any family relationship between Robert and William, but based on the proximity of their home-towns, their professional linkages, and the un-commonness of the surname, we think they were likely cousins.

I’m not sure of the original internal layout of the rooms in Alloa Tower, but now each floor is just one large room, all connected by a very narrow, very steep spiral staircase – how on earth a family could have lived there with children I don’t know! The spiral staircase goes all the way up and out on to the roof... I didn’t last long up there, it was very a long way down! Levi wasn’t very keen on it either - especially with the signs saying “don’t lean on barriers, they may not support your weight”.

1825 map in Alloa Tower, showing Bald properties

On the second floor there was a staff member on full-time duty, as the walls on this level of the tower are covered with old and valuable family portraits. There are also other information resources here, so we spent some time looking through various local history books for references to the Bald family, and found several. The coolest thing though, was the woman on the entry/ticket desk knowing of the Bald family – her husband used to work for the (now defunct) Carsebridge Distillery, originally run by John Bald – and telling us where to find Robert Bald’s house. And then on the wall we found an old map, from 1825… which shows Ro. Bald Esqr’s property, as well as Mr [Alexander] Bald’s wood yard on the edge of the forth. The timber yard is long gone, and the site is now just a carpark and little commemorative path inscribed with key points in the history of the town, but Robert’s house is still standing and apparently occupied. From the picture the receptionist at Alloa Tower gave me, Robert’s house is grander at the back than it is at the front, but it was still obviously a pretty substantial residence. At the house I had a similar feeling to how I’d felt at Anne’s grave, knowing that it was very likely that William would have visited there at times.

Alexander Bald's house, 14 Bedford Pl, Alloa (Lylestone House)

One funny thing at Alloa Tower: I couldn’t use Irish currency for the entry ticket; notes from the Bank of Ireland and Bank of Ulster seem to be accepted in shops, but the National Trust of Scotland wouldn’t take them. (I’ve had GBP currency from Banks of Ireland, Ulster, Scotland and England on this trip, all different sizes and colours. And now it’s apparent that all aren’t quite equally valued! And the coins!!... They still use 1p and 2p and 5p coins; purse has been full of damn shrapnel the whole time, grr!)

Driving through Culross

On the way from Alloa to Burntisland I’d intended to stop in at Culross (Coo-riss), a village run by the National Trust of Scotland which is the most complete example in Scotland of a 17-18^th century village, but we had pretty much run out of time. We drove through it nonetheless and got a tiny taste of what it’s like – and I’d definitely like to go back for a visit. We turned off the main Alloa road down a wee country lane (after missing it the first time – another U-turn of many, many on this trip!), then came to the top of a series of narrow, steep village lanes, all cobbled (nasty! Very romantic for sure, but hard on the suspension!), and with houses sitting right up to the street on both sides. I felt like I shouldn’t have been driving there, like I was driving through a film set or through the middle of a tourist attraction, but other cars were parked along the streets so it seems we were on bona fide public roads.

View from the Beach House across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh

Not too much of a drive further on and we arrived at the Beach House B&B in the old Burntisland tearooms, right on the shore of the Firth of Forth. There are stunning views out across the estuary to Black Rock (which you can walk out to when the tide is out), and over to Edinburgh directly on the other side of the forth. Can’t wait to have a look around Burntisland tomorrow!

2nd Friday – A Stirling day

Over breakfast this morning I chatted with Carolanne’s husband, Graeme, who has retired from a career in QA and now helps run the B&B. We talked a bit about the upcoming referendum for whether the UK should leave or stay in the European Union (“Brexit”), and it sounds like most Scots are keen to stay in the EU. That certainly concurs with what I mostly heard in Ireland too – including the Republic, where they’re concerned that they might end up with border controls etc again if Northern Ireland is no longer part of the EU, while the Republic of course is in it. Polling seems to suggest though that the vote will be reasonably split, so I guess there must be a strong ‘Leave’ contingent in England.

Just funny

We left Troon for Stirling, via Dalry where my dad’s maternal grandfather was born. Dalry was another place I ended up driving round in circles (and in and out of town a couple of times) trying to find somewhere to park. In the end we gave up and took photos out the car windows. Sorry to say the highlight of Dalry was seeing a squirrel run across the road and through someone’s section (as we went up a little suburban street to do yet another U-turn).

Balfour Street, Port Glasgow

We stopped in Port Glasgow, where Charles and William Jnr were living in Balfour Street at the time of the 1841 census, aged about 27 and 20 respectively. These were the two eldest sons of William (Charles being the one whose line we’re from), both of whom were also civil engineers! This was during the time of William’s tenure as engineer to the Clyde River Trust in Glasgow, so I suspect the sons were there at the Port helping him, by taking tide measurements and the like.

Balfour Street is still there, but number 34 is just one end of an apartment block now. At least the railway goes through right next door - I think they'd have liked that!

Ghosts of engineers past?

Port Glasgow is a funny wee town, which seemed to have a very eclectic mix of shops. We went to a hardware shop to buy a phone charging cord, and were greeted by a friendly turbanned Indian proprietor, and his cutesy dog walking up and down the counter. We found a Subway (which prepared the “Levi special” – salami, cheese, gherkins jalapenos olives, BBQ sauce – with barely a raised eyebrow) inside a superette, along with a post shop, but couldn’t find anywhere that looked like it might sell t-shirts.

As close as we got to the Wallace Monument

Late in the day – too late to go to any more attractions – we arrived in Stirling, where our accommodation for the night is Dunard B&B, in a lovely house on the lovely (and attractively named) Causewayhead Road, with lovely hosts. In the evening they lit a fire in the guests’ lounge at the front of the house, and it was really nice to sit on the sofa by the open fire (catching up on this blog!) rather than just stay holed up in our room. Also had an interesting chat about IT roles and organisations with the husband, who is a programmer in the GIS team at Scotland’s Environmental Protection Agency. (They have Business Analysts in the business groups, and Systems Analysts in the IT group; those two roles form the interface between business and technology for development projects. No architects, and no project managers!)

2nd Thursday – Back to Scotland!

We had a fairly leisurely morning, a last breakfast at the Premier Inn Cathedral Quarter, then hopped in a taxi bound for the Stena Line ferry terminal at the Belfast port, 10 minutes away. There’s really not much to say about the ferry trip across to Scotland – the boat was big and fast, there are good facilities on board, and the trip was super smooth. Levi watched a movie while I spent the couple of hours catching up on a work thing I should have done before I left.

Bye bye Belfast

Hello Loch Ryan - about where Dad caught lots of mackerel one time!

When we arrived at the Cairnryan ferry terminal in Scotland we picked up our bags off the carousel, and went through security to the main terminal area. When I say security, I mean we just walked out the door. There were some uniformed bods floating around (at an airport it’s “airside”, presumably at a ferry terminal it’s “waterside”?), and they stopped the odd person to ask where they were from, what they were doing in Scotland – but it really was remarkably low key. Off to the Hertz desk to get our new rental car, where we had a good giggle at the attendant’s story about a mishap she’d had once involving a bull falling on her car. Yes that’s right! Once upon a time, a few years ago but not far away, she was driving along a lane just minding her own business… when suddenly a great big (and obviously rather clumsy) bull fell off the raised verge and landed straight on the bonnet of her car! That’s ridiculous enough, you’d think – and the car was a write-off – but what really took the cake was that the farmer then proceeded to sue her for loss of the bull!

Anyway, well insured as it is, our new rental car is horrible. It’s a Ford C-Max compact MPV. It has more boot-space than the Hyundai iX35 we had in Ireland, but that’s about the only positive thing I can say about it. I can’t get the seat adjusted to feel comfortable, I’m either too far from the pedals or too close to the steering wheel, and I can’t seem to ever find the best gear to be in. Just nasty. (And over the next few days, while I got used to it, I never grew to feel comfortable let alone like it.)

Leaving Cairnryan we drove up the Ayrshire coast, on our way to tonight’s B&B. My impression of driving on Scottish roads is that they are on balance better than in Ireland – better condition, and a bit wider – but the thing that really gets me is that the road markings in towns (and it turns out in cities too) are very worn. They’re very bitsy, often almost disappeared altogether, and really provide only the vaguest indication of lane boundaries and give way lines etc. Another thing I’ve struggled with is that they paint a line across the entry to a street, not just a line to show where to stop to turn out of the street – so I keep on thinking I’m entering a one-way street in the wrong direction. Most disconcerting.

But the nicest thing… every little village and town up the coast has a “come back soon” sign on the way out, but it’s written so quaintly in Scottish: “Haste ye back”. Love it.

The scenery up the coast is lovely; the farmland is attractive, but it’s the seaward views that are really appealing – across to some of the islands off the west coast of Scotland, as well as all the way back to Ireland and the Antrim Coast. The islands must make the waters quite sheltered, and we saw a few yachts out – and of course we’ve got another gorgeous day of beautiful weather.

Our main stop on the way up the coast was Culzean (said “Killane”) Castle, which was fabulous. There was a lovely winding drive through the estate down to the castle and associated buildings, and although based on the number of cars in the carpark it’s a busy tourist attraction, it didn’t feel very busy. The pedestrian entry to the grounds of the castle proper is through a great stone arch (apparently deliberately made a little unfinished-looking to add romance, a staffer told us) and across a bridge into a small plaza.

The first room we went into was the armoury – not a bunker, but a sort of drawing room or similar, with all the walls lined with hundreds of flintlock pistols and swords and bayonets arranged in different patterns. A couple of rooms further on we came to the grand oval staircase, which took us to many more very grand rooms, beautifully decorated and furnished, and with magnificent sea and coast views. The castle is really in a tremendous position. Downstairs we saw the kitchens, and got a strong sense of the “upstairs, downstairs” lives that the different residents must have had.

It's just a lid!

One cute touch through the castle, to help keep younger visitors engaged, was that there is a little Lego man hiding somewhere in every room. (You reckon you got them all, Levi, but that one in the dining room was definitely just a lid on a vase… It was the lid!)

The other cool thing (‘scuse the pun) we looked at was the castle’s ice house, an egg-shaped chamber built in under the bridge to the castle. In winter they would take ice from the pond and pack it into the ice house, which was shaped to help the ice last longer and also lined with straw for extra insulation. The ice was used to preserve meats and other perishables (nicer than salting), but also used directly in drinks and food…frozen pond water, eww yuck!

After looking at the castle and the ice house, Levi and I went for a walk through some of the estate grounds - and seeing a pheasant on the path and some deer in a fenced-in woodland area, it was quite charming.

Bargany House B&B in Troon where we’re staying tonight is in a great spot right on the shore of the Firth of Clyde/Troon bay. I asked the B&B owner, Carolanne, if people swim in the bay (I imagine it would be pretty cold for a lot of the year), and she said yes indeed they do. She is a long-distance swimmer, and has used it for training – although she said you could just about walk right across, it only gets to about chest-deep.

For dinner tonight we went to a restaurant in Troon, which was busy and had a decent menu, but the most notable thing was the G&T menu - pretty impressive!

2nd Wednesday – Back to Belfast

So apparently this is a bona fide heatwave for Ireland – 3+ days getting up to 20-ish degrees. Many, many people have said they haven’t seen a spell of weather this good literally for years. (I don’t know how Ireland is so green, since it never seems to rain… hehehe. The only time I’ve used wipers in the car was on intermittent for a short period on Sunday – well, ahem, that is apart from the occasional lapse when I meant to turn the blinkers on.)

This morning we drove straight across Dublin, rather than taking the ring road, as it was our only chance to see a bit of the city as we left it. (Besides which, arriving into Dublin and on to the ring road last night I was reminded of Auckland, hitting real traffic for the first time over here, so decided it was best avoided.) Overriding impression driving through was of the large number of buses on the roads. Other than that Dublin looks like a nice city, and I’d like to come back and spend a bit of time here. I had planned to swing by a couple of churches that the Bald family attended – a Catholic church where some of the children were baptised in the 1830s, and a Church of Ireland where William and 3^rd wife Margaret McGreevy got married. (Yes, the same Margaret McGreevy who was also married to William by the parish priest in Islandeady (of the silent d), a couple of days later. It seems William was somewhat adaptable in his choice of religious belief.) However we ran out of time to do that, so settled for driving along Aungier St in central Dublin where g-g-grandfather Charles (William’s eldest son) and his wife Harriet lived for a time.

We detoured off the main highway for breakfast in Drogheda (said “Dro-he-da”), where William Bald worked on some harbour improvements. Unfortunately this was another town where the layout and the parking defeated me, so we drove round in circles for a bit (this will be a recurring theme, you’ll find) and ended up going through the Maccas drivethrough (happily, this is not a recurring theme). We didn’t go right into the centre of Drogheda, but from across the river (along a stretch of road which we traversed no less than 4 times) it appears to be a very old and attractive town which would be worthy of more exploration.

Once again from Dublin to Belfast the highway was fairly featureless most of the way - apart from the odd amusing placename...e.g. in photo 3 above. The highlight of today’s road trip… I saw a badger! Unfortunately it was dead on the roadside :’-(  The second most exciting bit was crossing back into Northern Ireland – got tricked by the change in speed measurements, drove for a few minutes at 60 km/h (thinking gee, this is slow for a good road like this) before I realised the units had changed to miles per hour, duh.

Finally when we got to about 80km from Belfast, hooray, some landscape features! It sounds sort of inane to say it now, but the change was really quite noticeable, to the extent that at the time I commented out loud (to myself of course; Levi was buried in a book as usual).

We dropped the tractor car off at the airport, taxied into the city and checked back in at the Premier Inn, then went and had a late lunch with Chris and Gavin. They’ve been looking at the film, checking whether there’s anything else they want from us before we leave the country, but they said they’re happy with what they’ve got. Apparently all up they’ve got around 25 hours of footage that has to be edited down to 90 minutes (3x half hour episodes), which they’re aiming to deliver to the BBC ready for broadcast by the end of the northern summer. It sounds like that might be a bit optimistic though – Gavin said he thinks they’d be doing pretty well to get it completed by September. It’s highly unlikely to get broadcast in NZ, but they’ve promised DVDs :-)

2nd Tuesday - Across (to) the generations

This morning we farewelled Doogarry House and made for the Castlebar library. I found the Castlebar town centre quite difficult to navigate, as the street layout seems to include squares and triangles, plus there’s a park area near the middle, and a one-way system. Anyway after a couple of haphazard circuits we found our way to the parking near the library, and went in.

I’d emailed in advance to let Ivor Hamrock in the library’s local history department know we were coming, and he had prepared by getting out William Bald’s maps and printing off some parts of papers about William’s work. The library has an unframed print of the same bogs map we saw at Westport House; apparently someone picked it up for twenty pounds at a car boot sale, and sold it on to the library for a tidy profit! I asked to photograph it, and Ivor carried it very gingerly over to a table – remarkably it’s still in pretty good nick for something that would have been printed circa 1812.

The library’s hard copy of Bald’s “Map of the maritime county of Mayo” is a set of 5 laminated sheets (the original was in 25 sheets), reprinted in 1989 by a company called Phoenix Maps (now defunct, I believe).

It’s not clear what inspired Phoenix to make the prints, but when I asked “what did they print them from?” we found on the bottom of a sheet the inscription “Reproduced from originals made available by the Neptune Gallery, Dublin, purveyors of fine Antique Maps and Prints”. I don’t know whether Neptune has manuscript maps or original prints, or even if they still have them as part of their collection, and there’s not enough time to visit them while I’m here, but it’s a lead I’ll follow up once home (and once this damn blog is done and dusted!).

One of the most interesting things about the Mayo maps – aside from the detailed mapping of buildings and the general quality and artistry of the maps – is that they include thousands of place-names, many of them not recorded in the Ordnance Survey a couple of decades later. Apparently the Bald maps are consulted quite a lot by people doing genealogical research, when they know the name of the place their ancestors lived but the place-name has changed or fallen out of usage. Finding the place on an old map allows them to figure out the modern name for the locale or parish, which helps in seeking records or confirming family linkages.

This photo is of a very small part - you can view the entire map here: http://www.mayolibrary.ie/maptool/#M10C-9.42604!53.90792Z9F1* 

Just before we left, Ivor told me about another of William’s local works that he’d stumbled across while researching Lord Lucan, the local landowner: in the middle of the town, just opposite the library there’s a park area known locally as The Mall, bordered by stone bollards linked by chains. This fence – and Ivor assured me it’s this same fence that’s there today – was erected by William in the 1820s, in response to Lord Lucan telling him to “do something about that swamp”!

Felt a bit sad leaving Castlebar – I could easily have spent quite a few more days poking around the town and nearby areas, and getting a better feel for the place. But it was time to go to Dublin – via Galway to meet retired forensic and litigation engineer Paul Duffy.

Paul is mentioned on the Burntisland website as having given a lecture about Bald’s map of Mayo in 2007. I decided a couple of days back that I should try to get in touch with him. I’m so glad I did! It turns out he’s done much more than given a lecture; he’s actually been interested in William Bald’s work for around 30 years! Paul worked in roading and water for the Galway County Council, and kept coming across William’s name in documents relating to both. As he dug more, he developed a very strong sense of William’s work ethic, meticulous attention to detail, and unwillingness to modify his designs or cost estimates in order to kowtow to patrons. Paul said several times that he hopes we realise what an illustrious ancestor we have.

Once we left Paul's place we hit the road for Dublin - a long, featureless drive straight across the middle of the island, motorway all the way. (Ireland was described to me as being like a saucer - flat in the middle with all its hills/mountains generally round the perimeter - easy drive across the middle, but boring.)

Tonight in Dublin we had the pleasure of dinner with Leanor, another descendant of William Bald, and her husband Ronnie. Leanor’s great-grandmother was William’s daughter Margaret, by his second wife Matilda - by my calculation, that makes us half- third-cousins once removed.

                   William

       (Anne)  /     \ (Matilda)

                    /       \

            Charles  Margaret

                 /              \

          Francis          Oscar

              /                       \

      Vincent                 Phyllis

           /                               \

Peter/Brag/Jen             Leanor

       /

Andrea etc

It was really neat to meet Leanor and Ronnie, and they were great company – thank you again for the dinner, and the lift home.

“Home” for the night is St Aiden’s Guest House, a red brick Victorian terrace in a leafy area on Dublin’s south side – very nice.