When do I get my official certificate in the mail?

√ Haggis
√ Blood Pudding
√ Whisky
√ Visited my ancestral castle
√ Attended genuine Highland Games
(Did I miss anything?)

So when do I get my "I'm Scottish" certificate in the mail?

We visited Blair Castle yesterday - I'm a Murray through my Grandmother on my mother's side. It was only slightly tainted by my father telling anyone who would listen that his wife was here to claim the castle. No one thought it was funny.

It was actually a pretty cool visit. We were blasted with pipe music as soon as we walked into the ballroom. A visiting pipe band was performing in the "ballroom". I put ballroom in quotations, because I have never seen or imagined such a sight - there were antlers everywhere.

It was also very neat to look at the impressive, full sized portraits and imagine that we might be related to these people (though I doubt my branch of the family was ruling class, or we wouldn't have ended up in North America.)  Reading the information plaques also took on new meaning. Blair castle was the last castle to be laid siege to in Scotland - it was during the Jacobite rebellion, and it was headed by the brother of the laird inside the castle.

We never did get to Culloden though. I would have liked to visit it, though I suppose I still have a year here.

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