Memories of holidays in Cairndow by Michelle Buckett (Grant) 2012
The journey down was very long and twisty. It was guaranteed I would get car sick. We always stopped at Killin for a quiet breath of air before the next stage of the travel.
I remember always walking a lot. I think my Auntie wanted my brothers and I to be tired so we would sleep all night. My Uncle Paul walked us up the huge hill behind his and my Auntie’s house.
I was about 8 – 9 years old and remember thinking we were very close to the clouds.
Walks down by the shore with the dog. The smell of the fish farm. I remember holding my nose as it was so strong. Now when I visit with my son he does the same.
Swimming in the loch but being told to watch out for jelly fish. So this gave me a bit of fear going in as I was told if stung then someone would need to pee on the area that had been stung, so I wasn’t very impressed with this. I always had a fear that there was sharks in the loch, as I remember an uncle telling me so. I was thinking big great white sharks not little basking sharks.
We found a jelly fish one day on the shore, it was the size of a dinner plate and its tentacles longer than a 12 inch ruler. It was horrible looking, like an alien to an 8 year old. We went jet skiing with Uncle Archie, that was good fun.
I loved going to Granny’s and getting amazing pancakes, scones and my brother’s favourite cake with spikes on top (icing). Next to my Granny’s lived an old lady called Miss Anastacia. She had a lot of dogs – she bred deer hounds. I loved going round when a bitch had, had puppies. My brothers and I would always fight to help clean the kennels and we would fight over who was doing the puppies kennel. The dogs were so big and scruffy but such kind, gentle dogs.
I remember I was 16 and in my home city and saw a woman with a deer hound, I got chatting to her and it turned out the dog she had with her was one of Miss Anastacia’s that she had bred. I felt really proud that where my Granny lived one of these gentle giants were over 80 miles away.
I remember the punching tree, even now, I take friends and new family members to the punching tree, people can’t believe there is such a thing.
We always went conker hunting. You would get the biggest conkers just down from my Granny’s by the Square. We would take a bag full of them home and friends at home would take some as they were better than the ones we got at our home.
I remember my Auntie Dot taking me and my brother to the fish farm one day, we went inside and there was huge fish tanks with nets over the top. I remember looking in the tanks and them having such black, black water you couldn’t see anything, for a wee person it was very scary. Again the smell was horrible and the thought of a huge shark in one of them, I think, maybe gave me nightmares.
That’s all I can remember from my holidays in Cairndow.
