The next segment of our trip was the drive from Inverness to Edinburgh for our flight home. Our route was East from Inverness to Aberdeen then South to Edinburgh. The main item of interest was to stop at the Drum Castle Estate near Aberdeen.
This estate had been home to the Irvines of Drum for over 650 years. The significance of this is that Barb’s maiden name was Irwin which is one of the derivative names from the Scottish Irvine name. After our conducted tour Barb mentioned to the tour leader that her maiden name was Irwin. We were promptly conducted to a staff only room where there were numerous Irvine family genealogy books and a large wall family tree chart. Barb’s aunt, Louetta Irwin, had visited Drum Castle in 1989 with an Irwin genealogy oriented tour. Irwin descendants are invited to sign into the castle guest book. It was exciting for Barb to discover her aunt’s signature along with a first cousin of her aunt.
At the castle they told us that a secret room behind the library shelves was recently discovered during some repair work. They had no knowledge of the room's existence. The contents are being studied by historians.
Our destination for the night was North Queensferry, just across the bridge from Edinburgh. We thought the view of the bridge from the hotel dining room was a fitting end for our Scotland adventure.
