Category Archives: Scottish Connections

Loralee Hyde: Cooking, eating … and dancing in Pitlochry

As part of the 2021 Wellington Region Archive Project Celebrating 60 years of dancing, I’ve perused old issues of Harbour City Happenings for stories about our people, events and history. In the May 2000 issue, I came upon an article I wrote about my time living in Scotland and the range of good food I helped to cook (and eat!)

Over 1979-1980, I worked as a ‘mother’s help’ for a family in a three-storeyed stone house dating from 1831 called Urrard, on a 2,500 acre estate of farmland and moor in Killiecrankie, a stunning area near Pitlochry in the Central Highlands of Scotland.

Urrard on 28 December 1979. Although snow was threatening on Christmas Day, it didn’t snow until Boxing Day. So we didn’t have a white Christmas!

On the east bank of the River Garry, a tributary of the River Tay, this was the site of the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689; the opening battle of the first Jacobite Rising in Scotland against the Government. The battle was a victory for the Jacobites, but with huge losses on both sides, including Viscount Dundee who raised the army of Jacobites. Claverhouse’s Stone at Urrard, is said to mark the spot where he died.

From my bedroom on the third floor, I looked down the Pass of Killiecrankie—beautiful in the spring with all the different colour greens in the woods, full of reds and oranges in autumn and stark in the winter with the bare limbs of the trees covered in snow and ice.

The Pass of Killiecrankie from high up on the Urrard farm in July 1979 – my attire suggests Scotland does have a summer!
The autumn colours of the Pass of Killiecrankie from my bedroom window in October 1979

The farm at Urrard was leased to a tenant farmer; Archie and his wife Ruth (a Scottish Country dancer) who had a house at the bottom of the steep drive up to Urrard. A gamekeeper, Alaistair, lived in a cottage on the estate, raising pheasants and ducks for annual shoots. His wife Isobel, who was Cordon Bleu trained, cooked delectable Scottish treats for us including mouth-watering shortbread, scones and oatcakes.

Below is a reproduction of my article from Harbour City Happenings about my working life at Urrard, including a recipe for oatcakes.

Simple but full of flavour

My job revolved around cooking and eating. Perhaps it’s the mind-sapping cold from the winds sweeping in from Siberia or just the age-old recipes that inspire the concentration on good food in that part of the world. A liking that has been transported to New Zealand as so many of us have Celtic blood in our heritage (my connection is to Clan MacMillan)

In summer, we had greens from the garden and watched the potato and barley crops growing in the fields. And then had masses of berries—raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants. Raspberry fool just about every night for dessert!

Walking up the moor, gathering rowan berries from the trees to make jelly to go with venison from the estate. Cooking salmon, grouse, woodcocks, pigeons and ducks. Neeps in winter. Toffee and fudge at village fairs. Haggis and black pudding from the butcher in Pitlochry. At Hogmanay, visiting neighbours for black bun. And always, shortbread, shortbread, shortbread; baked three or four times a week and so perfect with a cup of tea. (Yes, I put on weight while I worked in Scotland!).

We had shooting parties of twenty-two during the season. The dining table had enough extensions to sit all. All morning, we’d cook soup, casseroles and baked potatoes on the Aga stove to be ready for the shooters after their time on the moor. Cheese, crackers and fruit finished the meal.

The dining table at Urrard set for a shooting party lunch in November 1979
Cooking soup on the Aga stove in the kitchen at Urrard in November 1979

Nothing really fancy for the whole time I was there, just simple but flavoursome food. Comfort food to get us through the cold but enjoyable as well to share with friends and neighbours. One of my favourites is oatcakes, lovely with cheese or other toppings. This recipe makes 25.

Oatcakes

1 cup fine oatmeal
1 cup medium oatmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
60g lard (or equivalent), melted
1/2 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line two oven trays with baking paper
Combine oatmeals, baking powder, salt and sugar
Make a well in the centre, add lard & water
Using a flat-bladed knife, mix to a firm dough
Turn onto a surface lightly sprinkled with fine oatmeal; press into a flattish square
Roll dough out to 30 x 30cm square (about 3mm thick), sprinkling with extra oatmeal if necessary
Cut into rounds or squares. Repeat with leftover dough.
Place oatcakes on trays about 5mm apart. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool on trays.

Originally published in Harbour City Happenings, Vol 3, No. 2 May 2000

More about my life in Pitlochry…including some dancing

The children in the family, aged 10 and 14, were away at boarding school except for holidays, when we did a lot of activities together such as going to the Highland Games in Kinloch Rannoch and Pitlochry and celebrating Christmas.

With Mary and Andrew on Christmas Day 1979. I knitted the Fair Isle cardigan from Shetland wool while I lived in Scotland and still have it!

After gathering produce from the garden and cooking in the morning, I worked in the family’s Malt Shop in Pitlochry, 6km south of Killiecrankie during the afternoons.

The road wound through stunning forest parks. With the sun setting at 2.30pm in the winter, it wasn’t quite as nice driving then. I had my first ever experience of driving in the dark in a snowstorm. Not pleasant. And the steep drive up to Urrard was often very icy. Much care was needed so I didn’t skid off the track into the woods!

At the Malt Shop we had a range of over 120 whiskies from distilleries all over Scotland. The small shop was extremely busy over the summer, with tourists (mainly from the USA, Europe and Japan) crowding in to buy their choice of whisky.

Ready for work in the Malt Shop in October 1979

Being an off-licence, we were unable to offer tastings. Occasionally at the end of the day, the staff would go to a local hotel and taste a few malts. My favourite was Talisker, a single malt from the Isle of Skye.

A staff tour of the Blair Athol Distillery just down the road from the shop gave us a great insight into the malt-making process. The source of water for the whisky is the Allt Dour—in Gaelic ‘the burn of the otter’ which flows through the distillery grounds.

The Malt Shop staff tour of Blair Athol Distillery in October 1979 – with Lena, Freddie, Lillian, Rayna and Sheila

During my time in Killiecrankie, I wrote long letters back home to my parents and my sister (Karen is also a Scottish Country Dancer and she worked in Pitlochry at the Green Park Hotel in 1977). My mother kept all the letters and they form a wonderful archive of memories.

In October 1979, I started dancing with a group in Pitlochry and usually got a lift there with Ruth as she lived nearby.

I’d left New Zealand in March 1978, so by October 1979, I hadn’t danced for nearly two years. On 16 October, I wrote home to my parents:

I went to Scottish Country Dancing on Thursday for the first time. After all the bad weather when I couldn’t go walking, it was great getting some exercise again. The club is quite small but everybody is very friendly. I haven’t forgotten how to dance! From next month there are regular Saturday night dances in one of the hotels in Pitlochry which will be good to go to.

On 24 December 1979, I wrote to Karen:

Last Saturday I went to a very good Scottish Country Dance in Scotlands Hotel with a Scottish Country Dance band playing. There was quite a big crowd (about eight sets). People come from miles around including Aberdeen. They don’t have any time between the dances so I got quite rather puffed and hot! Also they don’t brief the dances but luckily most of the dances they do are popular ones.

Heading up to the moor with Sheba on New Year’s Day 1980

Urrard is only a few kilometres from Blair Atholl Castle, the seat of the Duke of Atholl. On New Year’s Eve I was invited to a Hogmanay ceilidh in Killiecrankie, put on for the workers from the Atholl Estates.

We did some Scottish Country dances at the ceilidh including dancing Duke of Perth three times! I’ll always remember the wondrous sight of the snow-covered hills glistening in the moonlight when we left the hall after Hogmanay.

In mid-January 1980, I decided to return to the bright lights of London. On 14 January 1980, my letter home said:

On Thursday night I went to dancing for the last time which I was sorry about as I know everybody now and they’re all so friendly. They gave me a lovely pendant from Heathergems made in Pitlochry from varnished heather stems.

I didn’t take any photos of dancing in Pitlochry, as in those days I didn’t have a flash on my camera. However, in 1983, Ruth and Archie visited New Zealand and I had a wonderful catch-up with them. With Scottish Country Dancing, we make friends and connections around the world!

With Archie and Ruth from Killiecrankie in the Te Awamutu Rose Gardens, Easter 1983

Loralee Hyde
5 December 2021

John Markham: Scottish Connections

John’s dancing life story

As told to Kristin Downey

At the left, John is dancing Kingussie Flower with Maureen Sullivan at the Johnsonville & Capital City Joint Annual Dance in August 2019

When John and his late wife and soul-mate Petra arrived in Wellington from the UK in 1969, John had no idea he was about to embark on a life of Scottish Country Dancing.

As new arrivals, they decided a good way to meet people would be to join a group of some sort. Petra heard about Kelburn Scottish Country Dance Club from someone at work and off they set.

Petra had danced at school, John had not, and knew nothing about it. He was expecting to go along and sit on the sidelines and watch. However, this was not to be.

Mirth Smallwood (original tutor of Kelburn Club) approached John on the sidelines and as John puts it, ‘dragged him up’ to dance Mairi’s Wedding

Download a summary of Mirth Smallwood’s contribution to Scottish Country Dancing below, from Sociable Carefree Delightful – A history of Scottish Country Dancing in New Zealand by Margaret D Laidlaw and Margaret M Hutchison

Despite being thrown in the deep end on the first night, John and Petra joined Kelburn Club where Betty Redfearn had recently taken over as tutor.

They continued to dance at Kelburn for some years, and in 1974 John remembers meeting Miss Jean Milligan at club one night. He saw an ‘old lady’ sitting down watching the dancing, and didn’t realise till afterwards that she was one of the two founders of the RSCDS. (Mirth had arranged for Miss Milligan’s tour of New Zealand and Kelburn was one of the clubs she visited.)

In 1975 John and Petra moved to Dunedin and joined Knox Club. Then in 1980 they moved back to Wellington, bought a house in Ngaio and danced at both Ngaio and Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Clubs.

John is recorded as a member of Johnsonville Club from 1981 and has danced with the club ever since. John’s son Michael came along to dancing with him as a young boy. At times, John even brought Phys Ed students from his Onslow College Scottish Country Dance class to experience club dancing.

John also continued to dance at Ngaio Club, where Marie Malcolm was the long-term tutor. Marie was a great support to John when, in 2006, he started working towards his tutor’s certificate in Scottish Country Dancing.

John has always loved teaching, and had no trouble passing the theoretical side of the certificate. However, his hips paid the price of so much physical activity over so many years and they didn’t stand up to all the work needed for the practical side.

Rod Downey teaching at club in October 2005 while on crutches following a knee operation – with John also on crutches following a hip replacement handling the music!

Two hip replacements later, John is still dancing at Johnsonville. Since 2015 he has also served as a club committee member and can always be relied upon to help with any club event and bring his enthusiasm and laughter to the dance floor.

John leading the singing at Hogmanay in 2010 which was organised by Johnsonville Club

John’s one regret is that he was unable to attend Johnsonville Club’s special 50 Golden Years celebration in 2016.

At Johnsonville Club’s first summer ceilidh on 1 February 2014, John gave a humorous recitation of the The Lion and Albert (perhaps inspired by Stanley Holloway’s rendition)

World premiere of John Markham’s Rant

On 15 June 2020, the first Monday back dancing after the Covid-19 lockdown, Johnsonville Club danced the ‘world premiere’ of John Markham’s Rant

Club tutor Rod Downey wrote this dance in lockdown in recognition of John’s long commitment to Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club – it’s a busy dance with lots going on, reflecting John’s enthusiasm for physical activity.

18 June 2020

Elizabeth Rendell: Scottish Connections

Elizabeth Rendell is one of the longest-standing members of Johnsonville Club, having joined in 1981.

She has now been a Scottish Country Dancer for more than 50 years, starting as a teenager in Wainuiomata in 1965, then dancing briefly at Kelburn Club, before joining Johnsonville.

Liz has been a faithful member of Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club ever since, continuing to dance at club nights and tartan nights when life allows. If you’ve noticed her heading home after supper, it’s because she has to be up and away to work at Wellington hospital very early in the mornings.

Over the years, Liz has helped out in the background, on committees and served as Johnsonville Club treasurer in 2010 and 2011. Together with Life Members Aline and John Homes, she cut the cake at the Club’s celebration of 60 years as a community dance group in August 2015.

Liz cutting the cake with Life Members Aline and John Homes at Johnsonville’s celebration of 60 years as a community dance group in 2015

These days, Liz likes the Tartan Nights with live music, also seeing the club growing from being a couple of sets to four or more. She always brings a cheery face to the dance floor and has welcomed new dancers to the club over many years.

Read what Liz has to say below about her Scottish family connections and her Scottish Country Dancing story.

Family connections and a lifetime of dancing

My mother Margaret (Rita) Alexander came from Scotland, born in Millport. Her mother died when she was five and she was brought up by her great aunt. In 1946, just after she was 21 years, her great aunt brought her to New Zealand. Sadly her father died while she was on the ship, so she never saw him again.

Mum’s aunty, uncle and cousin came out before her and settled in Linden. My mother met and married Neville Coley in 1949/50, they lived first in Petone, then moved to Wainuiomata. Mum was young when she passed away, but Aunty lived till 107 years (in three months she would have been 108 years).

When I was a teenager, I went to Rangers in Wainuiomata. We received a notice asking if anyone wanted to do Scottish Country Dancing and so I joined. I am the oldest of seven children and a couple of my sisters did go to dancing but left after a year or two. On the formal nights, mum would help with the supper and washing up.

The Wainuiomata Club started in the small fire brigade hall with the teacher being Rita Brennan. A few years later in 1968 we went to the larger Wainuiomata College Hall where we had quite a few sets. We had a lot of youngsters (mainly females started) and also women, not as many men. As far as I know I am the only one from that group still doing Scottish Country Dancing. Another woman who started after me belongs to the Lower Hutt Club.

Liz sitting at the right on a Wainuiomata Scottish Country Dance Club float in a Christmas parade some time between the late 1960s to early 1970s

When I was with Wainuiomata Club I was on the committee. Since I didn’t have a car, Rita would drive me to Marie Malcom’s place in Ngaio for the Wellington Region meetings. Marie would have ready for supper club sandwiches, cakes and cuppa before we went home, which made it a long night.

In 1972, while I was still dancing at Wainui, I visited Scotland to meet my mother’s family. In those days all the old people were still alive and they really made me feel welcome. There were lots of family get-togethers and they all made a fuss of me. When my husband and I visited in 1998, not so many of the old ones were left, and the younger ones had less interest in getting together.

Some time in the late 1970s I moved away, but I still wear the tartan sash passed on to me by a girl from Wainui who gave up Scottish dancing. I also remember attending Wainuiomata’s annual dance in 1984, celebrating the club’s 25th birthday, although the club ended up closing down around 1997.

Liz at the left wearing her tartan sash, with others who danced at Johnsonville Club from the 1960s to the 1980s who attended the Johnsonville 50 Golden Years celebration in 2016

In those days when I was younger I would go to formals, we would travel up the line and over to the Wairarapa. At formals you would see women in white dresses and sashes and men would mostly wear trousers and white shirts but a few would wear kilts. These days it is the other way around as men wear kilts and women are wearing anything with sashes. A formal supper would be more than just sandwich and cakes, it was a meal.

We bought a house in Newlands in 1980 and that was how I came to join Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club. Over the years I have seen a lot of dancers and teachers come and go at Johnsonville. Rod has been the longest teacher at Johnsonville, though his job from time to time means he has not been able to do a full year of teaching. This is a good thing as we have had other teachers which means everyone can see the different ways of teaching dancing.

This year Covid-19 has meant no dancing for three months, but Johnsonville Club has still kept in touch through the newsletter. The committee has been excellent in keeping us informed and updating us on anything we should know. Rod has also been excellent in keeping the new ones interested by showing or telling them how steps etc are done and even finding things to keep the more experienced of us interested as well.

Elizabeth Rendell
12 June 2020

Wendy Donald: More Scottish Connections

Travels back to Scotland

Wendy Donald has previously told us about some of her Scottish connections regarding Glasgow, Clan Donald and an Anderson Modern tartan sash

She now shares more about her travels back to Scotland. Find out more below.

In 2017, after a rail tour in Portugal and the north of Spain, we took an overnight ferry from Santander, Spain to Portsmouth on England’s south coast. Travelling on by train took us to several parts of England and then to Scotland.

My travel companion wanted to see some of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work, so this time, off Buchanan Street, a large, pleasant, pedestrianised shopping street, down a little lane, I visited The Lighthouse Museum, with its excellent display of some of his work, and other Scottish designers.

The actual building was designed by him, and is billed as the ‘Landmark Rennie Mackintosh-designed exhibition space dedicated to architecture, design and the city’. We visited his Willow Tearooms ((In July 2014, Glasgow businesswoman Celia Sinclair, made it her mission to bring the tea rooms back to life. By September 2018, The Willow Tea Rooms Trust had painstakingly restored the tea rooms with the aim of preserving an important part of Glasgow’s cultural heritage. Read the restoration story here)) too, which had moved since my last visit, but was still furnished with his furniture and design work.

In 2019, I was in Scotland again, and thinking that I would like to have a wool stole/wrap, as lighter ones just slipped off unless held tightly, the best place to buy such an item could well be in Glasgow.

The first shop I tried had them in tartan! There was one in Anderson Modern, so that would be perfect for me! The next shop had polar fleece jackets with ‘Scotland’ embroidered, and were without a hood (unlike others I had) so perfect for dancing!

Wendy’s Anderson Modern tartan wool stole/wrap with her Scotland fleece jacket

Altogether with all my visits to the city of her birth, my paternal grandmother would be pleased with me!

Wendy Donald
5 June 2020

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John Patterson: Scottish Connections

Photo interpretation of a tartan puzzle

Looking at the photo below what do you see? The longer you look, the more you can see. This short article is about photo interpretation and some personal history. The photo shows my great-great-grandfather Neil Patterson.

John’s great-great-grandfather Neil Patterson

This photo was found quite recently. I have almost no other information, apart from the name. Some missing information can be revealed by examining the photo carefully. The details may change as I learn more.

What uniform is Neil wearing? My best guess is that this is a Seaforth Highland Regiment uniform. I was able to find a reasonable match from the Scottish Tartans Authority website (This website no longer exists). I could have this wrong so I am open to any suggestions.

A Mackenzie tartan is a good starting point as this was the Regimental Tartan. Converting to black and white shows that this tartan is not a very good match, nor are many other tartans from other regiments. The black and white version of the Royal Stewart tartan is a reasonable match.

Pipers in the Seaforth Highlanders wore a Royal Stewart Tartan so maybe Neil was a Piper.

Mackenzie tartan
Mackenzie tartan (black and white)
Royal Stewart tartan
Royal Stewart tartan (black and white)

Neil managed about five weapons. He is holding a basket-hilt claymore sword. The basket-hilt around the handle provided protection for the hand.

Worn on Neil’s right are three dirks of different lengths held in a combined scabbard. A dirk is usually a long thrusting dagger. These dirks had single-edged blades which were quickly oriented by feeling the offset thistle-like end of the handle. Sometimes the lowest knife was replaced with a fork.

At Neil’s left hip is an empty scabbard used to hold the sword. In the top of his right leg-hose (full length sock) would be the traditional sgian dubh which was essentially a utility knife. Under the left armpit would be a short dirk which was allowed on occasions where other weapons had to be surrendered at the door.

The long horsehair sporran design is also a good clue that Neil is wearing the Seaforth Highlander uniform.

Each time I examine this photo I see a bit more. The glengarry badge is a problem to identify, but some older Seaforth Highlander badges were round with a crown at the top.

To get an idea of what the badge may have looked like, the current Canadian Seaforth Highlanders cap badge shown at the top below or a Scottish Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-Shire Buffs) badge from 1881 at the bottom are similar.

Canadian Seaforth
Highlanders cap badge
Scottish Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-Shire Buffs) badge from 1881

The location of the regiment was near Neil’s home area. The Pattersons come from Ross-Shire in the north of Scotland.

Two generations later there was a relocation of my ancestors to the Island of Mull and an eventual move to Southland in New Zealand . My grandfather, and later my father, managed a 14,000 acre farm at Glenure near Balfour in Southland. My father then became an experienced aircraft engineer.

In this photo from the Hocken Library in Dunedin, my grandfather is at right, holding my uncle Charlie. My father Neil is in front. There were two farm managers because the farm was so large. The other family is at left. I think the large house was divided and shared by both families.

This photo of Glenure Station from the National Library was taken before the house was built.

In the early days of photography, photographic images were captured on a silvered gelatine layer coated on glass, in other words a negative. Early negatives had poor sensitivity to red light which explains my problem with the exposure of the red lines in the Mackenzie Tartan. A green coloured camera filter was sometimes used to improve skin tones and to lighten the reds.

I think I have the tartan correct. The regiment is debatable, but after looking at all other possibilities I think the Seaforth Highlanders is the best match. The badges are old and I can’t find a good match. The Canadians may have adopted an old Scottish design. The sporran is a good match.

Then again, it is possible that Neil was a sergeant in the Dragoon Guards and he was simply wearing formal attire related to his origins. This article is a work in progress and reminds me how research wanders a bit before homing in on the actual truth.

John at the Wellington Region Diamond Jubilee Ball, Government House, June 2012 Photo: Désirée Patterson

John Patterson
26 May 2020

Peter Sullivan: Scottish Connections

Peter and Maureen Sullivan joined the club as beginners in 2013. Peter brought his happy presence to the dance floor until ill health (and 128 steps at home) meant he had to stop dancing.

Peter continues as a non-dancing member, and has been a generous contributor of ceilidh items during his time with the club. He played and sang Scottish folk songs for us at our inaugural summer ceilidh, and for some years after.

Peter sharing his love of music at the Johnsonville Club ceilidh in 2015. As he says; ‘when you play … it feels like you are touching something almost palpable.’

Co-incidentally Peter also renewed an old friendship through Scottish Country Dancing. He and fiddler Don McKay met at Victoria University in the late 1970s, both studying Classical Greek at the time. Both were also musicians, but never played music together. It wasn’t until Don started playing for Scottish Country Dancing that Peter got to hear him play.

Don McKay catching up with Peter at the Johnsonville 50 Golden Years celebration in 2016

Peter’s journey through Scottish music in the UK and New Zealand brings back so much of the folk music scene and singers of the 60s and 70s. Enjoy what he has to say below.

Scottish music and me

It’s quite weird to look back and see how much Scottish music and culture has been a part of my life although most of the time I did not realise it. I suppose my earliest memories are from the late 50’s when as an English schoolchild of six or so I started listening to the radio.

Of course we had singing classes in school both with the piano and the radio, even English Country dancing but my sole contribution to the latter was to muck up the maypole dances on a regular basis – could never get the dance paths in my head and so we’d usually spend about half an hour untangling my mistakes. After a few months I was eventually relegated to dancing with the littlies in my primary school.

However shortly afterwards my parents moved up north to Hull for my father’s job and about the same time they bought a television. Despite warnings about getting ‘square eyes’ from my parents I loved watching it and flicking through the channels up there.

Scottish border TV reached down to Hull and you could see things like Scottish Country dancing on the White Heather Club as well as hear Scots songs and variety turns. They even had some film of Harry Lauder’s favourite songs such as Ye’ll take the high road (Loch Lomond) and I recall the whole programme fascinated me – the (to me) peculiar costumes, weird English, and haunting melodies like the Skye boat song.

Fast forward a couple of years and we were living near Birmingham in the Midlands and by dint of much pleading, grovelling and begging I’d persuaded my parents to buy me a guitar having heard it on the radio so often – by then I’d inherited the old family valve radio and used to listen to BBC light programme’s ‘Folk on a Friday’.

A mighty 3 UK pounds plywood classical guitar with nylon strings, it became the love of my life despite my father’s happy comment ‘Oh God I hope I don’t come across you busking for money with it by the roadside in future’. While classical and flamenco music was the initial aim, I suddenly realised, ‘hey, I can play the music I hear on the folk programme on it!’.

Naturally it was all downhill from then on. Things like taking a girlfriend to the Ian Campbell Folk Group in concert at my high school one night where I heard Carlton weaver for the first time, hearing the Corries doing The braes O KIllikrankie O on the radio folk programme and getting a copy of an Alex Campbell LP.

Listening to these people, and the Irish singers, made the English and American folkies of the time seem so anaemic – these Scottish song spoke of life, love, and reality in a way the others did not. You only had to see big burly Ian Campbell belting out Here come the navvies in person to realise these were more than just songs to him.

Shortly afterwards, in the late 60’s a group called Pentangle burst on the scene and the Scottish guitar player/singer in it, Bert Jansch, was like no one I’d ever heard before. Along with John Renbourn he played intricate and modal figures on his guitar while singing traditional songs as well as some modern material.

However, the real eye opener was after I’d moved to New Zealand about 1970 and started going to a folk club in Christchurch on Friday and Saturday nights with some aspirations to become a performer. The three-pound guitar by then had been replaced by one with twelve metal strings at a far higher price – much to my poor mother’s dismay; ‘you’d sell your very soul for a guitar’ was her comment and she was right.

Peter in 1970 or 1971, shortly after he and his family moved to Christchurch. He’s playing a 5 string banjo, the type used for Bluegrass music, that he bought in Hulston’s Auction Room. At that time he was still at school and used to play with some school friends.

In the folk club I got to meet many wonderful people for whom it was never too much trouble to show you something or help you learn. Phil Garland for one, a colossus of Kiwi Folk music, Eric McEachen was another – known as twelve string Eric we could only marvel at his technical ability on the 12 and collapse in fits of laughter at his witty insertions in popular songs.

One of the people there, though, was a young man by the name of Alistair Hullet and his songs were electrifyingly good. He’d come from Scotland a few years earlier and was a fully formed talent with the quirkiness that Bert Jansch had on the guitar together with an immense stock of traditional and contemporary material – phenomenal for an 18-year-old. From him I learned I will go and several other songs, although we only met for a short time on a casual basis at club nights.

Alistair, of course, went on to move to Australia and form the very successful group Roaring Jack whose videos you can still see today on YouTube, then he moved back to Scotland with equal musical success over there. Sadly, he died far too young only a few years ago now.

A few years later I’d left home and was trying to study at University plus get some musical career going – no longer in the folk club, as I’d become interested in electric guitar and rock music. I still played the older folk songs on my 12 string for fun and it slowly became clear to me the commercial side of music in New Zealand – the pub gigs, the cover bands and similar – were very poorly paid and had few prospects unless you wanted to move overseas.

‘Starving in a garret for your art’ was a very real possibility in New Zealand it seemed. Not for me! By then I’d met the Scots woman who became my wife and while I may not have thought it out as clearly as I should, the musical performance side aspirations dropped away and I became more interested in a ‘normal’ office job – the labouring, sheet metal and other summer jobs I did in the Uni holidays were in a word ‘orrible’ as a lifelong prospect.

Of course, I still kept playing the songs for fun and another source joined in – the Scots emigres to places like Nova Scotia with their music started to be available. People like Gordon Lightfoot whose songs Fare thee well Nova Scotia and Canadian Railroad Trilogy seem to come from the same Scottish wellsprings of transmitting emotion and experience directly.

In those years it was still expensive and difficult to obtain LPs and radio that were the main source but gradually things got cheaper and better – the quantum leap was first CDs where a lot of the older material was reissued, then the internet and you tube where you can find people like Stan Roger singing ‘Northwest passage’ or Mary Black.

A few years back now, I found the Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance introductory classes advertised in the local paper and Maureen my wife was keen so we went to them and, in my case, tried to learn the steps, in her case learnt them rather well.

Peter in the set on the right dancing Sugar Candie at the Johnsonville 50 Golden Years celebration in 2016. Maureen is dancing at the far left.

Sadly after 3 or 4 years of this my legs decided to pack up badly and since we have 128 steps down to our place from the road (never buy a house in a sellers’ market folks!) it started to become real agony to go down them after classes. In the end I had to stop going so at least I could keep some mobility at home for the things that need to be done there. Sadly, while things have stabilised with my legs, they have never improved to the extent I could return.

To this day I still play the 12 string, 6 string guitar and 5 string banjo having acquired a collection of them over the years that would have both parents spinning like tops in their graves if they only knew.

It’s a fun thing to do, very emotionally satisfying and when you play Fair flow’r O Northumberland, Wild Mountain Thyme or Mairi’s Wedding it feels like you are touching something almost palpable. To quote a folk song ‘it levels out my mind and evens out my thinking’, although strictly speaking the Irish song said that about drinking, not playing music.

from Peter Sullivan
20 May 2020

Liz Hands: Scottish Connections

Songs of Scotland, a tartan skirt and memories of the ballet

Liz facing the camera wearing her Modern McDonald tartan sash dancing Midsummer Common at the Johnsonville & Capital City Annual Dance in 2019

When Liz Hands started Scottish Country Dancing, it brought back a lot of memories of sitting at the piano playing tunes from her grandmother’s Scottish song book.

When Liz was a child, her grandmother came to live with them, and Liz would play the piano in her grandmother’s lounge room. Playing her way through the book, she remembers old favourites like Annie Laurie, Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon and Green Grow the Rashes, O.

Liz’s grandmother Jeannie (Jane Madeleine) McDonald was born in 1876, the 13th of 14 children of parents Lauchlan and Christina Macqueen. (Jeannie was a McDonald by marriage, but also by descent – her mother’s maiden name was McDonald.)

Both Christina and Lauchlan came from Portree on the Isle of Skye, but were married after emigrating to Melbourne. And on Christmas day 1890, 14 year old Jeannie was given a copy of the 1877 edition of The Songs of Scotland (Royal Edition), a collection of 190 Scottish songs with music and lyrics. What a treasure.

The fly leaf of The Songs of Scotland was signed by Liz’s grandmother Jeannie McDonald after her marriage, but dated for when she received it when she was 14 years old and still Jeannie Macqueen

This book then passed through the hands of Liz’s mother Marjorie Dawkins (nee McDonald) to Liz, and she brought it with her when she emigrated to New Zealand with her kiwi husband Brian Hands in 1961.

Liz hadn’t looked at the book in years, and then in 2016 she joined Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club as a beginner. Going back to the book, she expected to find a lot of recognisable tunes but found only Muirland Willie initially.

Download the tune and words for Muirland Willie from The Songs of Scotland below.

Hunting further there are traditional tunes for dances like The Lea Rig and less familiar ones such as The Deuks dang ow’re my daddie. As time went on, Liz came to realise just how much Scottish Country Dance repertoire existed that she had been unaware of­, as a professional musician playing show music and symphonic music. But her childhood prepared her well to explore Scottish dance music in later life.

The Songs of Scotland wasn’t the only Scottish influence in her early life. Liz’s mother was also responsible for her choice of tartan sash.

As told to Kristin Downey

The tartan

From earliest memories my mother always wore a skirt of the Modern McDonald tartan. I too always had a skirt to fit and then in my early 20s I bought material from Buckley and Nunn, Bourke St in Melbourne next to Myers, and made a two-piece tailored suit.

In 1955 a school friend returned from a trip to Scotland, and gifted me a woollen Dress Modern Macdonald scarf. Until then I had not thought about any other versions of McDonald tartans. But when the time came to choose a sash for Scottish Country Dancing, I naturally chose the tartan I had worn through my youth, Modern McDonald.

Looking for a photo of my two-piece suit, I came across a black and white newspaper picture of me wearing it at a reception on the 1959-1960 Borovansky Ballet Company tour of Australia and NZ. (This is the company that evolved into the Australian Ballet Company.)

Liz (Miss Elizabeth Dawkins) wearing her two-piece tartan suit in 1960

Download the full newspaper article Ballet goes to dinner below.

Sadly the photo doesn’t show up the tartan very well, but it brought back memories of playing flute in the orchestra and travelling with the company. It was a momentous time, as Borovansky died around December 1959.

The ballet tour

When the Sydney season finished early 1960, and the tour arrangements were in place Dame Peggy van Praagh was brought out from the Royal Ballet and joined the company on our first stop in Brisbane.

From Brisbane we travelled back to Sydney to board the Wanganella bound for our first New Zealand season in Auckland. This would have been mid to late April as I remember my flatmates giving me an Aunt Daisy cookbook for Mothers’ Day.

Our itinerary which lasted three months went first to New Plymouth by bus, train to Wellington to catch the Lyttleton Ferry to Christchurch. Next Timaru, followed by Dunedin and Invercargill. Train back to Lyttleton, overnight to Wellington and straight onto rail car for Palmerston North. Last stop Wellington season before the tour went to Adelaide and Perth.

There were two main programmes from memory so only a few nights in smaller venues and 3 – 4 weeks in main centres. After the tour ended in Perth the company went to Melbourne Her Majesty’s Theatre where the orchestra was permanent as was the one in Sydney.

My plans changed and I moved to Sydney, where I was registered with the NSW Musicians’ Union. Meeting up with a musician friend at the Sadlers Wells production of The Merry Widow, I chanced to hear that the double bass player had just quit.

The next morning I was straight down to the Musicians’ Union office, and was offered the job of bass player for the rest of the season. My double bass was still in Melbourne, but the Union arranged the hire of a bass and I was set.

Amongst the young bass players I met at the time was my husband-to-be Brian Hands. We met at a birthday party at the Musicians Club, which professional female musicians had only just been allowed to join. Prior to that membership was only open to men.

Fifteen weeks later we were married, and the next year we moved to New Zealand, bringing The Songs of Scotland with us.

from Liz Hands
14 May 2020

Maureen Sullivan: Scottish Connections

Remembering Isla and Eric Norris as good neighbours

We first met Eric and Isla when we moved into hilly Johnsonville from flat Christchurch in the late ‘70s. It was a remarkably warm May afternoon and we and the movers were drudging up and down a long flight of steps, just opposite from where Eric and Isla lived up a much shorter flight of steps.

They came down to say hello and bring us and the movers some cold drinks, which were very gratefully received. And as you might imagine, we became very fond of our lovely helpful and kind neighbours over the years.

We knew Isla and Eric went Scottish Country dancing, and they did invite us to join. We would see them on their way out to Johnsonville or Ngaio clubs as we were coming home from work, and sometimes also at the weekend – all dressed up. But despite often thinking ‘yes we must go some time’, it was only much later that we did.

Then President, Philippa Pointon presents Eric with his 90th birthday cake at the 2001 Johnsonville Annual Dance

We used to be amazed to see a very spritely Eric returning from his trips to Johnsonville township. Even in his 80’s he would speed up the steep part of Frankmoore Avenue like a young thing, certainly better than we could manage even although he had about four decades on us. Our frequent comment was that if we were like that when we reached his age we would be more than happy.

Eric himself always put his energy and good health down to consuming sufficient chocolate – something we were happy to take on board – but I think now that Scottish country dancing had a lot to do with it as well.

You might have noticed the pretty green McDonald tartan sash I wear sometimes – it was Isla’s. She and Eric left some items to the club and it was really nice to both contribute to the club and have a memento as well.

Maureen wearing Isla’s green modern Macdonald of the Isles tartan sash while dancing Argyll’s Fancy at the Johnsonville Tartan Night in April 2019

I think of Eric as well as Isla when I wear it – which I am happy to do as I have connections to the McDonald clan on both of sided of my family. My mother, although Irish, was a McAllister and my Scottish father had many McDonald aunts, uncles and cousins.

I know they were both much loved members of the Scottish dancing community, not surprising given their cheerful and welcoming manner and kind nature – very much like the Scottish dancing community in general.

from Maureen Sullivan
7 May 2020

See more about Isla and Eric Norris

Click here to see more about Isla and Eric Norris’ contributions to Johnsonville Club

Wendy Donald: Scottish Connections

Glasgow, Clan Donald and an Anderson Modern tartan sash

Wendy’s Anderson Modern Tartan sash complements her blue top as she dances The Marquis of Lorne at the Johnsonville April Tartan Night in 2019

When married I had a married surname, but I have always kept Donald too, as my ‘professional’ name as my children called it. My driver’s licence and passport have always been Donald.

My father’s parents, as children, came out from Scotland with their own families, in 1870s or 1880s. I have my grandmother’s birth certificate, born in Glasgow. While in the UK, I have taken myself to Glasgow and stayed several days, to ‘commune’ with her.

Having studied architecture at post-graduate level, I also took the opportunity to see much of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, including The Glasgow School of Art where one could study all levels of architecture; his designed The Willow Tearooms; and even stayed at the Rennie Mackintosh City Hotel (not the station hotel with the similar name).

I was in Glasgow in May 2014. I was there when the first fire at the Mackintosh Building occurred. It was horrendous, very disruptive with fire engines; fire hoses; and smoke everywhere, especially as my hotel, Rennie Mackintosh City Hotel (in which his design work is apparent), was almost opposite in the same street, Renfrew Street.

I haven’t been back since then, but last year, while in Scotland at Edinburgh Castle, one daughter bought for me, the Clan Donald Crest as a memento of my clan links.

As to my tartan sash (and other items that I made), they are not of my clan, but there is a reason!

When my youngest daughter was at secondary school, the winter uniform was a kilt in Anderson Modern tartan, a lovely mid-blue, with stripes of red and white. Sometime after she had left, the uniform was changed. This would have been some fifteen years ago.

I saw the opportunity to purchase a kilt in a tartan that I liked, at a very reasonable price! Besides, the lovely fine wool fabric was likely to be being sold too. Indeed it was, so I bought several metres at a rock bottom price.

I made a sash. I made some smart long trousers, which I have worn to two winter weddings. I designed and made a wrap suitable for donning between dances or during supper.

Amazingly, when I was in Nova Scotia, Canada last year, there were wraps just like mine, in several different tartans! I have still, some more of the fabric and I am contemplating making a long skirt.

from Wendy Donald
5 May 2020

Sandra Macdonald: Scottish Connections

A tartan skirt

My tartan story goes like this. My mother decided to sew an adult size Macdonald tartan skirt for herself. She then turned it into a skirt for my five year old self by doubling the hem, using darts, suspenders and other various tailoring tricks. It had a side zip and two inch pleats.

She entered it in a sewing contest and won.

I have various photos from over the years of me wearing it. The skirt was gradually let out and lengthened, till it finally reached its full bigness. Unfortunately my mother was about three inches shorter than me and very slender.

I had to retire the skirt for a year or so. But then, glory be, miniskirts came in and it was back in my wardrobe throughout high school. I still have it and live in hope that someday my girth will shrink enough so I can wear it again.

If I knew how to sew, I could even start the process all over again for my grand-daughter who is nearly three.

Sandra in second lady’s position, wearing her modern Macdonald tartan vest while dancing rights and lefts in Argyll’s Fancy. Two others with Macdonald family connections are also dancing – Kristin Macdonald Downey and Duncan McDonald.

The skirt is in the modern MacDonald tartan.The vest that I wear is the same. The fabric itself came from an old institution in Windsor, Ontario called BM&G (Bartlett Macdonald and Gow) which was the second oldest ‘dry goods’ store in Canada (after the Hudson’s Bay Company), liquidated about 1970, founded about 1870.

Below is a photo of the skirt in its current condition. There is no appropriate model in my bubble to show it at its best as it doesn’t fit me and Andrew has declined, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

from Sandra Macdonald
30 April 2020