Eccles

Eccles is my home for the moment. It is a lovely small hamlet, ie no shops, in the borders. My hosts Helen and Alan have been wonderful, and their two greyhounds have accepted me. We go for evening walks. There are perhaps 60-70 people here.

This place existed in the 11th century when a Cistercian nunnery existed, although there are no ruins at all. 1774 church and much older cemetery. Yes it is heaven.

Bluey and A

Most of my time has been spent in a Scotlands People Centre where I can research all day long for a small fee. I am working my way through the 2000 odd Buchan descendants, esp death information. Slightly morbid, but my interest is professional.

Me at Hawick Heritage hub yesterday. It is an archive and you can’t use your camera on the records. But fine to get an image for posterity.

In Hawick I had several people smiling at me on the streets, and even chatting at the bus stop. That didn’t happen in Edinburgh.

There were only three people in there all day, although a film festival starts in two days so there was a fair bit of people moving furniture and partitions around.

No time for lunch but the genealogist registrar suggested I have a walk in the fresh air and so I found a lovely church on a hill behind the Centre with, you guessed it, lots of old headstones, even back to 1500s.

I met up with Jeanette H for the first Scotlands People Centre day. She has been here three weeks driving herself around England and now Scotland. We are both having research successes.

Journey to Eccles

It was seamless! Every ‘stop over point’ was shared with another (similarly, middle aged lady) having drinks and locating platforms and gates. I slept really well on the second plane flight so got to Heathrow at 6am feeling fine. So smooth was the flow through Heathrow that I was at Kings Cross Station with three hours before my train. Another middle aged lady and coffee. She was also going to Edinburgh but was an hour before me.

The only hassle is that my eSIM is not working for phone calls. SMS and emails coming through. I don’t understand. So email is my best communication route.

Downtown Hawick and Drumlandrig Bridge