Page 11 - What's In A Name - The Barry Pipes Canon

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The Barry Pipes Canon • 2005 - 2018 Inverneill House 021-2008-November-Set&Link
For sale! Elegant 5-bedroom Victorian country house set in about 7 acres of
private grounds located 2 miles or so just south of Ardrishaig on Loch Fyne.
For a mere 475,000 quid? Close to a million dollars Canadian give or take! This caught my eye when seeking real estate opportunities in Argyll. But isn’t there a Scottish Country Dance by that name? Of course! It’s a somewhat tricky reel out of RSCDS Book 35 that just happens to be on the November Monthly Dance program.
And why is it so important? Well, back in the late 1400s, the
1st Earl of Argyll, Colin Campbell, acquired the Inverneill estate.
And in the hands of the Campbells it stayed until 1955, when it
was sold, the last owners being Olive and Una Campbell. The
Misses Campbell happened to have another sister, by name
Ysobel, who had married and became Mrs. Ysobel Stewart. Now that
rings a bell! Could Ysobel, née Campbell, be Mrs. Stewart of
Fasnacloich? Bingo! No wonder there is a dance named Inverneill House, to commemorate her earlier homestead.
The Rothesay Rant 022-2008-September-Set&Link
Every summer as a little lad in the Midlands of England, I spent a week or so on holiday with my parents at the “seaside”, a generic term for any number of holiday venues around the coast such as Torquay, Ramsgate, Rhyl, or Skegness.
Had my family been Glaswegian, it would have been a different story. We would more likely have been going “doon the watter”. After taking a tram to the Broomielaw and boarding a paddle steamer, the Waverley perhaps, we would have steamed west between the banks of the Clyde until we reached Dunoon, Largs or, better still, Rothesay. The aforementioned “watter” was, of course, the Firth of Clyde.
From Set&Link, newsletter of RSCDS Toronto
As many of us know, Mrs. Stewart of Fasnacloich and the iconic Jean Milligan were co- founders in 1923 of the Scottish Country Dance Society. At that
time, Mrs. Stewart was also Chief Commissioner of the Girl
Guides for Argyll. In 1955, she emigrated to South Africa to get respite from rheumatism she suffered due to the
inclement climate of the North West Highlands of
Scotland. In 1963, Ysobel died at age 81, over 10,000 kilometres from her Argyll family home, Inverneill House. ◼︎
IN VERNEILL HOUSE: The 7-acre grounds of Inverneill include an impressive waited garden with its turreted crowns which sweep out in front of the house. The garden immediately to the rear is laid to grass and has a natural pond with its resident heron. The rest of the grounds are planted out with mature trees and a fabulous collection
of rhododendrons, azaleas and other exotic shrubs. . . . Source: www.housespotters.com
Rothesay is a Scottish equivalent to those English seaside resorts I mentioned. It became a popular destination in Victorian times for all those Scots desperate to escape the grime and squalor of industrial Glasgow. Located on the Isle of Bute, Rothesay was a busy resort community with pleasant beaches, music hall entertainment at the Winter Gardens, and the requisite waterfront pavilion, causing boatloads of steamer traffic to arrive daily every summer.
While he owns no Duchy around Bute, there has existed a Duke of Rothesay for centuries. The heir apparent to the British throne has held this additional Scottish title since King Robert III conferred it on his son David in 1398. The current Duke is, of course, HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales, a royal title which would have little cachet in Scotland.
A somewhat quirky square-set jig called The Rothesay Rant, devised by RSCDS Birmingham’s Anna Holden, can be enjoyed by all at our December Monthly Dance. ◼︎
The Waverley paddle steamer departs Rothesay. Rothesay is on the eastern shore of the isle of Bute, overlooking the Firth of Clyde.
Anna Holden