Our trip to Scotland in 1997 came about as the result of a Quarriers Home Children reunion held in Kingston the previous year. It was to be roughly a week–long trip with functions in or near Quarriers Village (formerly The Orphan Homes of Scotland) and day trips before either returning home or embarking on the optional highland tour.
My husband (his first trip) and I left a week before the rest of the group and spent the time exploring Aberdeenshire before driving back to the Glasgow area for the planned functions. We were part of a group of forty–eight including two former children, now in their eighties, who had been raised at the Homes.
Nancy Durham, correspondent with the CBC, followed our group filming and interviewing for broadcasts back home in Canada.
After the functions, we headed on our own "highland tour" – this time accompanied by my mother, and two of my cousins. Our first stop was in the village of Kinloch Rannoch where I had made the arrangements to stay in Bunrannoch House on the outskirts of the village. Things didn’t go exactly as planned and due to a booking error, we ended up staying at The Dunalastair Hotel right in the heart of Kinloch Rannoch.
From there we went to Kennethmont and stayed at the same B&B my husband and I had stayed in the week before (the same one I stayed at in 1993). This week, we acted as tour guides part of the time taking the others to places we’d been to the previous week.
Our last night in Scotland was spent at the Forte Posthouse Hotel at the Glasgow Airport – so close we only had to walk across five lanes of traffic to get into the terminal building. The following morning was dull and grey – matching our moods. We’d had such a wonderful time we didn’t want to come home.
