Grandfather Mountain Highland Games 2009

Special thanks to Beth Calhoun of Raleigh, NC for hosting the tent this year. Once again it looked marvelous!























Drum Major for Atlanta Pipes and Drums and the massed bands, Jim Thompson drops in for a chat with Society President Jim Kilpatrick, FSA (Scot).





I know that's Keets Taylor on the right. Hey! Who's that sitting on Jim's lap?







This has got to be Staci Ingram on the left who announced "The Colquhouns are here!" at the Torchlight Ceremony on Thursday night.


Beth and John.
Becky and Jim.

Corey Gilpatrick launches Colquhouns in the Northeast Blog

which you can visit here:

http://clancolquhounofthenortheast.blogspot.com/

Corey will keep you up to date with happenings in the Northeastern US.

Robert F. Colquhoun was Honorary Chieftain of 1992 Games

Robert F. Colquhoun was Honorary Chieftain of the 1992 Bonnie Brae Games in New Jersey. He sent me this at the time. Mr. Colquhoun wrote me an informative letter which I've reproduced earlier in this blog.

Lucy Calhoun Avery Birthday Notice (1998)

I've been looking for this for a while. This was sent to me in April, 1998. Lucy was one of the original ladies at the Savannah Colquhoun tent from the very beginning, and was the last of the original group to attend the festival a few years ago. Her granddaughter was gracious enough to take time off that weekend of the year and bring her to us for several years.


We think this is from 1994. Lucy is on the right. Adrienne Roberts in the center talking to Andy Calhoun. Can someone tell us who is on the left? We can't remember, but it looks like her name tag begins with "Marilyn".

Fort Ticonderoga Scottish Festival And Black Watch Memorial June, 20,2009

From Vicki and Sam Overstreet:

FORT TICONDEROGA SCOTTISH FESTIVAL AND BLACK WATCH MEMORIAL

Fort Ticonderoga, New York

June 20, 2009

Boy, are we ever late getting this report out. This has been a long, boring and wet summer. It seems like our lack of attendance at Scottish activities this year has drained us of our motivation. It’s time to get back in the groove and get moving again.

The Festival at Fort Ti was small but nice. It was their first year and we have to give them credit for attempting it, considering the economy. They had advertised band competition but apparently dropped it, perhaps when they saw what it would cost. It sure doesn’t come cheap.


We had helped them by furnishing local leads to clans and vendors. When we couldn’t get anyone to bring a MacFarlane tent, Sam borrowed the banner from MacFarlane’s New England Commissioner and set up his own tent while Vicki hosted the Colquhoun tent. Sam insisted that since there were several MacFarlane’s in the Black Watch at the battles of 1758 and 1759, they should be represented. Other clans were Dunbar, Hay, Donald and one other that we are embarrassed to say that we have forgotten their name. They were a young couple from New York City who had rented a car to come up to the Fort and this was their first time hosting a tent. There were also 3, maybe 4, Saint Andrew Society tents there. It was fairly quite so it gave us a chance to talk to Bill and Betty Wolf, of Clan Hay, whom we hadn’t seen for a while. Several reenactors stopped by to chat and Sam, who went to high school in Ticonderoga , was able to reminisce with some of the locals. Not many Colquhoun’s up in that area, but Justin Potter, of Crown Point , NY , (another famous battle site) stopped by. Thanks, Justin, for making Vicki’s day. There is a good chance that many of you didn’t realize that Potter is a sept of Colquhoun.

In September we are off to California for our son’s wedding. We arrive back in NY at midnight on Tuesday, Sept. 16th, which gives us Wednesday to pack up all of our gear so that we can head out to the New Hampshire Highland Games at Loon Mountain on Thursday to set up the tent. If you come by the tent and we are napping, please wake us up. We look forward to seeing many of you there.


For those of you in the Hartford , Conn. area, we would like to call your attention to the musical event called Pipes in the Valley on Sept. 26. In addition to massed bands, they will feature the Red Hot Chilli Pipers from Scotland , who will also be at the Loon Mt. Games the weekend before. Also Seven Nations, who were at Loon in ’07 and ’08; Gaelic Storm, who were in the movie ‘Titanic’; The Wicked Tinkers, from the West Coast, who were one of our favorites when we were doing the California Games circuit in the 1990’s and early 2000’s; and Mactalla Mor, a favorite at many New England Games. And best of all – it’s FREE! The website is http://www.pipesinthevalley.com/.

And this just in. Corey Gilpatrick, up in Maine , has launched a new blog called Colquhoun of the North East, http://clancolquhounofthenortheast.blogspot.com/. We wish you success with your new endeavor, Corey, and we will be checking in often.

Vicki and Sam Overstreet

New York/New England Representatives

Clan Colquhoun Society of the United Kingdom

US: http://www.colquhounclan.com/

UK : http://www.clancolquhounsociety.co.uk/

Annie Colquhoun McNaught

Annie Colquhoun McNaught is the grandmother of Darlene Parker who hosted our tent at the Greenville Scottish festival this year. Darlene writes:

"We continue to have many Colquhoun and McNaught relatives in Scotland, Canada, and the US. My grandparents immigrated from Glasgow (my grandfather) and from Larkhall (my grandmother) in the early 1920's. However they met each other at St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit, Michigan and married in the US. My grandmother, Annie Colquhoun, was one of eight children, three of which remained in Scotland and never immigrated. We have lot of other info as well. My grandfather died in October, 1984. My grandmother died in April, 2000 at the age of 99 years."

Darlene shared the following correspondence with us between two law offices after Annie's sister died. It was a unique opportunity for her grandmother to write down a family history.

Greenville SC Scottish Games June 6th, 2009

Thanks to Darlene Parker for setting up at these games! That's Darlene on the left; she works for the Greenville Chamber of Commerce.

Darlene brought pictures of her Colquhoun family. See the following post for some history on them:





We had lots of visitors to the Colquhoun tent. This is the 10th Earl of Glasgow, the Right Honourable Patrick Robin Boyle.

Lord Glasgow was very friendly and talked to us for a long time outside our tent.





Brooke Brianne Powers, Miss Capital City Teen 2009.







Lots of kids with "passport" books. It's absolutely necessary to have a crest stamp at festivals that pass out these books. If you don't, you end up writing the name of your clan in these books a few dozen times during the day. I also have a couple of Scottie stamps I add to our crest impression.


Some clan had made up the pin on the little girl above and was passing it out to the kids. It says "Yes I'm Scottish". We were asked several times where they came from but we never did find out (I wanted one, too).







Darlene with her sister Danette:



Most of the vendors are located under this huge tent. Most everyone loves this arrangement because it keeps them out of the direct sunlight and out of the rain.



Caberdancer/Clan MacBubba that produces our t shirts. This event is probably the closest one to their base at Walhalla.



We found out the happy news that Tom Freeman and Beth Gay had just got married just before this weekend! Beth is the editor of Beth's Newfangled Family Tree. You can subscribe the the Family Tree at Electric Scotland.








Other vendors:














Our friend Dennis Kelly from Wingate, NC was there with his Renaissance Iron. I couldn't resist buying a new flag holder he made:












The Greenville Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians had an impressive display of flags in front of their tent.







The Parade Of Tartans

















And on the field: