Ancestral home?

Yesterday after our meeting with Fiona Duncan I headed to the wonderful Dumfries House to join the conference of the Scottish CEOs of local authorities ( and others such I were able to attend).

A key theme of the conference was transformational change.and the leadershiph necessary to achieve that. Too many inspirational speakers to mention, though listening to Sir Tom Hunter yesterday was fascinating.

Today we heard about "vibrant volunteers" in East Ayrshire along with transformational change in Wigan and Hampshire. And good to meet many people over the 36 hours of the event.

Dumfries House provided a spectacular setting: as one person said though, it was the first conference they had been at with cattle mooing in the background.

Too many photos to choose from but on my way there from my B&b this morning I really liked the main blip of the cattle heading alone no the wall.

Two extras: one of the bedroom in the B&B - the geography room - in the converted school house a few miles out of New Cumnock where Sir Tom is from.

The second is of a cairn and a clump of trees. On my way home up the A70 I called in at Muirkirk to see the cairn to John Louden McAdam - or Macadam. He lived in the (now derelict) house where the trees are. And the cairn was built in memory of him. He died in Moffat aged 80 having made his name for developing roads (tar was not involved!) in Muirkirk.

Muirkirk: the first place in Britain in 1859 to be lit by coal gas and the last to be connected to the national gas network in 1977.

Our son now has 8,000 + names on the family tree. He has confirmed that I am related, no doubt like half of Scotland, to Robert the Bruce (my 19th great great grandfather) and also to Charlemagne. But, despite my known relatives being farmers in the west Borders and Dumfries, we've never been able to confirm the direct link to John Louden McAdam (the spelling on the notice board in Muirkirk!). Nevertheless, a visit of interest.