For about 60 years now, the Clan Macpherson Association has been putting on an annual gathering for its members. It is one of the biggest that gets held on a regular basis. Last year I was passing through Newtonmore, where the clan museum is located, just by chance on the weekend after the gathering. They explained what it was and insisted that I join them the following year. I gladly obliged.
It's quite an elaborate affair, running from Friday all the way through Monday. We were only able to be there for Friday and Saturday, as it was a little bit pricey for us to stay for the whole weekend, and we had plans with the Rolwichs on Sunday (
more on that in a moment). We still got a pretty good idea of what it was all about. And we really packed in a lot: a welcome meeting, dance practice, museum library re-opening, the Chief's reception, an absurdly large dinner, highland ball, a clan march, and highland games!
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| "Cluny", the Chief, Sir William Macpherson addressing the guests. |
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| Everybody in full highland dress. |
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Feast! I'm pretty sure I counted an (excessive) nine
different types of meat! |
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| Scary Fish |
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| I thought the dessert table was a little sparse. |
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| Dining |
All the people we met were exceptionally friendly and welcoming. It really was, as they referred to it, sort of an extended family reunion, albeit with people I'd never met. Members of the Clan came from all over the world - the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands, England, South Africa. And of course, there were a good number of locals.
The weekend was also a very interesting inside look at social hierarchy as well. Nobody treated us as if we were from another class (in fact, quite the opposite!), but the whole event was a bit of a throw back to the old feudal system, where titles are passed down through first male heirs and your social position is based on land ownership. There were several levels in the hierarchy (chief, chieftain, something else, and then the rest of us). The whole weekend was something of a re-enactment this old system - there were strict positions for each member (men only!) in the march. I couldn't help but think about the reason my McPherson ancestors had gone to America was because their McPherson ancestors had found it more profitable to raise sheep than to lease their land to human workers (that's the basis of the highland clearances). How a system like this could have been sustained for so long is beyond me.
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| The March |
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| The skies are blue here every once in a while. |
While these things are still in memory (and probably not just mine), they really don't seem to have much bearing on the present day gathering. Like I said, we felt very welcome all weekend long. Even in spite of a few breached social protocols! The worst was at the Chief's reception. The Chief, Sir William Macpherson (a retired High Court judge), his wife Lady Macpherson, and a few other members of his family lined up at the entrance to the reception and greeted us as we walked in. To our unfortunate luck, we were standing right next to the entrance at the time to go in, so we ended up going first. By the time we'd figured out what was going on, it was too late. I went down the line shaking hands, saying "pleased to meet you", but it was in a "hey, how's it going?" sort of way. Jessee had a water bottle and a jacket in one hand. When I noticed the person behind us bow and kiss the hand of Lady Macpherson (like you'd do to royalty!), I realized what we'd done. Savage Americans. There wasn't any real harm done. Or, if there was, they let us stay anyway.
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| McPherson Pipe and Drum Band |
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| Haggis Eating Competition |
