Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering May 29, 2021

 1st Annual Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering

May 29, 2021

West Union, Doddridge County, West Virginia

 

 

Getting There and Setting Up

Car Magnet

On Friday, the 28th of May, we drove to Doddridge County to put up the tent to be ready for the 1st Annual Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering on Saturday. Anyone seeing us pass would have known who we were: Clan MacAulay of West Virginia. The weather was wet but not unbearably cold. The cold was biding its time until  Saturday.

It Rained, How it Rained

Getting the Top On the Tent - In the Rain - John, the Committee of One, Paul and Fred, Jr.

Top's On, the Rain Ends for a Little While - Paul, John, Fred, Jr.

The Sides Go Up - Still Not Raining - John, Paul, Fred, Jr.

The Sides Going Up

Both Sides Almost in Place. The rain held off.

It rained most of the day, on Friday, the day before the Gathering. It rained driving down to Doddridge County. It rained, most of the time, while we were there. It rained all the way back home. The weatherman predicted 40% chance of rain for Saturday. 

Early Saturday came with a foggy morning, and it was in the high forties to low fifties - COLD! It was too cold to be sitting outside all day, especially if it rained.

It rained, but not in downpours. It misted and pitter-pattered to the ground, not interfering, too much, with the days scheduled events.

But it stayed cold! Scottish weather everyone was saying and grinning. At the end of May, there some of us were, zipped and buttoned into winter coats (mine with a hood). Some were wrapped in blankets, and some were wishing they had them. 

Then, there were the kids, running around in tee shirts and shorts, splashing in the puddles. All day, they played that way. None of the adults responsible for them seemed worried at all. Who could judge? The kids were, seemingly, unaffected by the rain and the cold. They were having a great time!

The men wearing kilts had their long socks to keep their legs warm. A couple of women in Scottish dress pulled the fabric up over their shoulders and heads to stay warm. (Maybe they had thermals underneath.) 

None of the clans left to go home. They stayed all day. But only three had ventured out for the event when six were expected. Clan McDowell/McDougal, Clan Ferguson and Clan MacAulay were too tough to stay home.

A talkative, friendly man stopped by about mid-way through the day. He had lived in the area at one time and was there taking care of some family business. He mentioned the West Virginia Tartan, and Fred III motioned to the Tell Me About the West Virginia Tartan binder I had made about the history of the WV Tartan. I remarked that most people do not know that West Virginia has a tartan. "I'm not most people," he said. Sometimes, you have to laugh, and we did.

A family friend had driven through terrible thunder and lightning storms, with pounding rain, all the way from Dallas, Texas. He arrived the evening before the Gathering in the little town where Fred, Jr. had grown up - about two hours from Doddridge County. The next morning he got in his rental and drove to Doddridge County, getting lost on the way, to see the family and enjoy his first Scottish/Celtic festival. A Kennedy, he was surprised to learn there was a Clan Kennedy in Scotland. Lord make me right, for I canna change ma mind amused him, greatly.

The Tent is Ready

Finishing Touches - Fred III and Anitra

 

 

Four Trifolds, Several Maps (Ireland and Scotland) - Paul Designed the Layout of the Tables.

Clan MacAulay Trifold - Three Ring Binder Learning, Flip Page Learning

Clan MacAulay of Maryland Banner (curling), Small Clan Map, Guest Book, Clan MacAulay Trifolds

Clan MacAulay Trifold Learning - Guest Book & Business Cards - Three Ring Binder & Flip Pages

More Clan MacAulay Trifold Learning - Three Ring Learning: Tartans and West Virginia Tartan

Two Trifolds on Table and Two on the Floor - Three Ring Binders and Flip Pages on Table

  Anitra's Photos from a Better Phone Camera

Right Side of Tent and Inside - Me a Black Bundle with Hood

Outside and Inside of Tent - Scotland Maps on Inside - "There is such a thing as too much," said Fred III.

 

Tent Duty - Fred III, Me a Black Bundle with Hood

And Then It was Over

Although it stayed cold and damp all day, it was a wonderful experience. We met interesting people and a few we already knew from Clan Ferguson. 

There were representatives from Clan McDowell/McDougal, from Virginia, who stopped by to talk and share some knowledge. In their tent, they had weapons to demonstrate, and the lady was in Scottish dress. 

A husband and wife from Clan Bell stopped by with an invitation to join the Scottish Heritage Society of North Central West Virginia. They stayed a while, looking everything over, and we had a nice chat.  

 https://www.facebook.com/Scottish-Heritage-Society-of-North-Central-West-Virginia-134277366630716/

 Scottish Heritage Society of North Central West Virginia

Clan Ferguson - Facebook

Clan Ferguson Society of North America

Clan MacDougall Society of North America - Facebook

Clan MacDougall or Clan MacDowall 

Clan Bell North America - Facebook

Clan Bell North America

When the hunger pangs struck, we ate some good Scots/Irish style food: Guinness Stew in an enormous bread bowl, bangers and mash, Colcannon, and Scotch eggs. What! The potatoes were instant! The bangers and mash had no gravy! The sausage was Italian, not haggis! That's what happens to food when it comes to the fair.

When approaching the tents, people act in different ways. Some come right in and start looking around. There is no small talk and not even a nod from them. Others stand on the outside looking in. They have to be invited inside, like entering on their own would be intruding into your home. Once inside, they behave like any other visitor.

Several people took advantage of the maps and books to locate their clan and wanted to talk about what they knew of their heritage. Some were not sure if their ancestors were Irish or Scottish. We were able to sort some of it. We found a Baird whose ancestor was likely a bard (poet). We found the Craigs, who might have been a Sept of the MacDonald Clan. Some came back to say "good-bye" as they were leaving.

"You would win the prize for best clan tent," we were told. WOW! to that. "You have a great tent." Another WOW! We'll do things a little differently, next time, though. Adding more space will be the first thing to do. Eventually, we will add more "Tell Me About" books and flip cards, too. So many projects and so little time!

As Mr. Clan Bell observed, when you are manning a tent, you miss the events taking place "out there". I missed seeing the coos and huge Belgians. I missed the Celtic dancers. I missed the Celtic entertainers. I missed the Highlander Pipe and Drum show. I missed the games. I missed everything, except for what was nearby. But I was there and very happy that I was.

The Large Clan MacAulay of West Virginia Banner

The Clan MacAulay of West Virginia banner will have to have its own support to lift it above the tent entry. It is long and bulky. At 10 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet high, it covers the entry, making bending over necessary to get inside the tent. Thinking caps are on. 

WBOY TV Story 

Doddridge County holds Inaugural Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering

 https://www.wboy.com/news/doddridge/doddridge-county-holds-inaugural-mountain-state-scottish-and-celtic-gathering/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=socialflow

 

New Scottish Celtic Gathering in West Virginia

Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering 

Doddridge County Park 

West Union, West Virginia

May 29, 2021

10:00am to 5:00pm

The Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering begins it's first year, this month, May 2021, as West Virginia's newest Celtic festival. Hoping it will become an annual event on West Virginia's calendar, the organizers are committed to a five year plan. Funding is being provided through the Doddridge County Planning Commission.

Taking place on the spacious 250 plus acreage of Doddridge County Park in West Union, there will be plenty of room for participating clans and events. To avoid conflicting activities of the busy Memorial Day weekend, the late May date of Saturday, the 29th, will be moved back a week for next year's gathering.

Events during the gathering, which will celebrate Scottish and Celtic culture, will include athletic or sporting competitions known as heavy events or, more typically, the Highland games. The games are thought to have originated from the time when the strongest and bravest soldiers in Scotland were tested.

Part of the gathering's entertainment will be provided by the Jack Dunlap Band, a bluegrass group out of Winchester, Virginia. Jack plays the guitar and mandolin and has worked with Ricky Skaggs, among other musicians. During the isolation of the Covid pandemic, he recorded an album that included original tunes along with traditional folk songs. Coming to the gathering with a new album in the works, the band will capture the attention of all bluegrass fans, young and old alike.

The West Virginia Highlanders, of Davis and Elkins College, in Elkins, will also be performing during the gathering. Beginning as the official band of the H.W. Daniels Post 29 American Legion, in 1947, they became affiliated with Davis and Elkins College, in 1990. Wearing the McLeod of Lewis tartan, they have performed in all fifty states and  Washington, D.C.  

West Virginia Highlanders

No lively Cèilidh is scheduled for the gathering, but the West Virginia Highland Dancers will be entertaining with their spirited dance routines. Based in Elkins, they are a competitive Scottish Highland dance group. 

Nil Na La West Virginia Highland Dancers

Various Scottish clans, displaying and passing along information about their Celtic roots, will be present during the day long event. For this first year, no entrance fee will be expected from the clans, but a donation box will be present for contributions.  A hospitality tent stocked with food and drinks, catered by the Brickside Bar and Grill of Bridgeport, will be provided for the participating clans. Clan MacAulay will be among the clans represented at the gathering, along with Clan Bell, Clan Ferguson, Clan Douglas, Clan McCullough and Clan MacDougall. 

 

Mountain State Scottish and Celtic Gathering 

Doddridge County Park 

West Union, West Virginia

May 29, 2021

10:00am to 5:00pm

  

Location of West Union, Doddridge County

 

 

 

Follow the Northern Panhandle from Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall to Wetzell,

and there it is - Doddridge County dressed in yellow!

 

A Fair and a Song

The Lammas Fair in Ballycastle 

 

Book Cover

In his book Traveller in the Glens (1979), Jack McBride describes, on pages 117-120, The Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. In the olden times, he writes, it was the day when the first-fruits of the corn, i.e. loaves, were given in thanksofferings. From pagan times it was an aenach, or fair, that was dedicated to thanksgiving and celebration. There were games, trials of skill between noted warriors and athletes, contests between bards, with a very important section where marriages were performed. It appears, from the following paragraph, it was also a time for forming relationships that would lead to marriage:

p. 117 Traveller in the Glens by Jack McBride

cailin Irish variant of colleen

Mr. McBride wrote that in those early times the Lammas Fair lasted for three days and was hosted by the MacDonnells and M'Donalds.  It was a time when the Antrim Scots met the Scots in Antrim (those red-shanked Highlanders). There was a brisk trade in cattle and highland ponies, and pipes and harps entertained the visitors. The nights, lit with bonfires, were a time for dancing the jigs and reels. On huge spits, sides of oxen were roasted to fill their bellies.

Dulse

Yella-man

Today, it is said that thousands of people attend the Lammas Fair, enduring the traffic jams that go with it. Besides horses and cattle, fair goers might find sheep and other animals, like llamas and rabbits at the fair. They can purchase Dulse and Yella-man, famous treats that have been sold at the Lammas Fair for hundreds of years. Another attraction, long awaited by the younger visitors to the fair, is the popular Amusement Rides. For a spectacular view of the fair and surrounding countryside, take advantage of the swinging seat of the Ferris Wheel. 

1968 Pamphlet

 At the time Mr. McBride wrote his book, publishing date 1979, the Lammas Fair, which has been been celebrated continually since the 17th century, was held the last Tuesday in August. Referred to in some places as the Auld Lammas Fair or the Ould Lammas Fair, the time of the event is now the last Monday and Tuesday in August. If held, the date for the fair, this year, 2021, will be the 30th and 31st. Cancelled in 2020 because of the Covid Virus, it is likely to be cancelled for the second year in a row. 

If walking along the streets of Ballycastle and enjoying the Lammas Fair in person is not possible for you, there are other ways to savor the atmosphere of the County Antrim event that has delighted so many visitors for hundreds of years. For instance, there are many videos available, on YouTube, made by those who have attended the fair in the past. There are also recipes that can be found for Yella-man, the well-known treat made with honeycomb and brown sugar. If you are an arm chair traveler, there are many stories written about the fair and Ballycastle that can be found on the internet. 

Then, too, there is the song written about the fair by a man who probably witnessed many Lammas Fairs over his lifetime. YouTube has shared many renditions of his tune, if you are interested in doing a search. If you happen to be a collector of music and would like the song in your collection,  a CD by Ruby Murray, a popular Irish singer, is available for purchase. The story of the song and it's composer enhance the already interesting story of the centuries old Lammas Fair.

John McAuley's Shop on Ann Street

About a hundred years ago, there lived in Ballycastle a man named John Henry "The Carver"  McAuley. On a dare made during his childhood, he had jumped off the Glenshesk Bridge into the river and broke his back. Incapable of strenuous work, to make his living, he had become a bog oak carver. Among other well crafted works of art, he created picture frames, animals, farm wagons and gypsy caravans.

Other than being acknowledged for his gifted wood carvings, John happened to be a well-known, talented fiddler. To the pleasure of the people passing by his shop on Ann Street in Ballycastle, he would often put down his tools and play rousing jigs and reels on his fiddle. Being a genius composer, as well as a master musician, his impromptu concerts would, as often as not, include a song of his own composition. Only one of his songs ever made it to publication, however.

In the 1920s, Sam Henry, a man who collected local folk songs, listened to and wrote down the words to a song McAuley was singing. He transcribed the music and published it in a local newspaper. The Oul Lammas Fair was soon issued as a pamphlet, and, since then, it has been recorded many times. John Henry McAuley died in 1937. He never knew how popular his tune about the Old Lammas Fair would become. A historic plaque, honoring his memory and the song that he wrote, is displayed at his old wood carving shop on Ann Street.

 

Lyrics to the song written by John Henry McAuley

 

Ould Lammas Fair

 

At the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle long ago
I met a pretty colleen who set me heart a-glow
She was smiling at her daddy buying lambs from Paddy Roe
At the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle-O
Sure I seen her home that night
When the moon was shining bright
From the ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle-O

CHORUS
At the ould Lammas Fair boys were you ever there
Were you ever at the Fair In Ballycastle-O?
Did you treat your Mary Ann to some Dulse and Yellow Man
At the ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle-O

In Flander’s fields afar while resting from the War
We drank Bon Sante to the Flemish lassies O
But the scene that haunts my memory is kissing Mary Ann
Her pouting lips all sticky from eating Yellow Man
As we passed the silver Margy and we strolled along the strand
From the ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle-O
Chorus

There’s a neat little cabin on the slopes of fair Knocklayde
It’s lit by love and sunshine where the heather honey’s made
With the bees ever humming and the children’s joyous call
Resounds across the valley as the shadows fall
Sure I take my fiddle down and my Mary smiling there
Brings back a happy mem’ry of the Lammas Fair
Chorus

 

Ruby Murray - The Old Lammas Fair 

 Irish Recording Star

World Record Holder

Only female to have five recordings in the 

Top Twenty in the same week

 

The Ould Lammas Fair - Calum Kennedy

Scottish Singer 

Won a Gold Medal in 1955 for singing in Gaelic

Won World Ballad Championship in Moscow 1957 

 

Lammas Fair Ballycastle 27th August 2019

 

There are other videos for the Lammas Fair on YouTube.

 

Auld Lammas Fair Photographs on Facebook 

https://www.facebook.com/AuldLammasFairPhotographs

 

Blog about the Lammas Fair

Ould Lammas Fair, Ballycastle

 

These stories about the Lammas Fair are worth the read:

 

The Lammas Fair in Ballycastle

by Louis J. Walsh

The Glensman No 4 Vol 1 January, 1932

 

 Faces at the Fair by Stanley Matchett 1975

 

History Ould Lammas Fair "a tradition of excellence"

 

The Ould Lammas Fair Ballycastle 

by Margaret Bell

 

 

What have you eaten at a fair? 

 

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