Day 32 - 20 May - in search of our Barclay ancestors.
John and I set off for Gourock after the Edinburgh morning rush - a fast trip down the M8, through Glasgow without stopping, found the ever widening Clyde on our right and less than 2hours we rolled into the small Clydeside town of Gourock - where our original Kiwi and last Scotsman, John Barclay, was born and raised into family of stonemasons. In 1860 24yr old John married Margaret Jarvie from Dunoon, over the other side of the Clyde.
It was a cold, drizzly day in Gourock, the local Presbyterian church was locked aftee taking a survey of the local stone architecture and a few ‘I was there’ photos and we retired to a cafe for a coffee. It was interesting talking to the locals - maybe this was how John’s accent sounded. I spoke to a plumber in the street - asked for directions- then had no clue what he said in reply! Then we realised the ferry over to Dunoon went every 30 mins - so over we went. Turned out Dunoon was a little holiday town where the Scots from Glasgow went for a beachy good time. Population 10,000, hasn’t changed for years. At the museum I found out there was a publican, George Jarvie still living in Dunoon - and that Robbie Burns girlfriend Highland Mary Cameron came from Dunoon back in the late 1700s. We learned s lot from the lady at the museum and she said she would try to track down a few Jarvies for me. And that was it - some lunch, back on the ferry, in the car and we got back to Edinburgh and the Bar Le DeVin and a few well earned beers.