Forglen Gathering
Scottish Country Dance and Waltz 
By invitation only. 29 July - 2  August 2000

Bogton Farmhouse

Dance Plan

  • Scots country dances (reels, strathspeys) from the last 200 years. 
  • Scottische ancient and modern
  • Waltz, particularly cross step, music both modern Celtic/World and classic. 
  • Tango for those who must (but you'd best bring your own music )

Location

address - Bogton Farm, Forglen, Turriff, Aberdeenshire AB53 4JY, UK
lat 57 degrees 32' N, long 2 degrees 32' W 
Map

Travel

Assuming that you are starting from Dublin, immediately after the Prague/Ireland trip : (see Stanford Dance)

Nearest airport to Turriff is Aberdeen, ABZ, about 50 miles, about 1 hour. The farm is 4 miles from Turriff. 
There are no direct flights from Dublin to Aberdeen.
Possible routings - Dublin, London (1 hr)  (Heathrow or Gatwick), Aberdeen (1hr 30). Dublin, Manchester (1 hr),  Aberdeen (1 hr). 
http://www.britishairways.com
Dublin - East Midlands (1hr 30), Aberdeen (1 hr 15).  http://www.britishmidland.co.uk/
Dublin, Glasgow (1hr 10), train to  Aberdeen (about 3 hrs). Railtrack journey planner
Dublin to Holyhead by ferry, drive to Turriff - drive at least 8 hours. UK maps .. the site is slow
 

Accomodation and floors

There are three houses altogether; the farmhouse, my parents'  Victorian schoolhouse, and a former 1930s school building being converted into a modern house.
There are 4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom in the farmhouse, one or two  bedrooms and a bathroom in my parents' house (in addition to their space),  and 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in the  new house. If all of you accept, then the core group is 12 people total. Assuming most of you will share rooms and beds, then there will be room for  everyone on the farm. If there are other people you'd like me to invite, and/or some of you would prefer to stay in one of the small hotels, let me know.
The nearest town, Turriff, has at most 12 hotel rooms. It is 4 miles  away. 

Plan is to hire a wooden dance floor to put in the main barn at the farm - room for at least three sets of six. There is to be a sealed  finish on the original larch boards in the new house, too.
 

Costs 

Since this whole thing is a first run experiment, rather than  charge for it, I'm prepared to do it on a 'not for profit' basis - I won't charge people to stay at the houses and farm.  You would be  responsible for your own transport.


 

Background and ideas for non-dance activities


if you have strong positive or negative preferences about any of this, let me know. Some of these links have maps.These from discussions while Richard and I were at home, 3 - 6 August 1999

Fyvie Castle is about 9 miles away, along the main Aberdeen  road.http://www.thenationaltrustforscotland.org.uk/  Look under "properties to visit'.

Music :
Bill Hepburn is a professional bagpipe player, lives in Turriff (the  nearest town). (Which has an entire pipe band, but that would be rather  too much of a good thing ;)

Harp and violin recital by Hannah and her sister (my brother's next door neighbours. Hannah runs his office in Aberdeen)

Singsong, including Bothy Ballads . Ceilidh band for a bigger group dance.

A whisky and oatcake tasting. http://www.scotz.com includes a recipe for oatcakes ...

Distilleries :  Active map of distilleries is at  http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jhb/whisky/scotland.html. The Speyside area is about 20 miles to the West of the farm.

Other dancers - Bruce Ferguson teaches reels locally (and does other interesting things, like run the annual Turriff Show, a big agricultural show  (20,000 people per day on each of two days), on the Monday 31 July and 
Tuesday 1st of  August). There is a dance in a large tent in the evening of at least the Monday night (though I've never been).
There is a dance group which meets every other Tuesday at Fyvie Castle in the racquets court.

Highland dancing demonstration. (This is exhibition dancing, of which the sword dance is the best remembered example)

Turriff itself, and surrounding area.
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/towns/townfirst185.html
http://www.aberdeenshire.net/
Banff and the old railway line -  (this one for  enthusiasts of long defunct railways. Richard found that the railway carriage in my farmyard has makers' plates dated LNER 1915 (the London and North Eastern Railway)).

Putting, and or croquet. There is a 9 hole putting green at my parents' house. No doubt it could be adapted to croquet .. it is certainly big enough ..

Aberdeen is the nearest city, and the nearest airport. The central areas are all built of grey granite, which is dour when it rains but sparkles in the sun. http://www.abdn.ac.uk/central/abdn/index.hti  The University is more than 500 years old, and has buildings of that vintage (and some newer ones ;) There is also Ceroc dancing. http://www.business.u-net.com/~ceroc/parties.htm

Background reading. A Scots Quair, by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, is one of  the best pieces of Scots literature from the 1930s. It is set in the farming country on the East coast, a little S of Aberdeen rather than N,  but gives a very accurate sense of the hardships of living for its  young woman protagonist. It also has a strong sense of the spirit and  nature of the land.
A Social History of Scotland 1560 - 1830 by TC Smout has illustrations and much background for why the country is what it is.
 

Anne CM Wilson, acw@cisco.com  +1 408 527 7158

Last modified 11 May 2000