Mora [Canada] and Robertina [Italy] at The Craggan Hotel, Melness

Those interested in the affairs of the Clan Mackay Society will remember the visits of Robertina Mackay Caruso and Mora Mackay Cairns, the President of the Clan Mackay Association of Canada to the Clan Mackay and the great Mackay Ceilidhs held in the Craggan Hotel in Melness managed by our good friends Lynn and Hamish Mackay. Mora Mackay Cairns and her husband Bob, who flew from Scotland in the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War joined a large party of Mackays in the Craggans in September 2004. Earlier in 2004 the late Charlie and Marie Mackay had hosted a similar event for the Italian Prime Television Programme "Dreams" at which Robertina and her family were flown in to Scotland to witness her joining her ancestral family here, Robertina's family had originally emigrated to South America, probably from the Bettyhill area. A scene from the Ceilidh in the Craggan is to be found below.

Ghosts and spirits about in the North

Do you remember the tale told about the late Charlie Mackay that whenever anyone called late at night at No 3 West Shinness when the moon was shining brightly looking South towards Loch Shin, then the "Spirits" were sure to come out ! So beware of the ghosts of the Northern lands. That wee story reminds me of Backpacker's own tale of the likeness of the Creggan Inn to a lobster pot. Why you ask, because "The Creggan like a creel is very easy to enter, but very difficult to leave". In this year of 2006 in which the Clan Mackay Society marks the Bi-centenary of McKay's Society, which was founded in 1806 as a friendly society and out of which the Clan Mackay Society was later to evolve, we wonder how many Mackays will take the route to their ancestral homeland and stop by the Craggan Hotel in Melness. They maybe assured that the welcome will be as warm as it has always been in that hospitable place.