Gaelic College

Rain today, but that's OK - we have stuff to do that is indoors today.  First up - a visit to Gaelic College just up the road.  This is a college that is basically a summer class and small session college that is dedicated to keeping the Scottish Gaelic culture alive here.  There was a time where the Gaelic language was not allowed to be spoken in schools and though many spoke it, the numbers dwindled as it came to be viewed as bad.  Now there is a resurgence in young people learning the language of their grandparents, and they teach it here in schools just as French and Spanish are taught in school at home.  The college had a beautiful, small campus.

For a mere $8 admission per person we were able to not only tour the museum which was quite nice, but also saw several demonstrations which were great!  The first was kilt making and included info on no only sewn quilts but a type of kilt that was put together with nothing but folded material, a belt, and a knot.  They asked for a man to volunteer who could roll up his pants and get down on the floor AND back up.  Since most of the folks in the small audience were old, a French gentleman was selected and was a great model.

Next we attended a demonstration of the process used to shrink woolen cloth before it was made into clothing.  Everyone sat around a table with a rutted board, the cloth was wet (sometimes with "old urine" due to the ammonia in it) and then gathered and pushed out and back on the board.  Songs were sung and the material was passed as they did this.  The young lady who showed us the process taught us a few Gaelic phrases and some words to a song which we sang while going thru the motions  minus the old urine!

Next up - fiddling and highland dance.  The CEO of the college told us about the fiddling and echoed some of what we had heard last night at the ceilidh.  For instance there is often no written music, the piano player just knows how to accompany the fiddler and there are no competitions for fiddlers on the island.  He then not only fiddled, but danced because the dancer had hurt her ankle.  A multi talented man!

Finally we attended a story telling session where we heard more of the Gaelic language and some great stories.  Lunch and laundry followed.

Next up - dinner and more music!  We went to THE pub in Baddeck and had a fun time.  Had a few drinky poos and a fine fish and chips meal and great music by local artist Tracy Cavanaugh.  The crowd was shall we say... quite raucous.  He did a great job handling them - the raucous crowd did NOT include us!

And thus ends our time in Baddeck - next up - the Cabot Trail!