Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

We head over to our second chapter. The next things I take out from the Magical Memory Box are pop-out maps of Scotland and Cumberland. I spread them on the table, so we can take a magical mystery tour from Scotland to London. There we’ll see all the different places in between that our family, my parents, and grandparents lived at and visited over the years. Naturally, our homes would be located not far from where my father worked. Maps are important because they can provide a visual presentation of movement over the years. This is something that isn’t always easy to explain in words. 

In a broader perspective, our family followed the same road over 200 years and more as many other families during a process of industrialization and urbanization. In other words, wealthy urban centres act as magnets for population growth.

As I mention below, only two great things come out of Scotland: single malt scotch and the road to England. That is, England has traditionally been wealthier than Scotland; more jobs have also been available there.

Story of Ancestors

Similarly, Southern England has been wealthier than Northern England. Going back several generations on my father’s side, his ancestors of 200-300 years ago came from the rural Gaelic-speaking islands of Northern Scotland, such as Orkney and Shetland. My great grandfather, Ruairidh Ruadh Campbell, on my mother’s side, was born on the rural, Gaelic-speaking Isle of Eigg; Eigg was in the Inner Hebrides in the West of Scotland.

From these rural Gaelic-speaking regions, descendants of the older generations were drawn by the forces of capital and modernization towards urban centres in Scotland. My father’s family lived and worked in Edinburgh. My grandparents on my mother’s side lived and worked in Glasgow. In simple terms, this is where the jobs were. 

One likes to imagine that one has free choice in this world. However, taking a broader perspective shows us that we are no more than autumn leaves being blown about by the wintry forces of capital.

Roughly speaking, our family has moved southwards in stages over a period of thirty years. We moved first from Scotland to Northern England, and then from Northern England to South East England and London. Ironically, by the time myself and three of my brothers were grown up, my father took his wife and my younger brother Gavin. They moved back to the roots of his forefathers in the North of Scotland, in Thurso, Caithness.