The elected King of Tory plays accordion with some friends. Coming soon to CelticLife magazine: Our feature on the Island of Tory, off the coast of Ireland.
Three weeks before Christmas. It’s cold and snowy in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. But I don’t care because with my friend piper Donn MacCara of Clan Thompson Pipe Band, I’m flying to sunny Fort Lauderdale. I’m about to embark on a one-week cruise of the Eastern Caribbean aboard the Eurodam. Can you imagine a more magical way to learn the pipes or drums than playing to the whales and dolphins (oh, and stingrays).
Just the Facts
• MS Eurodam cruises around the East Carribbean
• Captain Bob Horner invites pipers and drummers aboard, combining his love of pipe band music and sailing
• 2009, 40-50 students studied under piper Ken Eller and drummerMichael Eagle
• Our resident piper and blogger Scott Williams was aboard the ’09 cruise
The Priory’s tower and the two transepts seen from the west. The jutting, irregular masonry in the tower shows the place where the nave once stood.
The peal of bells reverberates along the wooded hillsides of the secluded Vale of St Andrew, accompanied by mellow birdsong. The melody comes from Pluscarden Abbey’s lofty tower, which stands like an imposing golden-walled sculpture half way up this peaceful vale. Here white-habited Benedictines tread lightly like ethereal bodies on their way to church.
The sea is the life blood of the picture-postcard fishing villages of Scotland’s East Neuk of Fife, described by King James 11 as “a fringe of gold on a beggar’s mantle” … an apt description
Travelling the Celtic world can be a mystical experience. Here we explore some of the roads less travelled.
