DAY 9: CERES, FIFE - Wednesday, May 30

For a long time we have wanted to visit Ceres. This village was the home of our earliest known Malcolm ancestors. Today we have accomplished this goal and feel our efforts have been well rewarded.

We took the bus directly to Ceres and began our visit at the Fife Folk Museum, a very nice museum created and operated by local volunteers.


The exhibits included artifacts from the various aspects of work and home life in the area, such as spinning wheels, weights and measures, blacksmith tools, and even examples of clothing.

From there we proceeded to the parish church, which was built in the early 19th century, near the end of time our Malcolms are known to have lived there. However, it was built n the site of an older church, and the records indicate that one of our ancestors was buried in the churchyard.

We walked around the cemetery, but only found one Malcolm, which we don’t think is a direct descendant, but is likely connected in some way with our ancestors. Many stones were illegible or missing, so we felt satisfied that we had visited the site of our ancestors internment, even if we couldn’t find the actual stone.

We stepped inside the church to inquire about any records they might have. A service was in progress, so we sat down in the balcony and listened to the end of it. Afterwards the pastor introduced himself and asked what brought us there. He explained that cemetery records are in the care of a government agency rather than the church. 

We asked the pastor if he knew of any of the place names we were looking for, and he told us about a nearby nature path with a similar name which might in some way be connected. He graciously offered to drive us there if we didn’t mind walking back to town. We love nature walks, and we enjoyed a beautiful walk. 

We returned to the museum's tea room and enjoyed some tea and scones. We asked one of the ladies there if she knew of any of the locations we sought. She said she knew a taxi service operated by a local family she knew would be very familiar with the specific area. She helped us contact them, and a nice lady named Val picked us up. She took us to two locations we have been hoping to find.  

Both Jerry’s 6x great grandfather and 7x great grandfather were born (1735 and 1695) at a place called "Hill of Bandirran." Val said she believed it either was or was connected to a farm still operating called simply "Bandirran."

Next she took us to another still-operating farm adjacent to Bandirran called "Newbigging of Craighall."  We were astounded by the ancient looking buildings still standing. Val said that the stone structure we took for a cottage was probably the same or very similar to where our ancestors lived while working as laborers on this farm. Just as we were leaving the farmer who owns and operates the farm drove up and was interested in our quest. He confirmed that the hill behind his farm was likely the Hill of Bandirran. He said it might have been a small croft, that a man could have farmed as a sharecropper (crofter).

He also offered to show us an ancient bridge that crosses the stream behind his property, which was probably how farm workers like our ancestors walked back and forth to visit or work. We were thrilled to learn so much and feel a connection with the place.