Findhorn and Culloden

If Scotland was China, I'd call it the yin and the yang. The Findhorn Foundation is an eco-village with roots going back to the 1960s and earlier, yet its location is next to a British air force base for Nimrods (like American AWACS spy surveillance and command and control aircraft); and not too far from the battlefield of Culloden. I visited the area in 1989-1990 with Evan Farris and two other people (exes), having read and heard about it.

Findhorn seemed like semi-utopian ground. People of all kinds, including prominent actors and artists, have gone on retreat there to regroup and revitalize their creative energies. It's one of the places mentioned in My Dinner With Andre (1981), and is the subject of books such as Paul Hawken's The Magic of Findhorn (1976) and In Search of the Magic of Findhorn (2002) by Karin Bogliolo and Carly Newfeld. Hawken's version includes some outlandish New Agey claims about giant vegetables grown over cosmic powerpoints, but by the time of our visit, the gardens and food made available at a friendly visitor lodge seemed of a more modest variety. Even so, Findhorn is a charming place and peaceful alternative to the violence raging elsewhere in the world. I like the idea of eco-villages, places where people can meditate, peacefully speak and create, and grow much of their own food without adding to the general spirit of destruction and grief around them.

Culloden, on the other hand, is a stark reminder of the ravages of war. The 1746 battle saw the defeat of a mostly Catholic Scottish Jacobite force by an English-led Royal army nearly twice its size. The aftermath was gruesome, with the Duke of Cumberland butchering prisoners and the wounded without pity. The Tartans were banned, clans broken up, and Catholicism effectively banished. Many of the Scots were sent to the American colonies, and a fair number of them ended up in North Carolina, among other places. One might think of the Scots as dour Presbyterians, but they certainly were not always that way. At the beginning of the American Revolution, one group of North Carolina Scots swore loyalty to King George III and were subsequently defeated by American rebels at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in 1776. Strangely enough, after some research I discovered that one of my earliest American ancestors fought with the First North Carolina Regiment against these tragically doomed Scots and was later awarded a tract of land near the Catawba River for his efforts -- probably lands confiscated from them or from an Indian tribe that lived in the area.

Compared to the miseries of war, Findhorn is a serene place. One can take classes there, and maybe learn something refreshing about the world. As for the Catawba River area, last I heard it was used for power stations and other modern purposes.




Here's a link to Findhorn: www.findhorn.org






Peace!