Intrepid Scottish mother, archaeologist, artist and author
I have long been intrigued by a pair of candlesticks that came to me via my grandmother. A note glued underneath indicated that they were a gift to her mother from her mother’s grandmother, Sophia Dunbar, bought “… at the door of Duffus House from a travelling caravan in 1847 or 1848, that came with linen and other goods every year …”.
We have recently spent a fabulous week on the Orkney islands, renting a house near the port of Stromness with some friends who share an interest in ancient mankind and nature. What a revelation to observe that this remote archipelago beyond the north of Scotland was such a concentrated centre for neolithic people 5,000 years ago, building stone circles and religious sites 5 centuries before Stonehenge. Four World Heritage monuments within only a few miles of each other!
Travelling south we took the opportunity to spend a night in Elgin (near the coast east of Inverness) and meet distant Dunbar cousins who now manage nearby Duffus Estate and have recently recovered Duffus House from Gordonstoun School, who had leased it as a boarding house (Prince Edward had been a boarder there).
It was great to be shown around the house (undergoing serious repair following 80 years of school boy abuse) and the church (now roofless and open to the elements) with the crypt where many generations of Dunbars are buried.
It was also particularly interesting to find out more about my 3x great grandmother Sophia Dunbar, née Orred, who had these candlesticks on her writing table.
Amongst other things I learnt that Sophia featured in a recent book “Women of Moray” where she was described as “… an accomplished amateur water colourist, exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy. She shared with her husband an interest in local antiquities and Continental travel…”.
By all accounts quite an intrepid character. Alongside her husband and others “Sophia was also involved in many archaeological discoveries, such as some 3500 to 4500 year old Early Bronze Age cist burials from the area around Elgin in Morayshire.” Her detailed sketches of the excavations have been of interest to recent archaeological research in Scotland as recounted in an article “A Tale of Two Dunbars: Lady Sophia Dunbar“.
Sophia’s paintings, many of scenes from her travels around the Mediterranean, were widely exhibited, with some held in Aberdeen Art Gallery and a number of her water colours now at Girton College, Cambridge.
She published a book of “A family tour round the coasts of Spain and Portugal during the winter of 1860-61” which starts “Having determined to spend the winter in the south of Europe, after many interesting debates and conversations we decided that the south of Spain should be our destination. We had previously spent several winters at Nice and its neighbourhood, and we saw by the railway guides that it was now as easy to reach Barcelona by Perpignan as to go to Nice by Toulon“. I found a scanned copy on ‘Internet Archive’ (an invaluable source for old books, akin to wikipedia – there is a link to the book on her profile page), which makes interesting reading; such a different adventure from today’s ease of international travel! I find it intriguing to muse that she might have written this book by the flickering light from my candlesticks!
Sophia and Archibald Dunbar’s son, Charles Gordon Cumming Dunbar (my 2x great-grandfather), married Edith Wentworth, daughter of William Charles Crowley Wentworth (famous Australian statesman) and was born in Vaucluse House, Sydney, Australia. By an intriguing coincidence a 2x great-grandfather on my mother’s side, James Williamson, went from Scotland to Victoria and married an Australian, Emma Parker. So from both my parents I have a 2x great-grandfather from Scotland marrying a native born Australian!
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