Tales from Auchindrain

MSP Jenny Gilruth arrived at Auchindrain on Friday March 15 to visit the place where her great-great-grandfather grew up.

 

Director Bob Clark regaled with stories of her ancestor's lives including a brush with death.

 

John McCallum, brother to Jenny Gilruth's great-great-grandfather, Eddie, accidentally ate some hemlock, which caused him to go into paralysis and would have killed him if someone hadn't been around.

 

'Hemlock is the most poisonous root and he chewed on it and spat it out. He is left hairless the rest of his life but the story that came down was that a passing tinker woman on the road told him to spit it out. What the poison does to the body is cramps, it's asphyxiation, it's nerve damage but the way to survive it is sedation, and then 18 hours later the poison is out of the body.

 

'So what she did was keep him calm, because the shock would have killed him, and put him to sleep and 18 hours later the poison was gone.'

 

 

PIC:

 

Jenny Gilruth was presented with a certificate of friendship with Auchindrain Museum. 51_a12Auchindrain02

 

The MSPs were shown the day to day lives of Jenny's ancestors. 51_a12Auchindrain09

 

Jenny had a go at making drop cakes  on the fire herself. 51_a12Auchindrain14

 

Jenny enjoyed the hospitality of Auchindrain. 51_a12Auchindrain15