Lindsay Clan Crest and Castles

I have been distracted... Mom has been ill and needing a lot of TLC, and my energy has been focused in that direction for the past three weeks or so. So it has been awhile since you've heard from me.

However, I am pretty good at finding stress relievers, and one of the things I consider "therapy" is working on my photo greeting cards. I was thinking about my family history, and my brothers (I have two), and looking up some information on the internet. My father's side of our family is from Scotland. We are part of the Lindsay Clan in Scotland. It's fun to look at our history and where some of our ancestors came from and their stories. I have information about this part of our family going back to the 1700's and someday I hope to search further and find the connection from there back even further to the information I found recently on the internet. Meantime, I thought I might create some photo greeting cards using pictures of things connected to our clan. This is the Clan Crest. It consists of an "attacking" swan, indicating some descent from the Swan Knight, (highly coveted by the chivalry of all medieval Christendom).
"Endure Fort" means "suffer bravely" or "endure strongly".

The swan is rising from a ducal crown, indicating that, at one time, a Lindsay was a Duke. Sounds impressive, huh? According to history, each Clan Chief wore a unique badge on his helmet during battle so that his followers could recognize their leader. This badge is the Crest. The Crest is surrounded by a strap and buckle garter, which shows allegiance to the Chief of the clansman wearing it. So then I found quite a few Castles that have association with the Lindsays.

Awesome! Here are some cards I made for my brothers.
The first one shows the restored gardens for Edzell Castle, which is the ancestral home of the Lindsays. Very impressive.




The second picture is a part of that same restored Castle, showing the tower, which is the oldest part of the house and dates back to the early 1500's.

The third picture is Craigie Castle ruins. Craigie was originally built for the Lindsay Clan, in the 12th or 13th century, or earlier. Wow.

I was intrigued by all of this, and the histories connected with these castles.

My someday dream vacation will be to visit Scotland and see these castles, and hopefully find my connection with Lindsay families still living in Scotland.
I have lovely memories of visiting with my paternal grandfather, Dan Lindsay, who was born in the United States shortly after his family came here from Scotland. He used to sing some of the old songs to us, and he had the kilt and bagpipes. The Lindsay Tartan is quite beautiful.

You may hear more about the Lindsay Clan at another time. Any Lindsay's out there who want to contact me? I'd love to hear about connections!