July 12

Today we visited a college where they teach Irish dancing, singing, violin and speech.  It is only open in the summer, and they have a lot of children Dylan's age attending!  We took a class on how to make a blanket - the way they would do it back then.  Here we are rubbing  the cloth on a table to get the threads packed close together.

Adults:

This morning the group had a tour of the Gaelic College, located in Saint Ann’s, about 20 miles from Baddeck. This is not a college in the usual since, this is a school, open only during the summer months where people of all ages come from all over the world to take classes in everything Gaelic. There are several sessions during the summer, usually lasting about two weeks, some people use the dorms while there, and some are just day students. Everything from learning to make kilts, to weaving, to dance, fiddle and piano to speaking the old Gaelic language. If I had to opportunity, I would love to take some of the classes! We had lunch at the college, the same menu the students got, and were entertained during lunch by fiddle and piano music. It was a very interesting day and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

When we left the college we took a mini tour around the area. Baddeck is located on the north end of the Bras d’Or Lake, the same lake the St Peter’s Canal is on. This is a huge lake that covers a lot of area in the middle of Cape Breton Island. Our tour took us on a small loop that is the home of many artisans and their shops and studios are found around every bend in the road. This tour of the area took us to the Englishtown ferry, which crosses the northern edge of the Bras d’Or Lake. This ferry is much like the ferry’s we took in lower Nova Scotia. Englishtown is one of the oldest settlements in North America, having been established as a French fishing port in 1597, later in 1629, the first French fortification in the New World was built in Englishtown. Now it is just a small coastal town that you would miss if you blinked just a second or two longer than normal.

We ended the day back in Baddeck at the Bras d’Or Lakes Interpretive Centre which gives an overview of the areas efforts to preserve the lake and the watershed, and the animals it supports. They also had a display of arts and crafts of some of the local artists.