Travel Ireland, Scotland and Beyond with Celtic Invasion Vacations

My music, my life, I am a product of change. I buck traditions in favor of trying something new. I am both proud and ashamed of how I have reacted to change in my life.

Seth Godin is one of the foremost thinkers of our era. He is a trendsetter a ruckus maker. He inspires people to think outside the box. He's also the most-read blogger online. He's written dozens of books and I've read many of them.

He also a podcast called Akimbo. It's sort of a spoken blog where he talks about important things we need to think about. And how we can grow, either in business or in our personal lives. It's brilliant.

He released an episode called "Anthems, Pledges, and Change" which inspired this podcast. I confess, I've thought about podcasting my thoughts on his podcasts because he's THAT inspiring. But this is one of the first of me actually doing it.

That's because this podcast defines my career and my life. If you don't understand this, I'm not entirely sure why you follow me. Because this is it. So I highly recommend you listen.

In my episode, I spent 20 glorious minutes understanding how change has happened for good and ill in my own career. I learn from my past experiences. I find new ones to move forward to find new success.

I don't know that I did it all right. But I think it's a good conversation. It's a good starting place for you and me to come together move past the traditional to find peace and happiness in the new and undiscovered, to make change happen.

I hope you love the show!

Special note: Seth Godin has a new book out. It's called This Is Marketing. I highly recommend it!

If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe at Celtfather.com. While you're there, sign up to my mailing list to get 21 songs for free!

I also have relaunched the Pub Songs Podcast. You can hear my album Happy Songs of Death played from start to finish, plus find out a little bit about how the album came to be. More shows are coming. Subscribe now.

"Slainte mhaith". That means "here's to your good health".

"Slainte" means "cheers" or "here's to your health".

"Mhaith" is good.

Greetings my name is Marc Gunn. I play Celtic Geek music. I'm originally from Texas, though now residing in Birmingham, Alabama. Despite that introduction, I don't speak Gaelic. But I love Celtic culture and music. And yes, I am a geek. My entire life revolves around music, science fiction and fantasy, traveling, and Celtic culture.

Welcome to Celtfather Music & Travel!

This is a podcast where I bring my passions together. I rarely follow the status quo. In fact, you could say I strive to be different. You can hear in in that I play an autoharp. And I celebrate the differences of all people. I fight for the underdogs. In fact, when I was a kid my dad would watch football. I would root for the team that was losing, even if that changed in the middle of the game. I just switched team. I try to help out the little guy. Hmm I wonder if that's part of the reason I love Firefly.

And that's what the next few episodes are all about.

We're gonna start with music: how I fell in love with it and how it completes me. Then we're gonna talk about some of the biggest influences in my life. As a hint, it started on the big screen. Then I'll share with you how I fell in love my Celtic culture. And finally, I'm gonna take you on a trip, both literally and figuratively, as we explore how I fell in love with traveling.

Before we dig deeper, I want to share with you a quick glimpse of what I have to offer you.

I learned at the beginning of my music career that if I want to make it in the music business, I had to be more than just a musician. I knew that no record label was gonna sign me as a Celtic artist, let alone a Celtic Geek musician.

If I want to be successful, then I need to know how to promote my music, and I need people like you to not just listen, but be an active part of our community.

More than likely, you've never thought of yourself as a Celtic Geek. Perhaps you love Celtic music. Perhaps you are a Geek. But the two together don't make much sense on the outside.

And yet, when I when I went to my first science fiction convention, I-Con in Stony Brook, New York, I was dumbfounded by the number of kilts and Celts at the convention. I realized there were a lot of Celtic Geeks out there. I was not alone. But no one had yet put two and two together.

So I created an album that I call Celtic Geek. It features 21 songs from my first 20 albums. You'll hear some traditional Irish and Scottish songs. You'll laugh along to some parodies of those same songs. You'll breathe peacefully with some instrumental tunes on the autoharp. You'll smile to original songs inspired by science fiction and fantasy. It's a fun album. It's 100% free to you when you subscribe to my mailing list.

Some musicians cling their music to their chests. The only way you can hear it is if you buy a CD.

That is not me.

I learned long ago that if I want to be successful with music, then I have to let go. I have to let you be a part of the music. Not just listen to it. But to be involved in it.

So I share my music freely. I offer free licenses for podcasters to play music on their shows. I encourage you to share my songs and CDs with your friends. I want you to send me your song lyrics. I've recorded a number of songs by fans. I want you to record your own version of my songs or to sing them around the campfire or the water cooler.

No, I'm not gonna sue you if you copy an album and give it to someone. I want you to.

It turns out, I was right to have this philosophy. Because now with streaming services, anyone can listen to my music for virtually free. You'll find me on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Google Play, Pandora, pretty much everywhere online. And I want you to listen.

Yes. Please follow me on Spotify or whatever streaming service you're on. Those services are doing me a great favor. They are getting my music heard. Anonymity is my greatest challenge. But streaming music helps me overcome that. You can listen for free.

Sure, I won't begrudge you if you decide to go to CelticMusic.org to buy digital downloads or a CD. I would love it. But I don't expect it.

My hope is that you love my music so much that it inspires you... to listen, to share it, to try and watch a live show, to sing or play along, and well, to be a better, happier person. I want you to have a little bit more fun in your life.

I try to make it easy for you too. Right now, I have weekly live streaming concerts online. In fact, I have two shows at present. On Monday, you can hear me sing a couple songs and catch up on my latest news on my YouTube channel. On Wednesday, I have a series I call Coffee with The Celtfather. It's a longer show featuring some of your requested songs.

If that's not enough, once a month, I also host an evening live streaming concert on YouTube. Sometimes it is publicly available. Other times, it is an exclusive benefit for my Heroes in the Gunn Runners Club on Patreon.

These are great ways to get to know me and my music in a more personal setting. But there are other ways, including podcasting.

You see, I was one of the first podcasters in the world. I started Irish & Celtic Music Podcast in the summer of 2005. It originally came out about every 3-4 weeks, at least until I found Patreon in 2014. That changed everything, including the podcast. It became a weekly show featuring the best independent Celtic music online. It's won three podcasting awards and has become a hallmark of my music career.

I've publish a lot of different podcasts over the years. Go to MageNetwork.com. You'll find many of those that are still around. But my latest podcast is this one, Celtfather Music & Travel. I try to offer a bigger look at my music and travels through it.

I also have two different podcasts exclusively available through the Gunn Runners Club on Patreon, which give a behind-the-scenes look at my music as well as stories from the road.

Of course, I have a blog. You'll find me regularly posting on Facebook, and occasionally posting on InstaStories on Instagram. I'm attempting to write non-fiction books designed to help my fellow musicians and others.

If all that wasn't enough to keep me busy, I am also the father of two beautiful girls and husband to a wonderful wife. You'll see them included in several of the videos I share.

Maybe it's my Dungeons & Dragons upbringing, but I feel like an adventurer at heart. You'll see that in my travel videos on YouTube. I wanted a fun way to share my songs. So I started adding video on top of them from my Celtic Invasion Vacations.

Every year, I take a small group of people to Europe, and other places. But primarily we go to the Celtic nations: Ireland and Scotland. We've also been to Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and Italy.

I don't know if you've ever done a European tour, but this is nothing like those. This a more personal and more flexible trip. Instead of doing 20 cities in 10 days, we stay in one place for seven days. We get to know the region and the people. It's a relaxing adventure that's more about the community than the place. That's why it's called Celtic Invasion... Vacations. You should feel rested at the end of your trip.

There's one more thing that I want to share about my music. That's my instrument. I play the autoharp. Most people have a vague idea of what the autoharp is. You probably remember it from second grade music class, if at all. But I am one of the handful of people who play the instrument, as my primary instrument, professionally.

Yes. It's very simple to start playing. Just press a button and strum. But you can do so much more with it with a little work. Just listen to my music. I think you'll hear that.

In fact, I think now is a good time to let you go and listen to my music. If you're not yet following me on Spotify or subscribed to my newsletter, go ahead and do that right now.

But I will also include a link to listen to my Celtic Geek album for free. Stream it from wherever you are right now.  Then let me know what you think. I love your thoughts and feedback.

Now that I've introduced myself to you. I'd like to hear from you. Who are you? Where do you live? What do you do? Do you play music or sing? If so, what instrument? How did you find my music? What other music to listen to?

Tell me about yourself and email me at [email protected]

Thank you so much for joining me on this Celtic Geek journey. I hope my music brings you lots of fun and happiness. Slainte!

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If you enjoyed this podcast and want to hear more, subscribe at celtfather.com.

Scotland is an incredible country. In 2010, I led my third Celtic Invasion Vacations to Scotland. I learned a lot from this trip which helped form future invasions. I'm gonna share the comments from some of those invaders in #249 of Celtfather Music & Travel.

Greetings my name is Marc Gunn. This show is about the many amazing experiences I have as a musician and an adventurer.

In 2010, I hooked with John Wilmott of Celtic Ways, who now runs the Carrowcrory Cottage and Labyrinth Gardens in County Sligo.

John used to live in Oban. So he offered to organize my third Celtic Invasion Vacations to Scotland. Unfortunately, he had health issues a few months before the trip. So I was forced to make this trip come to life.

It's now eight years since that trip happened. But I was looking for Bootleg Concerts to share for my Heroic Gunn Runners on Patreon when I found the comments of invaders from that trip.

Every year, I ask my invaders to share their thoughts of what was cool and what wasn't. This invasion had some of amazing pieces of synchronicity and challenges and fun. It might've helped or hurt that this was the year a volcano erupted in Iceland which grounded a lot of airplanes. So a few invaders arrived late.

I wish I kept a more details journal of the invasion. But alas...

Interestingly, my wife did keep a little journal. However, this was also the trip where she was pregnant and got sick the first day we arrived. So I think journal was cut short.

Now since I don't have a detailed list of what we did. I thought instead, I would share the itinerary, some of my memories of the invasion and then you could hear the feedback from invaders.

And then I will comment respond to some of their comments.

The Celtic Invasion of Oban, Scotland began in Glasgow. We met up with all the invaders and then drove three cars to Oban.

The accommodations were really nice, but sadly, we had such a big group that we were separated into two houses, and separated also by about a 1/2 mile. I actually never saw the second house.

The second day was in Oban was scheduled to walk around and see the town. It was a fairly open day, which was good because we were waiting for invaders to arrive, since a couple at least were stopped by the volcano.

Day 3, we took a boat to Iona. I honestly don't remember much except for the photo that Gwen I took in front of some church on the island. I used for the release of my single "Christmas in Scotland" which was inspired by this invasion.

Day 4, lists oban area chill out, time out, everyone do their thing, shopping, fishing, maybe go walking on nearby islands.

That's hilarious because I couldn't tell you what was involved in that.

However, I do remember that some folks decided to take a trip to see a castle from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So I'm assuming that that was this day.

Day 5 mentions Kilmartin. Again, no clue. But this might've been the day when we got a private tour of a cemetery from Liam Griffin, as well as lunch.

Day 6 took us to Edinburgh. I think we might've stopped in Stirling to climb the William Wallace memorial. But I'm not sure. That evening, we enjoyed bagpipes from Jimi McRae and Sam Ooko.

Day 7 was the final exploration of Edinburgh and of course music from me.

Okay. Let's see if this recording will jog my memory and I share a few more thoughts about the invasion.

INVADER COMMENTS

Alright, a few things stuck for me. First, second ferry ride? What the heck?

I don't think I remember that ride at all. I maybe remember some musicians on a ferry. But I don't remember if it was to Scotland.

I think this was the trip that I realized I have to better plan. After this, I started creating a sort of cookie cutter plan for each trip. A loose one, but a plan nonetheless.

I also mention a bus tour. I have no recollection of that.

Someone mentioned the late starting times. That was remedied on future trips. I think we were leaving around 10 am, which was just way too late. I think future trips vary between and 8 and 9 am.

What was incredible for me was the number of folks who commented on the time with Liam Griffin.

So what happened was we had dinner a couple nights at a place called the Barn. I asked them if I could play music. They said that was fine.

So we ate dinner. I pulled out the autoharp and sang for an hour or two. I don't really remember.

What I do remember is one of the locals, Liam, got really into the show. He called all of his friends to come out. He sang us a song. And he invited all thirteen of us to his place for lunch the following day. Then he gave us a tour of his private historical cemetery.

It was an amazing experience and it helped me fine tune my trips. You see, I realized that all of the stuff I planned was not very memorable. What was memorable was our personal experiences with the people and the culture of the region.

That's why I say in my ads on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, "we get to know the region through its culture, history and legends." It's from trip.

I don't remember a whole lot about the stuff we had planned. But I remember the invaders and the people we met. I remember my time with my wife walking around Oban. I remember the joyful, adventure-filled feelings of this incredible vacation.

I hope you joined this episode, and I'm gonna leave you with a couple songs from the Bootleg concert I did that final night. If you want to hear the entire concert, join my Heroic Gunn Runners on Patreon.

Thanks so much for listening. And if you're new to the podcast, rate the show and subscribe at celtfather.com.

This weekend, I'm heading to join the Kilted Kings at the Mid-South Renaissance Faire. I want to share with some thoughts about the show and what you can expect from our performances.

Greetings. My name is Marc Gunn. This show is about the many amazing experiences I have as a musician and a traveler.

It's funny how one show leads to another. The Brobdingnagian Bards began our career at Excalibur Fantasy Faire in March 1999. As the faire ended, a whole bunch of entertainers and patrons said, you should go to the Castle Muskgee Renaissance faire. When that one ended, they said, you should check out this faire. Those recommendations got us all the way to, our then dream faire, the Texas Renaissance Festival.

That's sort of what happened with the Mid-South Renaissance Faire. I met the entertainment director 3-4 years ago at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival. Everyone was talking about this new faire. I couldn't make it at that time. It wasn't until I got invited to ShadowCon that it became a possibility.

You see, I had a booth at ShadowCon right next door to the faire's booth. Beth and I had great conversations all weekend. She invited me to contact her. But again, there wasn't much likelihood. At least until I found out that my wife was gonna be in Memphis this fall. So I emailed the faire and started a dialogue.

They wanted more than just a soloist. They wanted a full band to fill their pub, a three-piece in fact. So I decided to reunite Kilted Kings PLUS one.

Randy Wothke will once again join me on stage. Randy is the leader and percussionist of The Rogues, a bagpipe and drum quartet from Houston, Texas. He's an incredible musician. It was a great honor to record our album Name On My Soul with him. And incidentally, we have a new Christmas single that will be available online very soon.

I also invited String, aka Matthew Trautwein, to play fiddle. String plays with the Renaissance rock band, The Lost Boys. I first met him at the Georgia Renaissance Festival over a decade. Last year, he came to the Louisiana Ren Faire to fill for Randy when he was already booked.

String is fantastic and one of the nicest people you'll meet to boot. Oh! And I should point out that The Lost Boys have a brand new album that should be available soon if it's not already.

Since it's a Kilted Kings show, a lot of the music that we will play is from our debut album. You'll hear "Slainte Mhaith", "Prettiest Hobbit", "Wild Mountain Thyme", "Flower of Scotland", and of course, "Name On My Soul". You'll also hear songs like "Ride On" and "Mingulay Boat Song".

With a fiddler, I'm really looking forward to playing my instrumental tunes without singing them as well. So listen for a new arrangement of "Marionette Jig" and "Clogden More".

There are a lot of things to see at the Mid-South Renaissance Faire aside from us. There's music from Wind, Wood & Wire, Frieman the Minstrel, Silver Penny, and bagpipes from my friends of Haggis Rampant. Plus, story telling from Melandra of the Woods.

There's jousting, a Mad Hatter, and knighting ceremony. The Lords of Adventure are there. They are brilliant comedy and sword fighting duo. There's also something called Armchair Wizards, which is listed as on-stage role-playing game show. Connor O'Carriag is doing magic and mystery.

I'm happy to see my friends Arr & Tarr the Trolls will be there with kids comedy and fun. Lord Larry Longfellow does magic & comedy and Alima Tribe offers belly dancing. You'll also find fighting demonstrations and historical reenactments with the SCA and Amtgard.

Look for Kilted Kings out there for two weekends, the 13th and 14th, and the 20th and 21st.

If you want to get a Behind-the-Scenes, post-look at how the show goes, join my Gunn Runners Club on Patreon.

Thanks you so much for listening. You'll find links to many of the things mentioned in the shownotes. If you haven't yet subscribed or rated the show on Apple Podcast, head on over to Celtfather.com.

I originally started playing music because I wanted to write songs that people loved. But finding inspiration or creating perspiration is tough!

Welcome to Celtfather Music & Travel. 

In the last podcast, I talked with Mikey Mason about our shared love of Firefly. I had a sort of secret agenda in talking with him. I thought it would be brilliant to create a Firefly podcast with Mikey as a means to promote our Blue Sun Holiday Spectacular Tour.

Mikey is pretty practical though. I know I like to jump into projects pretty easy. But he needed a convincing reason.

Mikey’s reason was, instead of just reviewing episodes like other podcasts have done, he came up with the idea of writing one new song for each episode of the series.

I love this idea!

It makes me think of my favorite song on my new Firefly CD, As Long As I’m Flyin’. That song is “She’s Shiny!”

When I sing the song live, it has a great intro. It’s not just about Firefly. It’s a universal theme. It’s about men who have trouble talking to women.

In this case, it’s about Malcolm Reynolds who has a crush on Inara but can’t or won't tell her. So much so that at the end of the song, Mal is saying the whole song is actually about his ship Serenity.

What a great story idea!

Yes. I throw in lots of references from the show. But when the average person listens, they hear a great rhythm and fun, easy-to-sing chorus.

Yeah. They may miss the punchline at the end. But at live shows it has fairly universal appeal.

I love it.

This is what gets me excited about doing a Firefly podcast with Mikey. I want to write more songs like “She’s Shiny!”

You see, the toughest thing about writing music is coming up with the song idea. That’s why I have long loved the nonsensical songs. They’re easy to write. But they're also not as an engaging.

It’s fairly easy writing songs that have a story that actually happened to me. But to write an original song when you don’t have a thematic idea, it’s tough.

Firefly is a great story. It has a great story arc. Each episode has its own story arc. Sometimes they have multiple themes. Just watching the first episode recently, I saw many, many different themes.

The trick is to verbalize them. What about each episode or character or scene is so great.

That’s why I want to chat with Mikey Mason about this. I want us to pinpoint those themes and write.

And not just about Firefly either. Rather, I want the ideas. And I want to make them my own. I want to write powerful songs with universal themes, just like “She’s Shiny!”.  I think this experience will add to that.

Someone recently recommended the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. I listened and loved it.

It wasn’t just about Harry Potter. It was giving Harry Potter the religious text treatment. The idea is to look at Harry Potter and see how it could improve your life, looking at different themes.

What a creative way to approach a book, or a tv show, or whatever!

I think Firefly has a lot to offer today’s people. It’s about the average Joe struggling to make end’s meat. It’s not always smart. But it’s often right.

As Shepherd Book used to say, “If you can’t do something’ smart, do something right.”

The rich get richer. The rest of us are just trying to survive. To feed our families. To make it to the next paycheck so we can start all over. Maybe we’ll even move ahead.

Now it’s possible I could do all of this on my own. I could sit down and start writing my own album without Mikey. But I admit what I love about this is having a songwriting workout partner like Mikey Mason.

When Jayne is working out, he has Shepherd Book holding the weights for him, to push him to do more weights. It’s the same with me. Mikey is an inspiring partner. He’s writing a lot. He got an English degree in college. He’s the guy who looks for those underlying messages in shows. And admittedly, we brainstorm well together.

That’s why I committed to the idea of doing this podcast and songwriting goal.

But it’s not happening yet. We set another goal to get you involved...as patrons.

I’m looking for 6 new people, who love my music, who want to see this succeed, and who won’t break their pocket books by pledging $10+ per month as my patron.

You will get behind the scenes podcasts and videos. You’ll be the first to hear new music.

You’ll enjoy live concert recordings and get digital downloads of several albums. Plus, I will include your name in the thank yous of each of these Firefly podcasts and with the digital downloads of any Firefly music that comes out of this project for as long as you are a patron.

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Follow me on Spotify to listen to this song or just look for a link in the shownotes. You'll also find a great Firefly playlist of music and all of my Firefly tours at FireflyDrinkingSongs.com.

If you enjoyed the episode of Celtfather Music & Travel, please subscribe to the podcast at Celtfather.com. While you're there, you can sign up to Celtfather News, that's my newsletter that will keep you informed of all of the new projects I'm working including: new music, new shows, new podcasts, videos, and more. It's totally free to subscribe, and I hope to bring another smile to your face with each email.

Mikey Mason popped up on my radar a few years back. I heard he had an awesome Browncoat song called "She Don't Like Firefly". So I invited him to play at my Firefly Drinking Songs show at Gen Con. He was amazing addition to the show. He got the crowd revved up for fun. That made the rest of the show a breeze.

You see, Mikey Mason is a brilliant musician and entertainer. He was a touring comedian for many years. He knows how to work a crowd.

When that first show ended, we realized we needed to do more shows together. So he repeated his amazing performance for the Firefly show at Dragon Con. Then we joked, we should take this show on the road.

Flash forward a few years and that is exactly what we are doing. This December, we launch the Blue Sun Holiday Spectacular. We're gonna sing some Firefly, Celtic, and geeky songs, plus a few holiday favorites. We're gonna have fun with you on the road.

We're planning six shows for the initial launch. If everything goes well, we hope to add more tour dates in 2019.

In this episode, I chat with Mikey Mason about how he fell in love with Firefly, which character he most associates with, and then we start brainstorming the idea of doing a Firefly podcast together...with fresh new songs inspired by the show.

If that sounds like a lot of Shiny fun, then you don't want to miss this show and find out how you can make this podcast happen.

Check out Mikey's video "She Don't Like Firefly". Then find out more about Mikey Mason and listen to his music on his website. He'll be at Dragon Con Labor Day weekend 2018.

You can watch Firefly Drinking Songs at Dragon Con this year on Friday night of the convention.

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Now I want to ask you to head on over to Spotify and Follow My Music.

You will find links to everything I mentioned in the shownotes at Celtfather.com where you can also subscribe to this podcast and download 21 songs for free.

The 2018 Celtic Invasion of the Isle of Skye is over. We had an amazing vacation.

Every year, I ask my invaders for feedback. This year, I decided to do it a little different. I wanted to help you figure out what were some of the best things to see when you come visit.

So I'm gonna share my Best and Worst things to see on the Isle of Skye, followed by feedback from Invaders, including some of their favorites.

Best of the Isle of Skye.

My favorite thing in Skye was the Quiraing. This is up in Trotternish. It's June, lush and green with powerful, towering mountains.

Now Skye is a big hiking area. I think most people go to Skye to hike.

Most of our Invaders were not big hikers. We were all happy to hike and explore. But the hardcore hiking was not for us.

Now I'm sure there's some difficult hiking in the Quiraing, but the two places we visited were fairly easy. A third place looked even easier.

I guess for me there was more room to relax and enjoy the magnificent mountain range in the Quiraing. If you're looking for one thing to do in Skye, this is my suggestion.

My second favorite thing to do in Skye was the Skye Cruises out of Uig. They offered a three-hour boat tour of the ocean and shoreline. We saw a castle, seals, and even watched puffins flying about.

The captain was very friendly. He and a friend started this cruise a couple years ago. It made for a very pleasant experience.

They provided free snacks and drinks including Skye Beer from the local brewery. They had binoculars available for seeing the sea life too.

Of course, it probably helped that the seas were calm. There was a little bit of rain that fell on us for about ten minutes. Then it was done.

They had some good Celtic music playing in the back of the boat. And up front, I played songs and along with Pace. And happily Danny and Christine Faught of Green Man Clan joined us.

Okay so that was a benefit of me boating out there. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful relaxing trip.

Third in my list of the Best of the Isle of Skye we're The Fairy Pools.

On day three of our Invasion, we got a tour guide to take us to The Fairy Pools. The guide was kind of a flop. Not much more than a driver sadly. But the Pools were brilliant. Tho a little tricky too.

It was raining when we arrived. We walked down the hill to the starting point.

I say walk, but to be honest l, there was a little sliding. I had my bad shoes. The ground was moist and squishy. So I fell a couple times. That didn't bode well.

At the bottom of the hill, there was a stream and no way to cross it but get your feet a little wet.

I wasn't quite in the mood to plunge in. In fact, I was about to skip it. I'm glad I didn't. I took off my shoes and walked across the small stream.

After that, the walk was a breeze. It was a gentle slope into the valley. A river guides you on the right. And all along it are bunches of small waterfalls and "Fairy Pools".

I didn't go all the way into the mountains. I took my time and had fun making videos. I sat with my feet in the freezing water. It was delightful. Again, I'm so happy I went.

The fourth coolest thing for me was the excitement of finding dinosaur tracks.

So we stayed in Staffin Bay Cottages. They are located a 3 minute drive from Staffin Bay Slipway. When we arrived, we learned that there were dinosaur tracks down there.

So one evening, we hiked over to the beach and looked for the tracks. It took some time to find them, but eventually we did. They were covered in seaweed.

They were also difficult to make out. But we went to the local dinosaur museum to confirm.

That was cool and all. But 2-3 months ago, new tracks were discovered at Brother's Point. On Friday, we finally headed to the point. We arrived just before low tide.

So I should point out that there are no markers for these prints. You have to find them.

Now what I learned at the dinosaur museum was the footprints were found in sedimentary rock.

The first step was to find that. I am no geologist. But I did overhear, that sedimentary rock is layered rock. Most of the rocks out there, I think, are igneous.

I found a big slab of sedimentary rock and started looking. I found some small impressions and called over Pace and Selena. Pace told me that they were about a foot in diameter.

I spent the next thirty minutes staring at the rock. How weird is that!

Eventually I noticed differences. I saw breaks in the rock and looking at puddles, I realized the indentations were different from the breaks. I called over Pace and we jokingly decided we found dinosaur tracks.

I got some pictures and videos but I don't think you'll see much of anything.

Pace got a good picture. We decided to take his picture to the dinosaur museum to confirm it. We were thrilled they said yes!

Yay. I'm officially an amateur dinosaur track hunter.

I was trying to settle on my top 5 of Skye but I couldn't. So for number five, I picked two.

First is the Skye Museum of Island Life. It's located in the north end of Trotternish. It was a small Croft community. But now it's a museum.

I guess I liked it because it's the only bit of history we got on Skye. That's because this was also the place that Flora McDonald was buried.

Flora is the woman from the song "Skye Boat Song" who carried the Bonnie Prince Charlie to safety after his defeat at Culloden, which marked the end of the Jacobite Revolution.

The museum told that story along with the story of the crofters.

I also loved Neist Point. There's a lighthouse and soaring cliffs and gorgeous ocean vistas. It was stunning.

I also recorded a couple videos while I was out there.

That was my best of the Isle of Skye.

What was the worst?

I'm sure many would disagree, but my least favorite thing about Skye was Old Man of Storr.

There are some stunning pictures of Storr. As far as I can see, they are either aerial photographs or from way up top on Storr. I don't have an airplane, and I didn't have the desire to climb all the way to. I climbed up thru the third gate. About halfway. The view was nice. But not worth the effort. I'd rather go back to the Quiraing.

Kilt Rock a beautifully named with almost pleated rocks. But it's view is located in a very safe and boring park off the road. It was uninspiring.

I was disappointed with Talisker Distillery. I like the whisky, but there was no tasting room. You had to do the tour.

I've done whisky tours before. They're mildly interesting. It's the whisky that's the best thing about them. I bought a bottle but even the store was limited. I think I'm a bit spoiled by Guinness and Bushmills. They've got a TON of incredible shops. Plus tastings.

Now it's not a least favorite location but Skye is pretty windy. When it isn't windy, at least during the summer, the midges are our in full force. Midges are small biting gnats. Think of tiny barely visible mosquitoes. Unless they're swarming.

During the summer, restaurants book up. So make sure you get reservations unless you're fine with eating at 9 or 10 o'clock.

Finally, this is the ultimate in #FirstWorldProblems. But the internet was worse here than pretty everywhere we've invaded. Bad internet and bad cell phone.

I know. I know. Whine whine whine. You're on the Isle of Skye!

But I was wanting to stay in touch with my girls back home and was sorely disappointed. The house internet was slow. The data on my phone didn't work at all. Our house was a dead zone for phones as well.

I guess the point is you should expect to disconnected.

Alright. That's what I thought of Skye. Let's see what folks thought of the Celtic Invasion of the Isle of Skye.

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I hope you enjoyed my Invader feedback. Again, the Celtic Invasion of Skye was a huge success. I'm excited to share some photos and videos from the trip in the coming months.

Now I just announced the net two locations that I am planning for the future. In 2019, we're gonna have the Celtic Invasion of Star Wars... We're going back to Dingle, Ireland and this time we're gonna visit Skellig Michael. That's the island from The Last Jedi film.

Then in 2020, we're going to Venice, Italy. This is the Origin of Celtic Invasions Vacation. Because the area was conquered by a Celtic tribe called the Veneti that later migrated to Brittany in France, before heading to Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

If you find out more about that history, check out two episodes I released last year: The Secret History of the Celts #231 and History of Celtic Brittany #232.

And head over to CelticInvasion.com if you want to join one of these awesome vacations.

Now I want to ask you to head on over to Spotify and Follow My Music.

You will find links to everything I mentioned in the shownotes at Celtfather.com where you can also subscribe to this podcast and download 21 songs for free.

Patreon is an incredible tool for helping musicians and creators to get paid. However, as a new patron, it's very easy to miss out on all of the cool features Patreon has to offer. Andrew McKee and I try to break down those features to share with you how you can get the most out of your patronage.

This is The Celtfather. My name is Marc Gunn. I'm here with The Irish Bard, Andrew McKee. Today, we're gonna give you a Patreon Primer, to help you better understand how to get the most out of Patreon.

I've been using Patreon since 2014. However, it really wasn't until I started the account for the Brobdingnagian Bards that I really realized that a podcast like this would be super useful.

I have a lot of friends on Patreon. And Andrew is planning his own Patreon. I thought we'd talk about some of the awesome things you can enjoy and how best to do that.

• Sign up for different levels.
  Each offers progressively more access to our creations.
• Why you should Download the Patreon App
  This is the easiest way to interact with the community. It's not superbly sophisticated, but you can comment and reply to comments. You can ask questions, and get answers.You can also listen to podcast episodes directly from the app, either downloading or streaming the episode directly in the app. It saves your space. You can fast forward in 15 second increments or you can drag the slider to different points in the podcast.
• How to subscribe to the Patreon Feed
  If you have a preferred podcatcher, you are also given a personal podcast feed that you can insert directly into your podcatcher. That's how I prefer to listen.
• How to Download Music to your computer
  Now if there are albums or singles you want in a blog post, you'll probably need to use your desktop computer. You can listen directly in the app, but it's kind of annoying. I would prefer to download them and put them directly into my iTunes.
• Searching in the App
  Patreon doesn't currently offer a great search feature directly in the app or on the desktop version.That said, Patreons best option is the tag feature. We try to tag every post that we make with simple, easy-to-figure out tags.ie. "bootlegs" are our live concerts. "A Brobdingnagian Minute" will load all of those podcast episodes. "MP3" is the free mp3s that we share. "vlogs" are video blogs.Go to the Posts page on the desktop. You'll see tags on the lefthand side. Just click one and get the desired content. If there's a better way, let me know.
• How to Interact with the Community
• Bonuses
  • Save money on Merch

• Marc Gunn
• Andrew McKee, The Irish Bard
• Brobdingnagian Bards
• Irish & Celtic Music Podcast

Did we miss anything? Is there something you like about it or that you think would make Patreon better? Post in the comments.