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Our Man in Central Scotland.*
Many Home At First guests have met him.
Now you can get to know him in his own words.
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*Iain Campbell provides Orientation, assistance, and
support to
Home At First guests in Central Scotland. His assignment: help
guests have an authentic and enjoyable Scottish experience.
Get to know Iain in the following interview. You may get an
idea
why Home At First guests give Iain
— and Central Scotland
—
Home At First’s highest grades for program
excellence.
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Where did you grow
up?
I
was born at home in Killin (Central Scotland), where
we stayed until I was around 6 years old.
We moved to the remote Blackmount/Glencoe area
where my father was a gamekeeper on a shooting estate
owned by a well-known family of Flemings. Ian Fleming
(creator of the James Bond novels) was the son of the
owner.
After many years we moved back to Killin when my
father legs could take no more punishment from dragging
deer over mountains. No 4x4 vehicles in those days.
Do you come from a large family?
I have two older sisters and a younger
brother. My older sister is with the Fire Service in
Perth city (Central Scotland). The other sister is with the
Procurator Fiscal — not sure what you call them in the USA.
My young brother is a contracts inspector with the highways
department. |
IAIN CAMPBELL
DRESSED FOR WORK.
“...the
personal satisfaction of being able to help
some-one in that time of need.” |
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My mother
is sadly no longer with us. She was from the
Ness on the Island of Lewis (in Scotland’s remote Outer
Hebrides) and was from a large family (there’s not a lot to
do on the islands on the long winter nights). She was a
fluent Gaelic speaker.
My father, now deceased, was born on a croft (sharecropper’s
farmstead) in Glen Ogle at Lochearnhead
(Central Scotland).
How did you come to settle in the Killin area?
I was born in Killin (Central Scotland), in my opinion
the best place in the world to bring up a family. It’s also a
safe place to live with no violence and little drugs.
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PAT & IAIN CAMPBELL |
Tell us a little about your family now.
Pat and I have now been married for 23
years. Pat is originally from Finsbay on the
Island of Harris and, like my late mother, a
fluent Gaelic speaker, brought up in a
household where only Gaelic was spoken, and
was only introduced to English when starting
school.
We have two boys, Peter and Iain, Jr. Peter, my oldest
son, now 20 is a third year undergraduate at Stirling
University studying computing science. Iain, Jr. is 18 and
not long left high school. He is working in the Killin (Central
Scotland) village greengrocer’s store.
Do you have formal education?
Education, what’s that? Left high school in |
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1973 at the age of 15 with a hand full of useless
what we called then “O” Grades. Really
as much good as an ashtray on a Harley. Since
then I have been to the University of Life.
What degrees or training specialties have you
achieved?
Degrees, mmmmmm. Well, I have four good Scottish
ones, but not gained from university!
What
careers have you pursued?
I
have more than one hat today in my community.
On leaving
school, my first employment was in the hotel
trade. The salary was poor and the hours long, so I was out
of that pretty quick.
I then became an agricultural engineer for a few
years, but again the pay was poor, so I doubled my pay by
moving to the highway department in Killin. This job
entailed looking after the trunk (main) road network,
keeping the highways snow free in the winter. (That’s back
when we received snow; global warming has since put an
end to this.)
Twenty-eight years ago, I also joined the local
Retained Fire and Rescue Station. This is a 24 hours, 365
days a year commitment. Just love the job: it has its
moments,
but it is so rewarding. One of my most
impressive accolades was becoming the Watch Manager
(Fire Chief) 10 years ago.
Oh aye! Nearly forgot, I have a wee job with the best
Vacation Company in the USA, Home At
First.
What do like best about your work? What do you like
least?
Well where will I
start?
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FIRE SERVICE: When
my fire pager goes off and we are mobile to an
emergency,
the personal satisfaction of being able
to help someone in that time of need.
Even
if it’s only just being able to talk and
reassure someone that things will
be all right.
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Highways Dept.:
My highway maintenance work I don’t enjoy at
all but I suppose
it
pays the mortgage.
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Home At First: The job with Home at
First I do enjoy and really don’t class it as
work.
To me its fun meeting and working with our
visitors (…well most of the
time).
Do you belong to community, social or volunteer groups?
I am part of a community
newspaper production team: “The Killin News”.
Also I am a co-founder of the Killin’s village
web site.
I’m involved with kids aged 8-18 in the fire cadet
scheme with Central Scotland’s Fire and Rescue Service.
What hobbies do you have?
I love vintage British Motorcycles, I have restored a
few now including a 1932 Matchless 350cc, a 1931 BSA
600cc, but my pride and joy is my 500cc 1953 Velocette
Venom Clubman, an ex Isle of Man TT production racing
bike.
Do you like to travel in Scotland? If so, where?
The Island of Harris has got to
be one of the last unspoilt places I have ever
visited. When you land on the Island it’s like
stepping back 30 years. The white, sandy,
deserted beaches with rolling blue waves crashing in from
the Atlantic are just a majestic sight. (Just don’t try diving
in; it’s usually freezing.)
What’s the thing you like best about Scotland?
When the sun shines!
What thing surprises you most about Scotland?
From a native Scot’s perspective, probably the
surprisingly early time meals stop being served in the rural
areas (9PM-ish).
Do
you like to travel outside of Scotland? If so, where?
Spain
and Portugal, but we’ve been to Florida now for
the past 5 vacations. Once we had been to the US, we just
wanted to keep coming back, as it was very
inexpensive for us and the weather was
simply fantastic!!!
Do you have anything special you'd like to say about
your experiences with the guests?
I have been so lucky
to meet guests from Home At First whom we keep
in touch with and can call friends. We
have met up with former guests in America when on
vacation, and we were shown real American hospitality.
Fantastic folks, there have been so many offers to return
the hospitality if we ever get to their part of the USA.
What is the most interesting thing about your work with Home At
First?
Every week there are new
faces, new challenges, and it’s so good to see
“well ken’t” faces coming back for more
of Scotland.
What
do you like to tell American guests about
Scotland that surprises them?
Scotland’s gun culture and laws seem to surprise
many folks.
What about Americans surprises you?
The inability for many to use a fork and knife
simultaneously.
Would
you please provide us with a favorite anecdote
from your experience with Home At First guests?
When
at a Home At First group dinner being held at
the Lochearnhead Hotel, I heard a couple — staying in a
cottage in the Main Street, Killin — telling the other guests
at the table about a workman from the highway department
they had seen in Killin’s Wee Bake Shop. They explained he
was buying food for lunch and he was talking in Gaelic to his
colleagues. They were over the moon to have heard Gaelic
being spoken in Scotland. I did not have the heart to tell
them the guys were Polish migrant workers.
What are your future aspirations and lifelong goals?
I have all I need. We have
food on the table, and our house is nearly
mortgage free. We are all in good health, what
more do I need?
I would love to return to Malaysia’s Island of Penang
someday, and I have this dream of running down the old
Route 66 on a Harley Davidson.
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— Meet the Scots. Like
Iain Campbell. Fly away with us to
SCOTLAND
—
Make Scotland Personal.
Don’t just stare at Scotland from the windows
of a tour bus.
Meet the Scots when you travel to Scotland
with
Home At First. Scotland’s even
better when it’s personal. Home At First
offers cottages and apartments
in locations throughout five regions of Scotland:
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CENTRAL SCOTLAND
INVERNESS
& THE NORTH
THE SCOTTISH BORDERS EDINBURGH
GLASGOW
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