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McCraes Memorial and Tour


Marvin

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1 hour ago, Marvin said:

Thinking about hopping over for this.

Cost seems reasonable.  Has anyone been? What were your thoughts?  Plan to go next Spring for it.

I went with the McCrae’s Battalion trip about ten years ago ( 😳 ). Worth a visit and a lot to see and do in the area if you are interested in WW1. The number and size of the graveyards opens your eyes to the scale of the horror. 

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BlackhallJambo

Definitely worth doing. Took the laddie over a few years back. Flew to Paris, hired a car and stayed in Albert. We visited  the surrounding battlefields, Lochnagar and Thiepval.A lot to see in close proximity to Contalmaison.

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Was there last year, not with the McCraes tour, but with a well known coach tour company.

 

Contalmaison wasn't on the tour itinerary, however I mentioned it to the tour guide the night before we went to the Somme and to my surprise he instructed the coach driver to make a small detour on our way up to the Lochnagar crater.

The tour guide preceded to give the whole bus a brief history lesson about the sacrifice the players of Heart of Midlothian had made, including losing 3 players on the first day of the battle.  Only got about 10-15 minutes at Contalmaison, but it was enough time for me to pay my respects and get some photos at the cairn.

 

I will be eternally grateful to the tour guide because he didn't need to make the detour, but he did, he even pointed out the general area were the Royal Scots went over the top and where our boys would have fallen, it's all just fields now and you'd never know about the carnage that took place there.

 

If you have an interest in WWI, go, you won't regret it, as there is so much to see and do, however as Dave says above, there are cemeteries everywhere, mostly just small ones, but they are dotted here there and everywhere all over the Somme.

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1 hour ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

Was there last year, not with the McCraes tour, but with a well known coach tour company.

 

Contalmaison wasn't on the tour itinerary, however I mentioned it to the tour guide the night before we went to the Somme and to my surprise he instructed the coach driver to make a small detour on our way up to the Lochnagar crater.

The tour guide preceded to give the whole bus a brief history lesson about the sacrifice the players of Heart of Midlothian had made, including losing 3 players on the first day of the battle.  Only got about 10-15 minutes at Contalmaison, but it was enough time for me to pay my respects and get some photos at the cairn.

 

I will be eternally grateful to the tour guide because he didn't need to make the detour, but he did, he even pointed out the general area were the Royal Scots went over the top and where our boys would have fallen, it's all just fields now and you'd never know about the carnage that took place there.

 

If you have an interest in WWI, go, you won't regret it, as there is so much to see and do, however as Dave says above, there are cemeteries everywhere, mostly just small ones, but they are dotted here there and everywhere all over the Somme.

 

It's the McCraes tour I'm planning on doing.

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1 hour ago, Marvin said:

 

It's the McCraes tour I'm planning on doing.

 

I assumed that from the thread title.

 

Just had a look at the 2019 Itinerary and assuming it's the same or similar next year it looks ok.

If you go and if it's the same as this years tour itinerary, I can thoroughly recommend the Wellington Tunnels at Arras if you get the chance.

And Ypres is very nice, It's only a pity they couldn't stay a bit longer in Ypres to take in the last post ceremony.

 

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