Big Bikes & Powerful Buicks
Picktish Rocks to Harley Hogs
Carnoustie Country was the stronghold of the Pictish era. Standing Stones weathered by centuries still dot the landscape, some marooned in potato fields, others by the roadside. Best don't to get too close… you might find yourself in another place and time, Outlander fans, be warned!
ROCK ART
Don’t get too close to Aberlemno’s Standing Stones. You don’t know where you might end up.!
The carvings on the Stones of Aberlemno date back to the Medieval era, the 5th to 10th centuries, aka the Dark Ages, but there’s speculation that some of the stones were erected in the Bronze Age (3300 BC) and ‘repurposed’ by the Picts, who added their own style of graffiti.
HARLEY HEAVEN
Picture this…The wind moves through the heather, carrying the scent of damp earth from the Vale of Strathmore. Beyond the carved Pictish stones of Aberlemno, a small cottage sits, smoke curling from its chimney. Inside, the Davidson family gather around a rough wooden table. The father, William, speaks in a low, steady voice:
“It’s time. We sail for America.”
The mid-19th century was a difficult time throughout Scotland. Land clearances and lean harvests pushed families to seek hope across the ocean in the New World. The Davidsons pack their few belongings — a Bible, some tools, a few keepsakes — and walked away from the cottage, the only home they’d known.
The family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a raw and booming town, streets alive with the clatter of horse hooves and the clang of industry. The Davidson boys — William, Arthur, and Walter — now young men, took to the trades of carpentry, metalwork, and mechanics.
The shed in Milwaukee where Harley met the Davidsons and built their first bike.
In a backyard shed, a young machinist named William S. Harley sketches the impossible: a bicycle… powered by an engine. He shows the drawing to Arthur Davidson. A smile spreads.
“Let’s build it.”:
The workshop smells of oil and hot metal. Tools clink. Sparks jump. The first Harley-Davidson prototype takes shape — crude but powerful.
In 1903, it roars to life, its sound unlike anything the neighbours have heard. Within a few short years, police officers were mounting early Harley-Davidson models, soldiers rode them across muddy European fields in wartime and soon leather-clad riders thundered down Route 66 all the way from Milwaukee to California. A legend was born!
And still, back in Scotland, the Davidson Cottage remains. Its walls stand as they always have, watching the seasons turn. The carved stones of Aberlemno bear their silent witness.
BIG BUICKS
Harley-Davidson was not the only machine that had Scottish roots. Born in Arbroath, Scotland, in 1854, David Dunbar Buick emigrated to Detroit with his family. He was only 2 years old at the time and left school, working in plumbing manufacturing, where his restless ingenuity shone like the Arbroath lighthouse. Buick patented a lawn sprinkler and perfected a process for coating cast iron with enamel—making gleaming white bathtubs affordable.
But his true passion lay with the new-fangled automobiles. In the 1890s, he became captivated by internal combustion engines. His focus drifted from plumbing, prompting his business partner to buy him out. Buick poured his time and savings into engine experiments, first marketing them for farm use, then chasing the dream of building an entire automobile.
Money ran out quickly, but not before he created something groundbreaking—the “Valve-in-Head” or overhead valve engine. In 1903, Buick Motor Company was born. His engine design delivered far more power than the flathead engines of the day, and its descendants still power the more serious cars on the road today.
Though Buick himself would soon step away from the business he had created, his engine design became the beating heart of the American motor industry—a legacy from a Scottish tinkerer who changed how the world drives.
One of the best golf-related auto advertising campaigns was the ‘Tiger Trap’ with Tiger Woods stepping out of the bushes to play with a hapless group of unsuspecting golfers, a film that they say broke the internet in 2003. If they got inside Tiger’s tee shot on a Par 3, he handed them the keys to a brand new Buick. Watch it and wish you were there!
