Widows Sons Scotland Branding
This weekend I had the honour of joining some of our brothers from our mother chapter; The Stonecutters (Wiltshire) as we made the pilgrimage to Scotland in order to be ‘branded’ a Widow’s Son.
All Master Masons are full members of the Widows Sons upon application to join with non-masons, Entered Apprentices and Fellowcrafts joining the chapter as ‘Cornerstones’.
Upon attending a branding event you then receive a Widows Sons ‘Square’ patch and the initials W and S branded into your cut.
The weekend began for me at 0800 hrs, Friday morning as I made my way to the main meeting point on the A417 services at Cirencester picking up some brothers along the way. Duly assembled we began the main leg of the journey via the M5 and M6 before stopping at approx 1800 hrs at a B&B for the night in Penrith, Cumbria.
We awoke the next morning bright-eyed and bushy tailed and pushed on further north across the border arriving at Duncarron Medieval Fort near Falkirk, Scotland just before midday.
Bikes parked and tents erected we booked ourselves in and headed up to the fort itself, to a warm welcome of a quality cooked lunch from the duty chefs and washed down with plenty of alcoholic beverages.
Duly hydrated and evening fast approaching we received a briefing for the events and ceremony taking place later on that evening.
As with everything in Freemasonry the exact composition of rituals are closely guarded secrets and only serve to enhance the experience for the initiate/ brandee. This being no exception I cannot reveal the details but suffice to say it is without a doubt one of the best experiences that I have been through in my Masonic career so far, and I would encourage everyone to make the journey in the future if able to do so. You will certainly not regret it!
When all was said and done this fantastic event hosted by the Widows Sons Scotland was attended by close to 200 Widows Sons, of which approx 90 were brandees including some making the journey from as far afield as the Netherlands, Portugal and Argentina.
I am already looking forward to returning as a helper in the future.
Mike Sutton.
